NEW YORK, (PRNewswire) — On July 26, the 172nd Stryker Brigade learned they were going not home but to the core of Iraq’s sectarian blood feud: Baghdad. After a solid year of battling the insurgency, the 172nd has had its Iraq tour of duty extended until after Thanksgiving-if not later, writes Baghdad Correspondent Michael Hastings in the current issue of Newsweek. Many of the 172nd’s 4-23 infantry battalion members say the sweeps their unit is responsible for are no more than a temporary solution. Some argue that the aim is to make Iraq look good before the upcoming Nov. 7 U.S. elections-“fighting for the House of Representatives,” as Sgt. Brian Patton describes it.
Capt. John Grauer, the 4-23’s chaplain, recalls the scene when the unit’s orders came down: “There was a rush of soldiers trying to get on the phone to call home. Some literally threw up when they heard the news. Some
were extremely angry … Some went to sleep for a couple a days, hoping maybe it was all just a bad dream,” Grauer tells Newsweek in the September 18 (on newsstands Monday, September 11). Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld got a taste of this rage and frustration in August when he met with family members of the 172nd at the brigade’s main home base near Fairbanks, Alaska. In a video of the meeting obtained by Newsweek, one woman asked him why the 172nd was spending most of its time clearing houses, instead of
patrolling the streets in the relative safety of the big armored vehicles, writes Hastings. “My husband hasn’t set foot in his Stryker since he arrived in Baghdad,” she said. “Over 90 percent of the house clearings are
being handled by the Iraqis,” Rumsfeld responded, whereupon the women in the audience started shouting “No!” and “That’s not true!” Flummoxed, Rumsfeld shot back, “No? What do you mean? Don’t say ‘no’, that’s what I’ve been told. It’s the task of the Iraqis to go through the buildings.”
The 4-23’s soldiers say they, not the Iraqis, do 95 percent of the searches. “I’d like to punch [Rumsfeld] in the gut,” says one seasoned NCO on his second Iraq tour. “He treats us like we’re not human. He acts like he’s not destroying families.”
Also available at Newsweek.com, exclusive video from Secretary Rumsfeld’s meeting with the brigade’s families in Alaska, and soldiers from the 172nd send video messages home from Baghdad.
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