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"With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them."
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by Don Nash, Unknown News
Aug. 3, 2004
"With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them." This brilliant assessment was offered up by one Lt. Col. Nathan Sassaman.
Sassaman is a commander in the 4th Infantry Division assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team. Sassaman has been quoted in the New York Times and by the Associated Press.
He has been serving in Iraq and has been granted immunity from prosecution, for his testimony concerning an incident in which several Army enlisted men pushed two Iraqi men off of a bridge and one of the men drowned. The three enlisted men have not been granted any immunity and they face charges that include involuntary manslaughter and assault.
The sentences that the three enlisted men face are from 5 1/2 years to 26 1/2 years in military prison.
There are three Army officers that have been granted immunity from prosecution. Capt. Matthew Cunningham, Maj. Robert Gwinner, and Lt. Col. Nathan Sassaman. Cunningham is a company commander, Gwinner is a deputy battalion commander, and Sassaman is a battalion commander. The enlisted men comprise two sergeants and a specialist. There is also a first lieutenant involved in this tale of intrigue but, 1st Lt. Jack M. Saville is on a separate track and is still awaiting a hearing.
The officers all together and in unison claim that no one was killed and that the incident was a “punishment” for the Iraqis being out after curfew. It seems that the soldiers needed “non-lethal ways to make their presence felt.” The entire U.S. military has blown the bejesus out of the Iraqi countryside and they are still looking for ways to make their presence felt. I would venture that the Iraqis are completely aware of the military’s presence.
Now, the officers did not witness the enlisted men pushing the Iraqis off of the aforementioned bridge and they are testifying that “they don’t believe anyone died.” The Iraqi family of the drowned man, are absolutely positive that the man died. They are willing to have the body exhumed and autopsied to prove their claim.
An Army investigator stated, “the area has been too dangerous to confirm the death through an autopsy.”
Really? Gosh, I wonder why that would be. Evidently, the Iraqis are feeling somewhat inhibited by the fact that the U.S. Army in it’s infinite wisdom, is choosing to throw the Iraqi people off of bridges as a punishment for breaking a curfew that the Army imposed. Go figure.
The officers ordered the enlisted men to “clam up because they feared higher-ups would use the incident against them” and, “we were not covering up anything that injured anybody.” So if no one was hurt or killed, why would there be any need to cover up or lie and in the response of defense attorney Capt. Joshua Norris, “no body, no evidence. No case. Nobody’s dead.” Capt. Norris’s grasp of military justice is almost vise like. Following Norris’s line of reasoning then, why are three enlisted personnel facing serious charges, while three officers and possibly a fourth, are already safe and comfortable in the Army zone of “granted immunity from prosecution”.
Hold on, this just gets better by the minute. Maj. Gwinner testified, “the cover-up was the result of a clash between Sassaman and the brigade’s then commander, Col. Frederick Rudesheim.” So apparently there are more officers in on this “punishment”. Gwinner also testifies, “Sassaman was concerned the investigation was a personal vendetta between he and Col. Rudesheim.” Gawd, this is a classic struggle of West Point egos.
Sassaman said, “he instructed his deputies to tell the soldiers not to mention anything about forcing Iraqis into the water and he asked one of the enlisted men three times if anyone had been hurt and the enlisted men assured him both men made it to shore.” The testifying officers didn’t witness a single fact and have absolutely no knowledge of the actual events and consequences to the Iraqi men.
Sassaman continues, “no harm, no foul if those folks walked away.” So a great deal of this military madness pivots around what you assign as a definition to the word “if”.
Regarding Col. Rudesheim, Sassaman stated, “we differed in our views on how to prosecute the war.” Sassaman also stated, “they were much more interested in going after the Capt., the Major, and myself than they were in investigating a body.”
I’m no Perry Mason, but how did Sassaman know there was a body?
Sassaman also makes an astute military observation by stating, “the security situation was very dangerous in Samarra when the incident occurred.” Continuing, “Samarra is not the city of the Good Samaritan, it is the Dodge City of 2004.” No shit Sherlock!
I’m going to go way out on a limb here and designate Sassaman as one colossal dumbass.
America is wondering why the insurgency in Iraq is escalating daily and is on a collision course with civil war. America is wondering why we can’t win the war in Iraq. I’m amazed that the enlisted men haven’t started to ’frag’ the officers.
Back in the Vietnam war, it was standard operating procedure to plant Claymore mines under the seats of the toilets in the officers latrines. Sassaman is the reason that things like that happen.
Col. ‘give me a promotion’ Sassaman has his men doing irregular army duties and intimidating the Iraqi people and now, he has his ass in a military sling so badly that he has to seek “immunity from prosecution” to keep from having to face the consequences of his being a colossal dumbass. This is also known as a “cluster fuck” -- a military term of endearment for what happens when two or more officers are gathered together for any reason or for the military rendition of giving orders to the grunts to do something that the grunts must do and the officers wouldn’t do unless they are granted “immunity from prosecution”, first.
This is a similar situation to that at Abu Ghraib prison, Guantanamo Bay, and Afghanistan. The officers are ordering the enlisted personnel to stretch their imaginations and be criminally creative in abusing and torturing the locals. Actual war crimes and crimes against humanity are indictments that will only be applied to the enlisted grunts that are doing the actual torturing and abusing.
The officers will without doubt seek “immunity from prosecution” and then proudly absolve themselves as they move on up the military ladder of career advancement or toward pleasant retirement with honors. The grunts will not so proudly move on up the ladder of ascension to prison and do time, lots of time, and then the obligatory ‘dishonorable discharge’ from the military.
It is reported in The New England Journal of Medicine for July 29, 2004 that the doctors and nurses at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and in Afghanistan have failed to report wounds that are clearly caused by torture. The New England Journal of Medicine is one really big deal in the medical profession. They are almost like medical god speaking ex cathedra.
The U.S. military and some of the honorable and proud officers that serve America (?), are using the enlisted to commit crimes that they haven’t the balls to do themselves. And then, in an act of military precision ballet, they hang the grunts that do their evil.
The military doctors are privy to this information, and the nurses, and they aren’t reporting it, they are using their skills as medical professionals to resuscitate the poor chump that has been tortured into this precarious position, and then they send chump back out for some more of the bon homme that is known affectionately as torture. Documented and reported dutifully by Robert Jay Lifton M.D. and the New England Journal of Medicine.
"Support our troops" takes on an entirely new meaning in the light of these newest of revelations. The grunts are doing what grunts always do, following orders. The officers are doing what officers always do, seeking “immunity from prosecution” and then finding a way to move on up or out. And some military doctors and nurses are doing things that are heinous and so inherently evil, that by even Nazi standards, this stands alone as an affront to humanity and God Almighty.
Supporting our troops is now going to have to include procuring a good defense attorney, obtaining a really good psychiatrist, and getting four of five letters of character reference that can be submitted as evidence to a judge at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands.
© 2004, by the author.
What do you think?
Former Army star quarterback
leads the biggest offense of his life
by Justin Rodriguez, Times Herald-Record [Middletown, NY]
Oct. 5, 2003
At West Point, they still talk about Sept. 22, 1984. Army-Tennessee. At Knoxville. The Volunteers 24-point favorites.
Tennessee, ranked No. 17 in the country, had a killer D. Neyland Stadium held 104,000. It always sold out. The Vols outweighed Army on both lines by 40 pounds. Per man.
But the Cadets had Nate Sassaman.
The cocky senior quarterback threw his body around recklessly. He turned Army's wishbone running attack into a yardage-eating machine -- three yards left, three yards right, four yards up the gut.
Linebackers, defensive ends, defensive backs -- they all took turns knocking Sassaman to the turf. And each time, the 6-foot, 180-pounder bounced right up.
Down by a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, Sassaman ended an 80-yard scoring drive with a gutsy 1-yard plunge. Final score: Army 24, Tennessee 24.
At West Point, they still talk about that game. They still talk about that 8-3-1 season, topped off with a win over Michigan State in the Cherry Bowl -- the first-ever bowl appearance by an Army team. They still talk about the courage of that quarterback.
"He was masterful, so tough and so smart," legendary Tennessee coach Johnny Majors said this week. "I couldn't believe some of the shots that young man took."
Today, Lt. Col. Nate Sassaman -- class of 1985 -- is 40 years old and a battalion commander fighting in Iraq. He leads more than 800 men and women in Balad, a city with a population of about 90,000.
It is the job of his unit to seek out loyalists to Saddam Hussein and terrorists.
The enemy tries to kill Sassaman and his troops almost daily. He has seen his soldiers shot and hit by the shrapnel of crude roadside bombs. He orders his troops to destroy the enemy.
Telephone contact with Sassaman is impossible. But staff writer Justin Rodriguez was able to reach him via e-mail. Sassaman misses his family. And pizza. He misses his Colorado Springs, home. And sleep. He is proud to serve his country. And he can't wait for it to be all over.
These are his thoughts:
Q. Tell me what it's like leading all those men. Can you compare it do your days as Army's quarterback?
Sassaman: Leadership is leadership. Soldiers, just like football players, are dying for someone to provide them with positive, challenging leadership. When I've been in charge, I've always expected those around me to give their very best, whether it's toward a unit or team goal. That never changes. Leadership is all about getting the very best out of the people you serve with during the best of times and the worst of times.
As for the days quarterbacking at Army, I've always told everyone I learned as much leadership at Michie Stadium as in the classroom or on the plain of West Point. General MacArthur stressed competitive athletics when he was in charge of the Academy. Athletic competition develops, hones and sharpens leadership skills.
Q. Tell me about the tie at Tennessee in '84. You took a beating, but kept getting up. Your coach, Jim Young, teammates and former Tennessee coach Johnny Majors raved about your performance. Where does that toughness come from?
Sassaman: I played with a special group of senior leaders in 1984. The seniors were committed to being winners, Jim Young was such a positive leader, and we all wanted desperately to have a winning season. Tennessee at Knoxville was one of those days that will remain in Army history as a moment when the Army team never gave up and came back in the final minutes to drive 80 yards for a score.
It was unbelievable. About the toughness, it's important to have mental and physical toughness. You lead from the front. One of the seven rules I live by is, 'Never let a fat guy pass you.' It's all about the mental toughness in those adverse situations.
Q: I've heard you were cocky during your playing days. Or is confident a better word? Does that translate onto the battlefield?
Sassaman: When in charge, take charge. I've heard that cocky comment before, but it's more about confidence. Confidence in yourself and your abilities, confidence in your teammates or those around you and confidence in your leader.
I told Dan Rather when he interviewed me before Operation Black Flag -- an air-assault operation my battalion did to find Saddam -- that I tell my soldiers before big missions: Trust your training, trust your instincts, trust your leadership. It all works together.
Q. What are your duties as a battalion leader?
Sassaman: Right now, too many to outline. My task force is made up of soldiers from all different specialties, including infantrymen, engineers, psychological operations, civil affairs teams, tanks, artillery, as well as soldiers from different posts in the states.
My top duty is to take the fight to those elements that try to kill me and my soldiers. Throw in the duties of setting up democratic city councils for four different cities and trying to rebuild their infrastructure in my area of operations, and you've got a guy who needs some sleep.
Q. Talk about the danger you experience every day.
Sassaman: I've had 11 wounded in action and many more close calls. I've personally been ambushed three times -- two roadside improvised explosive devices; the other was an RPG [rocket propelled grenade] and machine-gun fire attack -- so I'm down to six lives. We had to be very violent in our responsive actions to these attacks and have been very successful in eliminating those trying to kill us. We have very few direct fire engagements anymore since the enemy lost every one of the attacks against us.
They use roadside explosives and mortar attacks mostly in my area of operation. But I never underestimate the enemy, and I know there is always the potential for a more coordinated, aggressive attack on our base here in Balad.
Bottom line, it's a very dangerous place here at night and we are very aggressive in our attacks and in response when we are attacked. Those calls to the parents and the wives are not easy ones to make. Bringing back everyone from Iraq is my No. 1 goal.
Q. How tough is it over there with Iraqi snipers and Middle Eastern terrorists entering the country?
Sassaman: Justin, it's a dirty war. But they started it on Sept. 11, 2001, and we're going to finish it. The terrorists and snipers are cowards. They bomb and run, they use suicide bombs, they fire RPGs and run.
We're taking them down a little each day, but it takes time. We killed most of the dumb ones already who wanted to take it to us in the open. Now, it's the smarter ones we're hunting down. You deal with it aggressively by seeking the terrorists and capturing them.
Q. Can you tell me about action you've seen in the war and what you do on a daily basis?
Sassaman: I've been on countless raids, searches and attacks. The ambush on my command group on a highway was the most sustained action/firefight I personally have been in.
We returned fire with two Bradleys [tanks] and riflemen in the scout vehicles and moved to destroy them. Then, they started running away. Unfortunately, I had two scouts wounded right in front of my Bradley. I moved immediately to render first aid to the driver, who had been shot in the neck, while another non-commissioned officer provided aid to the gunner, who had been shot in the leg.
A lot was going on with the firefight: dragging the wounded to cover and providing combat lifesaving skills, calling in the air medivac, securing the area, and destroying the fleeing enemy. The firefight lasted less than five minutes, but all the action took about two hours, though everything seemed like two minutes.
I don't have enough time to lay out what I do every day. But we plan operations, I visit my units and soldiers, who are spread out all over. We cover a 900-square-kilometer area here in the Sunni triangle. I meet with local government officials, have meetings with local Sheiks and Imams, attend council meetings, and at night we conduct operations against the enemy.
Q. What's it like being in war?
Sassaman: I'll tell you when it's all over. Right now, I'm in the vortex and it's hard to step away and look at it. The situation is very complex.
We have to do a lot of missions we normally don't train for, and we are fighting an enemy that blends in with the populace in a country far, far from home. More on this later.
Q. How much do you miss your family?
Sassaman: Terribly. I spent an unaccompanied one-year tour in Korea before Iraq. Before that I was in Kuwait for a couple of months.
I saw my wife (Marilyn) and the kids for three weeks in May between assignments from Korea to Iraq. I've been home a total of two months in the last 21. I've lost precious time with my beautiful wife and I'll never get these two-plus years back with my 10-year-old son, Nathan, and my 8-year-old daughter, Nicole. Soldiers and their families who serve the nation pay an incredibly high price to do so.
Q. First thing you do when you get home to Colorado Springs, Colo.?
Sassaman: Well, besides spending some serious quality time with my wife right away and then my kids, I'll probably drink a gallon of 1-percent milk. I love milk. Then, we'll go out for pizza. I love pizza.
I do know this, though. After this is over and I'm back, I will definitely be taking one step at a time and appreciating and enjoying those freedoms that so many Americans take for granted.
Published by
Times Herald-Record
Commanding presence:
From Aloha High and West Point football to Iraq,
Lt. Col. Nate Sassaman has always led the way
by Norm Maves Jr., The Oregonian [Portland]
July 6, 2004
Nate Sassaman was in charge. Again.
He didn't just stand before the congregation at the Portland Christian Center on Sunday, he dominated the stage. He spoke and strode with a lapel microphone clipped to the collar of his green Army Class A uniform -- the shoulders of which bore the silver oak leaves of a lieutenant colonel.
"For those of you who don't know me," he said, "I'm something of a passionate person. So we'll probably laugh a little bit, we may cry, but we're definitely going to think and we're definitely going to thank the Lord . . ."
Same old Nate Sassaman. He's 41 now, but the focus has been thrust on him again. Once more, he's expected to deliver.
Always the leader. Always the quarterback.
"I've always believed," Lt. Col. Nate Sassaman said last week, "what Douglas MacArthur said, that 'Upon the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds, that upon other fields on other days will bear the fruits of victory.'
"And I've always said that I learned more about leadership and being in charge up there at Michie Stadium than anything I did in the classroom."
In 1984, Sassaman quarterbacked Army's new wishbone offense, ran for 1,002 yards and swept the Cadets to their first bowl game, a 10-6 victory over Michigan State in the Cherry Bowl.
He learned to play at Aloha High School, which, with Sassaman running a veer offense, was among the smallest of the state's elite teams. The Warriors have not been nearly as good since his last year in the fall of 1980.
But nothing Sassaman has done -- neither the football nor 18 years as an infantry commander -- prepared him for the life he led between June 1, 2003, and March 26, 2004.
Those were the dates of Sassaman's command of First Battalion, Eighth Infantry in Balad, 40 miles north of Baghdad, and Samarra in the deadly Sunni Triangle of Iraq.
Sassaman had to run the city of Balad as the de facto mayor of the town. He led the 806-soldier battalion on urban sweeps, digging insurgents out of their hiding places to stabilize the town.
He earned the Bronze Star when he jumped out of his HMMV during an ambush on Highway 1 between Balad and Samarra to tend to a private who had been shot in the neck in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle ahead of him.
He had to deal with the wounding of 36 First Battalion soldiers. And the two deaths, both of which, he said, always will stay with him.
He lost Staff Sgt. Dale Panchot to an RPG on Nov. 17, 2003. On Jan. 2, he lost Capt. Eric Poliwada -- a fellow West Point man, his engineering company commander and one of his best friends -- to a mortar hit.
"Eric was such a special guy," Sassaman said, still struggling to talk about Poliwada. "The mission is to rebuild Iraq, but the whole month of January I didn't focus much on rebuilding Iraq.
"And even after we were able to hunt down his killers, there isn't much satisfaction in it."
It was all so new to him.
"Training can only take you so far," Sassaman said. "Then you have to survive your first mission. I'm 30 seconds into my first action and I'm thinking, 'You've gotta be kidding me. Somebody's actually trying to kill me.' "
Sassaman adjusted to the attacks on himself -- he stopped counting, he told the congregation, at 19 -- but not to the wounds inflicted on his men.
"There is no crucible like combat," Sassaman said. "As a commander, the day-to-day stress is unbelievable. Anytime you're out there, they can drop a mortar round on you anytime. That just adds to the stress."
Former Aloha coach Mike Lopez said he knew, back in the late 1970s, that he had an exceptional quarterback on his team. But he never pictured Nate Sassaman, who had two brothers go through Aloha, in combat.
"There is so much compassion in that family," Lopez said. "It never occurred to me that Nate could be a combat commander. But now that I think about it, on Friday nights, that's what he was.
"We had some great athletes then. In the huddle, Nate didn't always know if they were listening to him, but they were."
Sassaman's strong suit was academic. He got just one B in three years of high school, in band. Both Air Force and Army came after him.
After struggling for two years in a passing offense at West Point, Sassaman saw Jim Young hired as coach in 1983.
Sassaman moved to the defensive backfield, and Army went 2-9 running the I-formation. Then Young junked the offense, switched to the wishbone and threw the quarterback position open in the spring of 1984.
Sassaman seized the position as if he had invented it. He had run the option so well at Aloha that its complicated reads were instinctual.
"We had no idea who our quarterback would be," said Young, now retired in Tucson, Ariz. "Nate was a great leader who was absolutely bubbling over in confidence in his own ability to lead the team."
Sassaman ran for 154 yards and two touchdowns against Navy; Army won 28-11 -- its first win after five losses and a tie. When Michigan State went down, Army finished 8-3-1.
But graduation was approaching, and Sassaman said: "My senior year, I had to start thinking about this Army thing. Somebody asked me what I wanted to do. I said, 'Infantry. What else would I want to do? What kind of a question is that?' "
It was not all combat and sorrow for the 1-8 in Iraq.
Sassaman got to hold Iraqi children and learn their culture. He agitated up the chain of command for down time for his troops. He commandeered a 54-inch television set, and on Saturdays everybody watched American college football.
"Everybody thinks this Nintendo generation doesn't have what it takes," he said. "But I saw remarkable feats of heroics every day. It's a corporal's war, and those kids in there are the greatest."
As the putative boss of Balad, he had to attend town meetings and make decisions on all sorts of non-Army matters: utilities, the chief of police, even how to compensate a jilted bridegroom."
"The sheiks and imams would complain when I made decisions they didn't like," Sassaman said. "I told them, 'Next time you guys let a tyrant run the country, don't wait for a 41-year-old Judeo-Christian white guy to make your decisions for you.
"I got a master's in public administration at the University of Washington. I always wanted to be a city manager after I got out. I don't want to be a city manager anymore."
But he is getting out. Next year will be his 20th in the Army, and barring a stop loss from the Pentagon, it will be his last.
"It was great that we handed the government back to the Iraqis," Sassaman said. "We have done so much over there. It's our gift to them. Now it's time for them to make their own future."
Sassaman's own future is back home with the former Marilyn Trygg, son Nathan, 11, and daughter Nicole, 9. At the moment, the family lives in Colorado Springs while Nate works at Fort Carson.
"I need to spend some time with my wife and children," he said. "There's nothing like a year in combat to make you see your priorities. I'm still only 41, so I have years ahead of me. It's time.
"Somewhere deep down in my heart, I'd love to teach and coach."
Sassaman delivered to the congregation at the Portland Christian Center as expected.
He acknowledged Marilyn's help in running the unit's family services program and helping the Panchot and Poliwada families through the terrible times. His speech on "The Christian Warrior Ethos" was a seamless account of how he meshes his faith with the trials of combat.
Sassaman gave the congregation a flag that flew over his unit during the first hour of July 4, 2003. He brought Spec. Tyler Santoro out of the audience ("When you're in charge, you can order people to church," Sassaman said) and told about how the 23-year-old soldier volunteered to stay with the unit rather than come home back in August.
His voice cracked as he told the story. He delivered the tears. People cried and laughed and prayed. But most of all they cheered.
Lt. Col. Nate Sassaman's only failure Sunday was when he couldn't stop a standing ovation.
Published by
The Oregonian
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From one man's tour of duty:
Oct. 5, 2003
Former Army star quarterback
leads the biggest offense of his life
Oct. 9, 2003:
Your hearts and minds, or else
Nov. 2, 2003:
Soldier fosters democracy by day,
hunts enemy at night
Dec. 17, 2003:
U.S. troops smash into homes,
shops in major raid to
hunt for guerrillas in turbulent city
April 5, 2004
Sassaman "part soldier, part diplomat"
July 6, 2004:
Commanding presence:
From Aloha High and West Point
football to Iraq, Sassaman
has always led the way
July 7, 2004:
Sassaman, two other Army officers punished for conspiring to
impede homicide investigation
July 30, 2004:
After reprimand and with immunity,
Army commanders admit to cover-up
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"It's not an insurgency," Lt. Col. Sassaman said. "I truly believe that ninety percent of the Iraqis support us. But there is a lot of ambivalence. Many Iraqi's are sitting on the fence right now. They are not quite convinced that the old regime is finished, and they are afraid to be labeled as American spies should Saddam ever come back. This is why it is so important that we catch Saddam. Then those people on the fence are going to sigh with relief, and the Iraqis will finally be able to get on with their lives."
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"We're doing something worthwhile here," Sassaman said in an interview at the headquarters of his unit, the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry, part of the 4th Infantry Division. "But it's clear that our enemies are going to keep attacking us until we kill and capture every one of them. That's going to take a while."
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You've got to meet aggression with controlled violence. A lot of people will say violence leads to more violence, I'll tell you that controlled violence leads too no more violence.
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"I realize that today's mission in Albu Hishma doesn't exactly send the message that we are here to help them," Lt. Col. Sassaman said afterwards. "In fact, you could say that we are using some of the same tactics as Saddam's people did. But it does send the message that we will not be threatened by anyone. Keep in mind that our Battalion alone has had eleven wounded-in-action since we arrived here in June."
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"It's like Jekyll and Hyde out here," said Sassaman, a 40-year-old battalion commander and former starting quarterback for Army's football team. "By day, we're putting on a happy face. By night, we are hunting down and killing our enemies."
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"Samarra has been a little bit of a thorn in our side," said Col. Nate Sassaman. "It hasn't come along as quickly as other cities in the rebuilding of Iraq. This operation is designed to bring them up to speed."
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Sassaman presided over the meeting with a light hand. But when it appeared the council might take up the question of getting rid of the city's police chief, Sassaman quickly drew the line.
"I hereby confirm the police chief to a six-month term," the colonel said into the microphone, and there was no dissent.
Afterward, Sassaman said the police chief was simply too valuable an ally to lose.
"The police chief is a solid guy, and we need him too much," he said.
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It's not about hearts and minds. Nobody told me that I was supposed to win hearts and minds over here. They did tell me that I had to keep the peace.
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The clerics posed many questions to their American overlord, about schools and water, about family members detained and about the searching of homes. Sassaman answered each in turn, and on most points, the clerics nodded
Then Sassaman, quite at ease, asked a question of his own.
"Have any of you seen Saddam Hussein?" he asked. "If you find him, I can assure you, you won't have any more problems with your schools."
All the imams laughed, and then they led him to his Humvee and bid him a warm goodbye.
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The challenge here is it's not going to look like a democracy in the States or in Europe. I mean you've got some serious religious relationships and ties and foundations. And then you've got some serious tribal lines that run very deep. The final solution is Iraqis making those decisions for Iraqis. We just have to set the conditions, so that they can have long-term security and peace.
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Soldier fosters democracy by day,
hunts enemy at night
by Dexter Filkins, The New York Times
Nov. 2, 2003
BALAD, Iraq -- In one 24-hour stretch, America's successes and difficulties in this country showed themselves in the figure of Lt. Col. Nate Sassaman.
On Friday, Sassaman stood before the newly elected Balad City Council, walking them through such democratic bedrocks as the secret ballot and the open meeting.
On Saturday morning, after a couple of hours' sleep, Sassaman led a company of 150 soldiers on a series of house-to-house searches for weapons and guerrillas on the outskirts of town.
"It's like Jekyll and Hyde out here," said Sassaman, a 40-year-old battalion commander and former starting quarterback for Army's football team. "By day, we're putting on a happy face. By night, we are hunting down and killing our enemies."
That type of discrepancy is true across Iraq, but seldom is it lived with such intensity in the same place, by the same soldiers, as here to the north of Baghdad.
Six months since President Bush declared the end of major hostilities in Iraq, America's soldiers are waging two starkly different campaigns: laying the groundwork for democratic rule while battling an insurgency that is undermining that very work.
Here in Balad, a district of 180,000 people 50 miles north of Baghdad, the two American campaigns are unfolding side-by-side, by virtue of the area's exceptional demography: The city of Balad is an island of Shiite Islam in the heart of the area known as the Sunni Triangle.
The Shiites in Balad suffered under Saddam Hussein, as they did in the rest of Iraq. For that reason, they have largely been cooperating with American efforts to implant the rudiments of a democratic system. In Balad and in southern Iraq, where the Shiites predominate, the environment remains relatively calm.
But here in central Iraq, American soldiers are battling a ferocious guerrilla insurgency, drawn largely from the region's Sunni population. The Sunnis, though a minority in Iraq, fared well during Saddam's reign, and their neighborhoods are now generating violence against the Americans.
Across much of the area, building democracy has taken a back seat to fighting the war.
So it is that Balad and its environs contain most of the contradictions facing the Americans in Iraq: the relative peace of the Shiite areas and the violence of the Sunni areas, all in one. It is that dual reality that gives Sassaman sleepless nights.
"We're doing something worthwhile here," Sassaman said in an interview at the headquarters of his unit, the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry, part of the 4th Infantry Division. "But it's clear that our enemies are going to keep attacking us until we kill and capture every one of them. That's going to take a while."
On a recent afternoon at Balad Youth Center, Sassaman found himself in the unlikely position of presiding over one of the first meetings of the Balad City Council. Seated at an elevated table, he looked like a soldier but acted more like a teacher, moving the meeting along, reminding the Iraqis of their responsibilities, nudging here, shepherding there.
"I want to take a moment to congratulate the mayor for the great job he's done," Sassaman said into the microphone, "and for all his efforts he has made for a secure and stable environment in Balad."
The mayor, Nabeel Darwash, stood up, and all the Iraqis clapped.
The City Council meeting that unfolded in Balad on Friday was a measure of the progress the Americans have made here and in other parts of the country where the environment is peaceful enough to allow American soldiers and their Iraqi allies to begin the quiet work of building a democracy.
And not only that: In Balad, the American military has been setting up police forces, repairing electrical lines and filling up hospitals with medicine.
For Sassaman, the key to the success inside the city has been simple: His soldiers do not get shot there. As a result, he has channeled the overwhelming majority of the reconstruction money at his disposal -- more than $1 million -- into Balad, and away from the outlying areas, where the war is.
"We had 90 mortar attacks on Americans in three months over here," said the colonel, referring to the areas surrounding Balad. "In the city, we had none."
As in much of Iraq, large groups of Iraqis appear willing to work with the Americans. Many Iraqis, especially the Shiites and Kurds, still harbor grim memories from the days of Saddam, and their gratitude to the Americans, and their desire to get on with rebuilding their country, appears in many places to outweigh the everyday indignities of military occupation.
The result, in some parts, is that the first shallow roots of democracy appear to be taking hold.
"I won an election, without threats or intimidation," said Hussein Ali, a 43-year-old Shiite farm owner who was recently elected to the Balad City Council. "The people know me in this town. I've pledged to do my best for them, to improve city services."
At Friday's meeting, the Iraqi council members seemed to have taken gracefully to new democratic ways. They filled out their paper ballots, dropped them into the box and moved solemnly back to their seats. When their names were called, the council members, many of them old before their years, stood erect before their new constituents. In their first vote, the council members took a bold step, rejecting a new term for the mayor, Darwash, and deciding to find somebody else.
"Someone more capable," Ali explained afterward.
Sassaman presided over the meeting with a light hand. But when it appeared the council might take up the question of getting rid of the city's police chief, Sassaman quickly drew the line.
"I hereby confirm the police chief to a six-month term," the colonel said into the microphone, and there was no dissent.
Afterward, Sassaman said the police chief was simply too valuable an ally to lose.
"The police chief is a solid guy, and we need him too much," he said.
The peaceful environment for the Americans ends at the outskirts of town. In the rural areas around the city, the resistance to the American occupation has carried on without pause. American convoys are regularly attacked on the roads that connect the matrix of military bases here. Many of the bases in the area, including that of the colonel's battalion, are regularly shelled.
The hit-and-run conflict is typical of the war being fought in the area north and west of Baghdad.
Despite intensive American efforts, including house-to-house searches, detentions and the seizure of weapons, the attacks have continued apace. On average, American soldiers are attacked 30 times a day across Iraq, and about five soldiers are killed each week.
The failure to crush the insurgency in central Iraq has puzzled American commanders. Asked last week why the relentless American pressure had failed to reduce the number of attacks, a senior American commander conceded that he and his colleagues had no answer.
Sassaman said the attacks on his troops were being carried out by a relatively small number of Iraqis loyal to the old government. But he said he still could not count on most of the area's Sunni population.
Morale among the troops here remains high in the face of the attacks, but even so, the news of a comrades' fate spreads fear in the ranks. After the death of the two Americans last week, a group of American soldiers gathered around a computer to view photographs of a recent lethal attack on an American tank.
"You see something like that, and it really scares you," said Capt. James Bevan, the executive officer of the battalion's B Company.
To stem the attacks, the Americans have pressed ahead with house-to-house searches. Often, soldiers have discovered large caches of weapons and ammunition and some suspected guerrillas. Yet other times, the strategy seems to alienate Iraqis who might otherwise have withheld their judgment.
Early Saturday, American soldiers cordoned off a predominantly Sunni neighborhood on the outskirts of Balad and checked for guns in every house. The tactics were not pretty: Fearing they might walk into an ambush, the American soldiers kicked open doors and rushed in, with guns drawn. They dragged men out and forced them to squat, with arms behind their heads.
The searches of 70 homes produced no guns and no suspects but seemed to provoke a good deal of fear and anger among many Iraqis whose homes were entered.
Outside one, a two-story middle-class home, 11 Iraqi men sat on their haunches, their unhappiness etched on their faces. In the living room inside, a young Iraqi woman stood with three young girls, their hands held high over their heads.
"I feel bad for these people; I really do," Sgt. Eric Brown said as he stood guard over an Iraqi family taken from its home. "It's so hard to separate the good from the bad."
Yet for all the conflict here, there are signs that even the gulf between the Americans and the Sunni Arabs may not be unbridgeable. Later in the day, Sassaman sat with some Sunni clerics and handed out donations for their mosques.
The clerics posed many questions to their American overlord, about schools and water, about family members detained and about the searching of homes. Sassaman answered each in turn, and on most points, the clerics nodded
Then Sassaman, quite at ease, asked a question of his own.
"Have any of you seen Saddam Hussein?" he asked. "If you find him, I can assure you, you won't have any more problems with your schools."
All the imams laughed, and then they led him to his Humvee and bid him a warm goodbye.
Published by
The New York Times
After reprimand and with immunity,
Army commanders admit to cover-up
by Robert Weller, Associated Press
July 30, 2004
Testifying under newly granted immunity from prosecution, three U.S. Army commanders admitted today that Fort Carson soldiers were told to cover up an incident in which two Iraqi civilians were forced off a bridge over the Tigris River, where family members say one of them drowned.
The commanders, however, said they don't believe anyone died.
Capt. Matthew Cunningham said soldiers under his command admitted they forced the Iraqis to jump into the river last Jan. 3.
He said the soldiers told him they had the Iraqis "get wet" and that "they wanted to make them miserable a little bit and walk home."
He said it was a bad decision, but that soldiers had to have non-lethal ways to make their presence felt in the area. He called the suggestion that anyone drowned a "smear campaign" and said soldiers saw the civilians getting out of the river safely.
Cunningham also testified he and other commanders told the soldiers to clam up because they feared higher-ups would use the incident against them. "We were not covering up anything that injured anybody," he said.
The testimony came on the third and final day of a hearing to determine whether three soldiers will be court-martialed.
Family members in Iraq say Zaidoun Hassoun, 19, drowned and they will exhume his body to prove it; a cousin, Marwan Hassoun, survived. The Army's lead investigator in the case said this week that the area has been too dangerous to confirm the death through an autopsy.
Sgt. 1st Class Tracy E. Perkins, 33, and Sgt. Reggie Martinez, 24, are charged with involuntary manslaughter, as is 1st Lt. Jack M. Saville, 24, whose hearing will be held Sept. 9. The third defendant at this week's hearing, Spc. Terry Bowman, 21, is charged with assault for allegedly pushing Marwan Hassoun into the water.
The soldiers are assigned to Fort Carson's 3rd Brigade Combat Team, which is part of the 4th Infantry Division based at Fort Hood, Texas.
The hearing officer, Capt. Robert Ayers, will make a recommendation whether the men should face a court-martial. The four soldiers face 5 1/2 years to 26 1/2 years in prison if they are convicted.
Defense attorney Capt. Joshua Norris urged a recommendation against manslaughter charges. "No body, no evidence. No case. Nobody's dead," he said.
Cunningham, a company commander in the brigade, testified along with a deputy battalion commander, Maj. Robert Gwinner, and battalion commander Lt. Col. Nathan Sassaman.
Gwinner said the cover-up was the result of clash between Sassaman and the brigade's then-commander, Col. Frederick Rudesheim.
Gwinner said Sassaman was concerned the investigation was "a personal vendetta between he and Col. Rudesheim." Gwinner said the brigade commander was jealous of the outspoken Sassaman because he was aggressive and getting television coverage.
Sassaman said he instructed his deputies to tell the soldiers not to mention anything about forcing Iraqis into the water. But he said he asked Saville three times if anyone had been hurt and was assured both men had made it to the shore.
"No harm, no foul if those folks walked away," he testified.
As for Rudesheim, Sassaman said only: "We differed in our views on how to prosecute the war." Rudesheim could not reached for comment Friday.
Sassaman also was critical of the investigation.
"They were much more interested in going after Capt. Cunningham, Maj. Gwinner and myself than they were in investigating a body," he said.
He said the security situation was very dangerous in Samarra when the incident occurred. He said "Samarra is not the city of the Good Samaritan. It is the Dodge City of 2004."
The mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops has become a worldwide scandal, with the military and other agencies investigating a number of deaths as well as procedures at the Abu Ghraib prison.
Sassaman has been widely quoted in news reports about fighting in the so-called Sunni Triangle. Last December, he told The Associated Press that Samarra has been a "thorn in our side," then vowed to crack down on insurgents.
"They've made a mistake to attack U.S. forces. We will dominate Samarra," he said. He also told The New York Times a "heavy dose of fear and violence" would help convince Iraqis that Americans wanted to help.
Published by
Associated Press
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