IRAQ: Despite mounting casualties from up to 25 attacks on American forces daily, the US commander in Iraq remains confident of ultimate victory. Lara Marlowe reports from Baghdad
Lieut Gen Ricardo Sanchez explained his way through a litany of mishaps at his weekly press conference yesterday: US casualties; a firefight with a Shia militia in which Iraqi police joined in on the side of the militia; angry demonstrations . . . The commander of US forces in Iraq must feel like a man trying to plug holes in a leaking roof; there is no respite between crises.
To its credit, the Iraqi Media Network, which is housed by the Coalition Provisional Authority, covered protests by several hundred farmers in Al-Dluiyah, 80 km north of Baghdad, in the now infamous Sunni Triangle. Anti-American guerrillas have been hiding and burying their weapons in the grapevines and pomegranate orchards, so the US army began bulldozing the land.
"For every tree that is destroyed, I will kill five Americans!" a boy shouted before the television cameras.
Depriving the enemy of cover is an old strategy. In Vietnam, the use of the defoliant Agent Orange led to a generation of deformed infants. In southern Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied territories, Israel's destruction of countless olive and orange groves further embittered conflicts. In torrid Iraq, the destruction of crops also strikes an emotional cord.
"Why are you trying to root out these farmers' trees?" an Iraqi woman journalist nervously challenged Gen Sanchez.
"I'm not sure I understood the farming question," the general replied.
"I saw coalition forces trying to root out these trees," the woman persisted.
"I believe that was a statement, not a question," Gen Sanchez said. Then he relented. "We've had areas we've had to clear in order to maintain fields of fire. Whenever it's possible to allow these folks back in, we'll do it. In the meantime, we'll be forced to keep people out of these properties."
The road to Baghdad airport is beginning to look as if a mad axe-man took his hand to it. The airport road has been the site of dozens of ambushes, so the CPA put out bids for tenders for Iraqis willing to cut down its eucalyptus and palm trees.
"It's a very good business," says an Iraqi middleman. "You make money at both ends; the Americans pay you, and then you sell the wood to bakers and furniture makers, for more profit."
Could Gen Sanchez give us an idea of the number of square miles of Iraq being razed? Of the number of Iraqis displaced?
"In terms of magnitude of displacement of peoples and families, I'm sorry I cannot give you an answer," he said. "It's not extensive. We have not unilaterally gone out there and cleared out Iraq and bulldozed land. When we do take that kind of action, we have been very judicious."
During a firefight in south-west Baghdad between a militia loyal to the radical cleric, Sheikh Muqtada Sadr, and US troops, Iraqi policemen - recruited, trained and paid by the US - reportedly joined the militia in firing on the Americans.
"We'll figure it out in the investigation," Gen Sanchez said. "We knew we were gonna go back and bring up people who were bad," he said of the police, implying the wire agency report was true. So what was his account of the firefight at the Bejia mosque? "We're still working it out," he answered.
The police increasingly act as a buffer between US forces and those elements of the Iraqi population who are hostile to them. Unfortunately, some police have reverted to old habits.
According to Al-Zamman newspaper, the Americans arrested 16 policemen for soliciting bribes last week. Two days ago, police opened fire on protesters who burned cars in front of a police station in Saadoun Street in Baghdad, wounding several. The protesters wanted to apply for jobs as policemen and were asked to pay bribes for the application forms. "We have talked extensively about changing the ethics of the security services in this country," Gen Sanchez commented.
Even Iraq's soil is poisoned, with massive amounts of weapons and ammunition. "The Iraqis buried everything," a US soldier said. "We've found entire aircraft buried." According to a Western oil company executive and a US source within the CPA, interviewed separately, Israeli businessmen are collecting the weapons for resale in South America and Africa.
"There's so much ammo in this country - more than 650,000 tonnes of it," Gen Sanchez said. "Could some of it be used against my forces? It's possible. It's a physical impossibility to guard it all. We find dumps every day, some of them 15 square kilometres."
Gen Sanchez began his press conference by offering his condolences to the families of US servicemen killed in Iraq. Five Americans were killed in action last week, and 41 were wounded, he noted. Several soldiers have told me they believe the figures are far higher, that "green card" holders from Mexico and the Caribbean are not included, and that combat deaths are often disguised as traffic accidents.
"As long as we are here, the coalition is prepared to take casualties," Gen Sanchez said. "We are still fighting. I would not be surprised if one morning we wake up to find there has been a firefight or terrorist attack that claims significant numbers of lives. This is still a war zone."
Yet when asked about a September 26th report by the human rights group Amnesty International which stated: "No one feels safe in Iraq now," Gen Sanchez replied: "Give me a break."
US military inquiries into the killing of civilians, journalists and Iraqi policemen have repeatedly concluded that troops "acted within the construct of their rules of engagement". The inquiries are not a whitewash, Gen Sanchez assured us.
"This is a war zone," he repeated. "Forty of our soldiers are getting wounded every week, and three to six are getting killed. Young soldiers on the ground have to make decisions. When they feel threatened, they always have the right to shoot."
The enemy ranges from Baathists to Fedayeen Saddam to "foreign terrorists", he said. "They come in different flavours." There are up to 25 attacks on US forces daily, and they are growing "more complex, more sophisticated, more tenacious," he admitted.
But this has not shaken Gen Sanchez's faith in America's ultimate victory. "We have overwhelming combat power," he said. "We have more than 140,000 coalition members. We have all the military might of 31 countries. Who can defeat us?"