It is great to be back among family and friends! The time away always makes the return that much sweeter.  I returned on the 20th of February, via Kuwait and Ramstein, Germany.  During the landing approach, it was a beautiful sight to see a snow flurry from the cabin window.  BWI airport never looked so good!

As I reflect upon the last 7 months, I realize that your prayers, notes, care packages and encouragement were instrumental in keeping me safe and motivated, resulting in a successful mission complete.  I am grateful for your support and thank you ALL.

We are blessed in this country with freedom, security, and many other benefits that we don’t even recognize.  Glory be to God for His grace.

Jim

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The official name of “the Swords of Qadissiya” is an allusion to the historical Battle of al-Qadissiya in 636 A.D. (Arabic: معارك القادسيّة , Ma`ārak al-Qadissiya).  Qadissiya was the decisive military engagement fought between the Arab Muslim army and the Sasanian Persian army during the first period of Islamic expansion which resulted in the Islamicization of Persia and the resurrection of Mesopotamian civilization under Islamic rule.  This battle has gone down in Iraqi history as a god-given sign of Arab superiority over the Persians.

While the emotive power of the battle has been used throughout Iraqi history since, the most notable use was the dubbing by Saddām Hussein of his eight-year war against Iran as Qadissiya-Saddām (“Saddam’s Qadissiya”). The first instance of this naming occurred April 2, 1980, six months before the outbreak of hostilities, on the occasion of a visit by Saddam Hussein to al-Mustansiriyyah University in Baghdad.  A bomb attack the previous day at the university had injured Saddam’s vice president, Tariq Aziz.  Saddām blamed the newly-founded Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and, drawing the parallel to the 7th-Century battle, he announced:

“In your name, brothers, and on behalf of the Iraqis and Arabs everywhere we tell those [Persian] cowards and dwarfs who try to avenge al-Qadissiya that the spirit of al-Qadissiya as well as the blood and honor of the people of Al-Qadissiya who carried the message on their spearheads are greater than their attempts.”

The theme of Saddam leading a new Arab conquest of the Persians permeated the Iran-Iraq War.  Paintings, speeches, coins, paper money, street names, poetry – all ran rife with Qadissiya themes.  The freeway beginning at Oman Circle and running through the IZ’s Checkpoint 12 and beyond to Baghdad International Airport is called the “Qadissiya Expressway.”

In 1986, two years before the war’s end, the government of Iraq began the construction of a festival and parade ground in Zawra Park, near the extensive presidential complex in the center of Baghdad.  Known as Grand Festivities Square, it is comprised of a large parade ground, an extensive reviewing stand and pavilion, and the two crossed-sword arches.

The Crossed Swords were the largest manifestation of Saddam’s Qadissiya theme. Iraq’s leading sculptor, Adil Kamil, was commissioned to design the arches. His design consists of a pair of massive hands emerging at 45 degree angles from the ground, each holding a 140-foot long sword.  The swords were designed to be the highest triumphal arches in the world, two and half times the height of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The swords are modeled after the sword carried by the victorious Arab general at the Battle of al-Qadissiya . A small flagpole flying the Iraqi flag rises from the point where the swords meet – 40 meters above the street. On the swords beneath the flagpole, the Bismillah is written in raised metal lettering.  Kamil used photographs of Saddam as his model for the design of the hands. When Kamil died in 1987, with the monument incomplete, his position was assumed by fellow artist Mohammad Ghani. Ghani personally took an impression of one of Saddam’s thumbs, and the resulting fingerprint was added to the mold for one of the arches’ thumbs.  The arches were made by an international consortium led by the German foundry H+H Metalform and included the British company Morris Singer Founders.  The guns of Iraqi soldiers – “the glorious martyrs” – killed in the Iran-Iraq war, were used to make the alloy from which the arches were cast. Each blade weighs 24 tons. As a further embellishment, the helmets of 2,500 Iranian soldiers killed during the war are held in metal nets at the base of each hand. A cursory inspection of the helmets shows many are pierced with bullet holes.  Additional helmets are buried in the concrete road surface like small speed bumps so that can be continually “trampled” by vehicle and pedestrian traffic.

When Saddam inaugurated his triumphal arches on Aug. 8, 1989, he rode under them on a white horse. The choice of mount carried a triple allusion: first, to the steed of Hussein, the Shi’ia hero martyred at nearby Karbala in 680 (an admittedly odd choice for a Sunni), second, to the steed ridden by the victorious Arab general at the Battle of Qadissiya, Sa`d ibn Abī Waqqās; and third, to King Faisal I (Saddam Hussein also wore the same ceremonial attire the king wore during official state ceremonies).

The monument was not destroyed during the 1991 Gulf War, although General Norman Schwarzkopf wanted to correct that oversight during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.  According to Gen. Schwartzkopf:

“I had spoken to Powell regularly throughout the day . . . .At ten p.m., I called to give him a final update. I was tired; at the end of the conversation I heard myself say how much I’d like to blow up the giant Saddam statue and the Victory Arch in downtown Baghdad.  The Victory Arch, a monument to the war against Iran, was a huge sculpture of two hands, said to be Saddam’s, holding two swords crossed. We’d spared both the statue and the Victory Arch during the air campaign because they weren’t military targets.  To my surprise, Powell was all for it – although he suggested we check with the President first.  Pentagon lawyers vetoed the idea a couple of days later.”

The Crossed Swords have become the routine backdrop for everyone’s “Look Ma, I’m in Baghdad” photo op.

[A VISITOR’S GUIDE TO BAGHDAD’S INTERNATIONAL ZONE, By Richard H. Houghton III and Patrick J. McDonald]

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“The security improvements in most neighborhoods are real”

Cheers,
Jim

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I thought I’d include a link to an “on the ground” reporter, in theater.  National media outlets tend not to get this close to the action. 

Michael Yon: Online Magazine

A different perspective!

Jim

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Just spent the last 3 days serving on a detainee review board, called the Combined Review and Release Board. A few links below offer some differing viewpoints about the process.   Our board reviewed about 200 detainee records.  A who’s who in the field of terrorism and a testament to the great risk your soldiers experience everyday out in the field.

Detainees Release Following CRRB Review

Release Ceremony for Almost 500 Detainees Overseen by Iraqi PM

Are Iraq’s Detainees Treated Fairly?

More later,
jws

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I am now in Baghdad (1 month of a 6 month assignment).  I have made it to my Individual Augmentation assignment at the Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq (MNSTC-I).  The MNSTC-I mission is to assist the Iraqi Government in the development, organization, training, equipping, and sustaining of Iraqi Security Forces and Ministries capable of defeating terrorism and providing a stable environment where individual freedom, the rule of law, and free market economy can evolve and, in time, will contribute to Regional Security in the Gulf Region.

MNSTC-I is located within the IZ, as well as my billeting area, Forward
Operating Base Blackhawk.  

Specifically, my responsibilities are to enable the Iraqi Ministry of Interior to defeat terrorism and provide a stable environment by constructing both national and local police infrastructure; police training academies; ports of entry; and interestingly, intelligence facilities.  My staff is small but very capable, comprised of personnel from the Army, AF, and contractor community.

Security at construction sites is among our greatest concern.  Sectarian influence and corruption are a constant threat.  The work is performed by Iraqi subcontractors and their safety is always at risk.

Progress is steady here and it is my hope that the Iraqi people will embrace the rule of law, and the concept of individual freedom.  Being here really magnifies the great blessings we experience in the United States.

God Bless,
Jim