Author’s note: All discussions below (religious or otherwise) are based on my understanding, inputs from the Iraqis and Wikipedia. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. Terrorists, please don’t shoot me for my ignorance.
I know it’s been a while (hell, it’s been 2 ½ months) since I wrote my last blog. And it hasn’t been for a lack of things to write about…it’s been more about motivation than anything else. Life has been busy…we’ve been flying more, I’ve been sitting lots of time at the desk, and we have a new syllabus training the Iraqis on the new aircraft that we’ve had delivered. I’ve spent more time on the Iraqi side, and I’m starting to develop some actual relationships with the pilots on their side. I just haven’t felt like writing much.
And while I still don’t, I owe it to T to do some writing. So I hereby promise to write at least a blog a week, which I will probably break some time next week when I don’t write anything.
We have had one major event in the past week…in the middle of last week, the squadron I advise lost an aircraft and all the crew on it.
Last week was the Karbala pilgrimage. It is a big Shia holiday, as Karbala is where Imam Hussein (the grandson of Muhammad) was killed for his beliefs. Hussein’s beliefs grew into what is now known as the Shia sect of Islam. Hundreds of thousands (this years numbers were put at more than 1.5 million) visit the city during the anniversary of the battle of Karbala, during which Hussein was killed. This battle caused the primary split between Shia and Sunni, which is sort of like the split between Catholics and Protestants, except much more violent.
This pilgrimage has always caused a problem in modern Iraq, as a pilgrimage of Shia from around the work into Iraq, which was controlled by Saddam Hussein, a Sunni. (A quick bit of background: Saddam’s political party, the Bathists, were primarily Sunni. I say primarily because they weren’t the most religious…Saddam just selected his leaders from his tribe, which was Sunni. While Saddam had very little going for him religiously, he at least paid lip service to Islam. He did, however, fear the Shia, as they made up the majority of Iraqis, and didn’t like Saddam very much). Saddam tightly controlled the pilgrimage, preventing non-Iraqis from attending, which pissed off much of the Middle East. Countries like Iran are heavily Shia, and Imam Hussein is the most important man in Shia history. I mean, old people travel to Karbala to die, since it’s supposed to be a gateway to heaven. People eat the earth there, actually eat the dirt, because it is such a sacred place. One of the Iraqis, a Sunni, told me that the Shia are “too worried about Hussein. The always cry about his death, like it happened last week. It happened 1,400 years ago. Get over it.”)
So to the Shia of Iraq, Saddam’s removal of power was a good thing, if for no other reason than they didn’t have to be owned by a Sunni any more. Maliki, their current prime minister, is a Shia, and he was elected pretty much on the fact alone that he was Shia (a lot of the people voted for him because their imams told them to. Ayad Al-Alawi, the first PM of new Iraqi, was a Sunni. But he actually got stuff done. Which is why the US got him elected the first time, and why people voted for him the second time. But the recent election process is a whole ‘nother blog entry.) One of the things that the Shia were excited about was that they could resume the pilgrimage, and invite their brothers from around the world to come as well. This was all and good, but the downside of having a million Shia in one place is that the Sunni groups, like Al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) knew where all their targets were. Karbala has had multiple problems during the pilgrimage after the American invasion. Every year there are major attacks (2004, the first year after the invasion, had hundreds killed and wounded) so the Iraqi Ministry of Defense takes Karbala protection very seriously.
So our squadrons put a surge plan into effect, providing round-the-clock aerial coverage of the pilgrimage, especially after there were a couple of car bomb attacks during the first day of the long walk, killing about 20 and injuring at least 100. On the second night of the pilgrimage, 15 Squadron launched a 2-ship of Mi-17s to Karbala. During this mission, one of the aircraft crashed, killing all 5 crew members.
While the investigation is still ongoing, the likely cause of the crash was that the crew flew into a sandstorm, became disoriented, and flew into the ground. The aircraft caught fire, and the entire crew was killed.
While these are the facts, my feelings about the crash are very hard to describe. My first thought was that I was grateful that no Americans were on board during the crash. While that is a pretty normal reaction, to be grateful none of my comrades here were killed, it conveniently ignores that five Iraqi families were destroyed by the crash.
My second thought was that the flight didn’t have to happen in the first place. The weather was pretty crappy to begin with. There was no extremely vital mission to accomplish.
And my third thought is that we (the Americans) knew that this crash was going to happen eventually, and happen exactly like it did. We all had a discussion of the next Iraqi mishap, and we all knew that the next crash would be caused by flying in poor weather, either by flying into the ground or into each other. While I’m very happy that they didn’t collide with their wingman, I’m frustrated by the fact that I’m pretty sure they didn’t brief their inadvertent weather plan. American crews brief how, if we fly into bad weather, we will break up the formation and climb away from the ground. While the Iraqis brief it when we are around, if there are no Americans, we’re lucky if they brief at all, much less things like IMC breakups. And since the Iraqis do not EVER fly instruments (there are no instrument approaches at Taji, and they just don’t do it even if there were) provided they broke up properly, they still don’t know how to fly in the weather.
So to sum it up, I’m much more frustrated and angry than anything else. I wasn’t very close to the aircrew that were lost, but I don’t see anything coming out of this crash to prevent accidents like it in the future, and I see the power plays that go on between the Iraqis already taking place, placing blame on the flight lead for not doing the right thing (by the squadron commander, who could and SHOULD have told them to not fly in the first place). Apparently some of the Iraqis are leaving the military over there. The co-pilot on the flight lead has apparently dropped paper work to leave the military, which I don’t like from a personal standpoint (he was the first Iraqi I flew with and I really like Ahmed) or a professional one (it sets a horrible standard and Ahmed was progressing well…we need more guys like him around). Gunners are also leaving after collecting their pay, and even old heads like Lt. Col. Yaseen, who I absolutely love, are getting fed up with the leadership being two-faced and they are talking about leaving as well. These are guys who have to patrol their farms when they are home to prevent militias attacking them, guys who can’t wear their uniforms outside base out of fear of attack, people who have to carry a gun just to safely get to work, and who do this for the future of Iraq. THEY are the ones who are leaving, because they’re sick of the BS that goes on among the Iraqi leadership. They can take the threat on their lives to go to work, but it’s the power plays that scare them? Ouch.
OK, I’ve ranted long enough. Starting next week, I’ll talk about happier things, have some pictures, and try to give some more insight to what the hell goes on over here. I’m thinking a discussion of the Iraqi political process. That’s at least almost funny.
