Iraqis Increasingly Side With Coalition, Colonel Says

DefenseLink News Article: Iraqis Increasingly Side With Coalition, Colonel Says

WASHINGTON, Dec. 26, 2007 – The Iraqi people increasingly are siding with the coalition against extremists in their country, a unit commander there said.

Army Col. Daniel Ball, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade, is on his third rotation to Iraq and said he is seeing increased trust among the Iraqis.

“They’re starting to realize that we’re here to make their life better, and because of that they’re starting to take our side,” he said in a teleconference with online journalists and “bloggers” Dec. 20.

Ball believes the shift is due, at least in part, to the recent U.S. troop surge. The surge forces provide the capability “to not only defeat the enemy, but (also) then to stay in the neighborhoods and help,” he said.

The lines of operation for coalition forces remaining in neighborhoods are focused on creating a more secure environment for the local population, he said. He cited examples including helping them establish governance, starting their economy, building and cleaning, restoring their irrigation system and opening their shops.

“They’re starting to know us. They’re starting to be comfortable with us,” Ball said.

As a result, he said, the Iraqi people are coming forward to the coalition forces more with information about the enemy. And it starts a mutually beneficial cycle, he added, because the information helps the coalition target and eliminate the enemy, which makes it safer for the people.

“You have a phenomenon over here right now called ‘concerned local citizens’ where these guys – almost like our neighborhood watches back home in the United States – they are manning checkpoints, if you will, at the crossroads in their cities, making sure their streets are safe at night and during the day,” Ball said. “So, they’ve really taken our side against al Qaeda over here. And I think it’s something we can be proud of as an Army, and we can be proud of as a nation.”

In terms of combat, in which Ball’s aviation brigade is most heavily involved, the threat has not changed much since his last tour, he said. The threat comes from both Sunni and Shiia religious extremists and a large number of criminal elements, he explained.

The enemy’s unpredictable nature has forced the combat aviation brigade to adjust – though not drastically, the colonel said – their operations since arriving in Iraq for this tour in May. “It’s a thinking enemy, and they adapt quite well to what we’re doing on a daily basis,” he said.

Ball said the brigade has been fully combat operational throughout its southern Baghdad territory since June 13. “We have killed over 265 of the enemy, which equates to about 70 percent of the enemy killed in action for the 3rd Infantry Division since we’ve been here,” he said.

In addition to launching assaults on the enemy, the aviation brigade provides transportation and logistics services to U.S. forces. “We’ve moved almost 80,000 personnel across the battlefield with our Chinook and UH-60 helicopters and moved over 12 million pounds of cargo,” Ball said.

Moving troops and cargo by air helps to minimize the threat posed by improvised explosive devices, Ball said.

“What’s significant about those numbers is, as you well know, one of the major threats in theater is the IED threat. And if I can move 77,000 soldiers and almost 12 million pounds of cargo, I’m keeping vehicles and soldiers off the road, which is inherently making it more safe for our soldiers,” he explained.

(Kristen Noel works for the New Media branch of American Forces Information Service.)

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This war is good and correct to wage. The real terrorists are the flag spitting demorat scum.

More propaganda eaten by the ignorant...Bush is going to get out of Iraq because republicans couldn't win the presidential race in 2008 if they ran their God....

Iraqis want us out of their nation..and they want to keep their oil once we are gone...

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Yeah, fat chance of that. Republicans and their daddies, Exxon and friends, have already got those oil fields all sewed up.

And then there's that "Let's worship the wealthy and give THEM and not the poor children already born" hypocrisy from the Limbaugh looney losers..

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Kristen Noel works for the New Media branch of American Forces Information Service"
that says it all right there.

have they stripped down this unit into infantry to? If nto hes not strolling down the streets. WTF would he know..not much.

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Good typing is not inteligent its dexiteritous.

Everything you just said is total bullshit

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.


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Understand that perfectly Cookie, because of our dumbarse Liberal Government we signed a free trade agreement with Bush, which part of, means we have to have 80% American content on our TV/news media.
How would you feel if 80% of your media input was from Burma.

I'm not a Nationalist, but a patriot of Australia, love may nation and our culture(even though it died out 30 years ago with the onslaught of Yankee culture)
So good on the Iraqii's, get the fuck out of their nation you yankee arseholes.
Kevin Rudd is about to withdraw our troops from there, but as with all AUST governments they Kowtow to you fucken president, won't withdraw from Afghanistan, fucken liberal/labour dicks.

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CHIEF CRAZY CROTCH

It's no joke, this New World Order...they are eating up the middle class here and will do so all over...course, they have a fresh market of yet to be trained good consumers in China and India..and they have us down to nothing in wages and getting even less as the years go by....

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What your kidding right, we are already a thrid world labour market, the average Australian worker can nolonger afford to buy a house, most Aussies are relegated to the rental market, which in this country has know turned into bidding wars for a rental property. And..
What makes in worse, is that we have to watch your reject rightwing propaganda programes on our TV.

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CHIEF CRAZY CROTCH

Sorry...didn't know.....we are not far behind....our housing market and the greed and unregulated greed of our corporations have created many homeless...oh, and one trick..we don't have compassion for the poor so the tax dollars WE working stiffs pay go to the wealthy to subsidize their already windfall profits....

We are not far behind....and there's nothing anyone can do. Only comfort I have is in being a Buddhist, I get to come back for the revolution....

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