14 October 2007
Letter from CPT Mark Battjes
CO Bravo Company, 1-64 th Armor
2 nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division

Hi all!

I hope that this note finds everyone doing well and enjoying some fall weather. We have rain predicted in the forecast here, but haven't seen it yet, which might be the first indication that "fall" has made it to Baghdad. Although rain when it is still close to 100 degrees just makes things muggy.

Recently I have been asked the question by my superiors, subordinates, and some folks back home of whether or not we are winning and whether or not the "surge" is working so I thought that I would give you all my perspective on that question.

During my three tours I have experienced just about every phase of the war to date to include the invasion, the beginnings of the insurgency, the national elections and our first attempts at "transition", and now the surge. That being the case I think that I can speak with some clarity about where we are now and where we are trying to go.

In my neighborhood of Jamia in Baghdad things are absolutely better than they were when my company arrived four months ago. We inherited a neighborhood that was a complete ghost town, decimated by over a year of terrible sectarian violence and in the control of Al Qaeda terrorists.

Al Qaeda had taken over most of the mosques and were controlling people's behavior and keeping them in a constant state of fear such that they would rarely, if ever, leave their homes. Few businesses remained open and those sold only the bare necessities, primarily food stuffs. No organization would enter the neighborhood to address problems with essential services.

My company was the constant target of insurgent attacks that included small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades, IEDs, and car bombs. At one point in July we absorbed three attacks against one platoon in the space of less than 14 hours. Our Iraqi Army unit remained on the outside of the neighborhood and would venture inside only when accompanied by us.

The neighborhood now is a vastly different place. Our Iraqi Army partners have emplaced security positions throughout the interior of the neighborhood that include checkpoints, observation towers, and outposts. They routinely patrol on their own without our support.

Al Qaeda has been driven out of the mosques and the majority of the neighborhood. Dozens of their leaders and foot soldiers have been captured or killed and those that have not have fled to far distant locations away from our neighborhood.

The people have returned to the streets in droves. Throughout the holy month of Ramadan as we patrolled the streets at night we would see dozens of people breaking the fast on their streets - sometimes they looked like block parties there were so many people. Almost 100 businesses have opened on our main drag in the last two weeks and people tell me that dozens more are preparing to and these businesses sell anything and everything that can be imagined.

Over 600 locals have volunteered to be trained as police and begin securing their own neighborhood. My company has only been attacked once in the last ten weeks and that attack was amateurish and not effective.

This progress is real. I am not "massaging" the numbers or painting an overly rosy picture. A lot of work remains to be done, especially in improving the provision of basic services (1 hour of power a day, maybe, water is spotty at best and I won't go into the problems with the sewer system), but we are now at a point where we can talk about that without referring to problems with security first. Similar progress is being felt across Baghdad.

The brigade that I work for used to encounter 50-60 IEDs a week, now it is usually less than 10. Anyway you choose to measure it, things are better around here. The surge has, in my neighborhood and in my brigade's area, done what it was supposed to do. Violence is still part of everyday life in many areas in Baghdad, but it is unquestionably better now than it was.

However, none of this progress is going to hold without reconciliation and improvement in government at the national level. If the Iraqi government is unable to bring all parties to the table and make the hard decisions about oil revenues, Kirkuk, de-de-Baathification, reconciliation, and the problem of internally displaced people the progress that has been made will not hold as we begin to draw our forces down.

The work involved to make that happen is going on way above my pay grade. It is difficult, slow, and frustrating. I don't know if an outcome that will allow progress to hold will be achieved in time to prevent a descent back into sectarian violence.

So, are we winning? Well, sort of. At the tactical level, absolutely. At the strategic level, not yet. The solution to any insurgency situation is ultimately a political one and cannot be achieved by military force alone.

The military has been left largely responsible to achieve the political ends which makes it all the more difficult. I am hopeful that a positive outcome will be achieved and that all of the hard work of my soldiers will have had a lasting impact.

We will remain here in Jamia and continue to improve the neighborhood by training local volunteers as police, jump starting business with grants, and improving the provision of services. This work will take us through next summer and I believe that when we will leave this neighborhood we will be handing over a place that is much better than when we arrived.

Your continued support means the world to my soldiers and I and we thank you. Take care and I will talk to you again soon.

Mark