General to soldiers: You’ve taken Iraq off front page

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER, Iraq — He had met, or would meet, with all the top U.S. military commanders in Iraq last week, who assured him during an unannounced three-day whirlwind visit that things are looking up as the five-year-old war reaches a critical turning point.

He was briefed by members of secret Special Forces units; witnessed state-of-the-art surveillance technology keeping an around-the-clock watch on insurgents, suicide bombers and al Qaeda; and walked the deadly rubble-strewn streets of Baghdad’s Sadr City to demonstrate that the so-called military surge of the last 18 months has reduced the level of violence.

{mosads}But for Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey, the meetings that seemed most important to him personally were those he held with the young men and women soldiers at combat outposts like this one near the giant Balad Airbase north of Baghdad, one of many outposts spread out over 1,500 square miles of northern Iraq.

Even as Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was putting Iraq back on the front page and in the middle of the 2008 presidential campaign with his high-profile visit to Baghdad, Casey was clearly as interested in the human side of the war in Iraq as he was in its military and political aspects.

Speaking to some 50 soldiers in an air-conditioned mess hall as outside mid-day temperatures reached 120 degrees Fahrenheit, Casey went out of his way to assure young soldiers, some of them on their third and fourth tours of duty in Iraq, that they are a vital element in the vast U.S. military effort here, and that the American people are not ungrateful.

“You all may not appreciate this, but the great work that you all have done, and the soldiers that came before you, has really changed the way the people in the United States look at this mission,” he said.

“You’ve taken it off the front page, and you really have allowed the president to [pursue] his policies, which is very, very important to sustain our successes. So you ought to feel very good about that. You really have made a critical difference at a critical time in history.”

Casey, who was the top military commander in Iraq for three years before stepping aside for Gen. David Petraeus in March 2007, spent more than an hour giving the soldiers his assessment of the war and what will be asked of them in the coming months and year, while asking for their candid comments about serving on the front lines of this war-ravaged country.

He cautioned them that “the next two years are going to tough,” but added: “If we make it through those, we’re gonna be all right.”

Casey added, “The next thing I’ll tell you is that there’s huge support for the servicemen and -women in the United States military, both in Congress and among the American people. And I can’t go anyplace without people coming up and saying thanks to the men and women of the Army for what they’re doing. They recognize that everywhere that I go. People seem to have found the ability to be against the war but not against the men and women of the armed forces, and they very much appreciate what you’re doing for them.”

Describing himself as “an Army brat” who, when he reached his 60th birthday the next day, “will have been a member of an Army family for 60 years,” Casey, the son of an Army general killed in Vietnam, said he and the secretary of the Army are doing all they can to “increase the level of support we provide for your families.” He pointed out that the Army spent $1.4 billion last year on a new policy designed to help soldiers’ families, and promised that “there’ll be a bit more than that this year.”

More than 15 soldiers responded to his invitation to tell him about the most significant thing they’d learned during their time in Iraq. “The most significant thing I’ve learned from my combat patrols is how fortunate the Iraqis are to have us here,” one young soldier said. But many of them, especially the female soldiers, expressed concern about their families and their own futures in the Army.

Casey replied, “Listen, there’s an amazing breadth of experience here. I think one of the things I take away from this [visit] is that everybody contributes to this mission. No matter what you’re doing, you’re contributing in some way that makes the whole operation work. That’s one of the reasons that we’re being successful here, because of the drive and determination of the American servicemen and -women like those around the tables here today, so congratulations.”

He also emphasized, as he did throughout his visit, that the Army is stretched to the breaking point by the demands of the surge. “It’s going to take us every bit of three or four years to put ourselves back in balance, and our target right now is to have ourselves back in equilibrium by the end of 2011, about three more years.

“The last thing I’ll say,” he declared before leaving for another base, “is that I have never seen this Army better in the 38 years that I have been in it. And we are that way because of our values, because of our warrior ethos, and because of our people. And that’s each and every one of you. And each and every one of you make this Army a little bit better every day. So good luck to you all, take care of each other, and God bless you.”

Editor’s note: Gen. Casey is married to Sheila Casey, the chief operating officer of The Hill.