Task Force Patriot and the End of Combat Operations in Iraq by Pat Proctor

Author:Pat Proctor
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781605907789
Publisher: Government Institutes
Published: 2014-07-28T00:00:00+00:00

“We can’t, General Abdullah,” Sabhan interrupted. “This control station in ad Dawr is faulty.” He indicated the corner closest to ad Dawr. “We must begin from the end of the ad Dawr line, here.” He indicated a point near Mujamma. “Then we can build a line that stretches across the desert toward the al Hamerine control station.” He traced an impossibly long line that stretched through dozens of kilometers of open desert across the Salt Flats, a huge, ancient, dry lake bed that separated the al Hamerine and al Othaim regions from the city of ad Dawr and the Tigris River valley.

“But there is no control station at the end of this line,” Brig. Gen. (ret.) Abdullah began. By now it was obvious that this whole conversation had been prepared in advance and was taking place for our benefit.

“I understand that Samarra is building a new control station. When it is complete, we can take their old, mobile control station and place it here.” He indicated the end of the ad Dawr line. Now they were getting to the point. Brig. Gen. (ret.) Abdullah was constructing a pretext to take something from Samarra.

“But can we build a line that goes all the way across the desert?” Brig. Gen. (ret.) Abdullah asked. “Perhaps Lt. Col. Bubba Cain can take us in a helicopter to survey the path for the line.” That must have been the other thing they were after, a helicopter ride.

Lt. Col. Cain, cornered and looking to move the theater along, offered to try to get them an aircraft.

Brig. Gen. (ret.) Abdullah continued, “Such a line would be terribly expensive. Perhaps twenty million dollars.” Cpt. Simon Welte started to protest that it was too much for CERP to fund by about forty times, but Brig. Gen. (ret.) Abdullah Jebarra was not done reciting his prepared line.

“Perhaps if the US forces could put up some small amount, perhaps $500,000, the government in Baghdad would give us the rest.”

I had had my fill of the two actors. I sat down next to Sheikh Sabah. He motioned for Cpt. Welte’s interpreter, Proty, to join us. “That electric line,” he said through Proty, “it goes right past DG Sabhan’s house in abu Dalef as Samarra [a small village northeast of Samarra and on the southwest corner of the Salt Flats]. He has been trying to get the Americans to build it for his village for years.”

I started to ask him what course he would suggest, but he raised a single finger to stop me and then motioned toward the two Iraqis still speaking to Lt. Col. Cain and Cpt. Welte over the map. I understood his meaning—not in front of Brig. Gen. (ret.) Abdullah.

After the meeting broke up, it was on to the Tikrit JCC to meet with the sheikhs of the fledgling rural ad Dawr coalition. Three days before, when I had been trying to convince the battalion commander to do the engagement, Cpt. Welte had told me that the sheikhs of

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