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It’s a battle for hearts and minds

May-25-2005 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

Link to Full Article
By MATT MISTEREK; The News Tribune

MOSUL, Iraq – Lt. Raul Vasquez looked like a man having a frustrating afternoon.

The 24-year-old platoon leader and his Stryker brigade soldiers were banging on metal gates in an upper-middle-class neighborhood east of the Tigris River, not far from Mosul University.

They were holding a “block party,” an unannounced visit of every house to ask if residents knew of anything suspicious, any sign that terrorists might be trying to get a foothold on their street.

Mostly they found Sunni housewives and their frightened children. In one kitchen, a pan of onions sat on the stove where a woman had been cooking before the soldiers barged in.

Vasquez dropped to one knee as a sign of respect and told her to sit while his soldiers and Iraqi army trainees swept through each room. Wiping sweat from his brow, he gave instructions to his civilian translator.

“Explain to her that the search we are doing right now is for our own protection, it is not because we think she is a bad person,” said the young officer with the 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment – one of the front-line units of Fort Lewis’ second Stryker brigade.

“Tell her not to be concerned; nothing will be taken and nothing will be broken.”

Vasquez, who lived in University Place before deploying to Iraq last fall, has picked up enough Arabic to communicate superficially. He knows, for instance, that “mantaqa zena” means “good neighborhood” and “mako shee” means “nothing’s happening here.” [...]

The article continues with a number of quotes from SBCT soldiers about their mission.


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