Federal News Service - Hearing of the House Armed Services Committee - Progress in the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation of Iraq

Federal News Service

HEADLINE: HEARING OF THE HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE SUBJECT: PROGRESS IN THE RECONSTRUCTION AND REHABILITATION OF IRAQ

CHAIRED BY: REPRESENTATIVE JOEL HEFLEY (R-CO)

WITNESSES:

COLONEL MICHAEL LINNINGTON, USA, FORMER BRIGADE COMMANDER, 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION;

LIEUTENANT COLONEL JEFFREY SPRINGMAN, USA, FORMER COMMANDER, 3RD BATTALION IN SUPPORT OF THE 4TH INFANTRY DIVISION; CAPTAIN PATRICK COSTELLO, USA, FORMER ADA, 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION;

LIEUTENANT COLONEL BRYAN P. MCCOY, USMC, FORMER COMMANDER, 3RD BATTALION, 4TH MARINE REGIMENT; CAPTAIN MORGAN SAVAGE, USMC, FORMER COMPANY COMMANDER, 3RD BATTALION, 4TH MARINE REGIMENT

LOCATION: 2118 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.

BODY:

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

REP. TOM COLE (R-OK): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Gentlemen, let me again by just echoing the opinion, I'm sure, everybody on this committee has. We very much appreciate your professionalism and what you've done and what you're doing. It's just awesome. I had the good fortune to be in Iraq and Afghanistan recently, guided by your colleague to your rear, Colonel Simcox. But extraordinarily impressive performance by American soldiers across the board.

Let me begin by asking you-I'm going to kind of exclude, if I understand your responses, Colonel McCoy and Capt. Savage, because I think you both spoke to this in your remarks about Iraqi forces and security people that you were working with. And as I understood it, the improvement is impressive. I'd like to direct really the same question to you, Colonel, and then just across the board for the others. What was your impression and your interaction with Iraqi security forces and armed personnel? Were they getting better? Just your overall impression.

COL. LINNINGTON: I had a favorable impression, Congressman.

We actually had so many young Iraqi men, some former military and some obviously not, coming forward, wanting to participate as Iraqi security forces. Our difficulty in the early days was getting all of them the equipment and the training they needed quickly and getting them working either on the border with Syria which is where I was responsible for or in security protection forces or even in the police forces. So over the period of about six to eight months, we ran several border training academies. We ran half a dozen police training academies, in Tell Afar and we started to establish the infrastructure for training of the Iraqi military forces. And they got better and better as time progressed.

Initially, it was all us and then progressively it became us and them. And then, you know, people have asked me how do you determine success or how do you measure success? Success for me was, three weeks before we left, an Iraqi border patrol of all Iraqis interdicted a smuggler coming through the border, tracked him and chased him into an Iraqi town, where an Iraqi police checkpoint was established and those two Iraqi forces with vehicles and radios and communicating with each other, apprehended those individuals.

And that, for me, was success because that was definitely not there when we got there. So it progressively got better and better. And I think, reading the paper and seeing what General Petraeus is doing with the training of the new Iraqi military forces, I think it will progressively get better and better and be a good news story for all of Iraq.

REP. COLE: Colonel Springman.

COL. SPRINGMAN: Sir, when I saw down in the Sunni Triangle, my area, initially the police were fairly poor. There were one or two that were pretty good policemen. And when we first started to form the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, we had six members and we were-by the time we were done, it was very successful and we had over 250 members that we had trained. I had the sergeant major train them and these six were actually a great success story. No one wanted to come forward. These six did relatively poor and we trained them. They went on patrols with us. When we were attacked, they came to our aid and the success came when one of them was attacked by himself and we went to his aid. Then the word started to spread that they were equals and working with us and the numbers started to increase.

And I saw that as a success story. They did all the patrols with us at the end. They secured some of their own buildings themselves and they helped capture some of the local raiders who were attacking us simply because they were Iraqis and can do it better.

REP. COLE: Captain Costello, do you have any experiences?

CAPT. COSTELLO: Sir, I saw a little bit of this. There was definitely an improvement through my time there for the border guard and the police and the facility protection forces. I could see a big difference in the folks as they came through because I was responsible for paying all their salaries. I had a lot of contact with them. You know, they started off with just a basic school. It issued a weapon. Sometimes there was a uniform. Sometimes there wasn't. By the time we had left, we had leadership academies run by NCOs to help train these forces more.

As the money started flowing, we were able to equip them with the uniforms that they needed. It helped them more mentally, I think, to build their confidence and legitimize them in the eyes of the other folks from the town. You know, they see the uniform and they know that this guy is not just another guy just carrying around a weapon or something like that. So with the new equipment and training and a little more confidence, I definitely saw an improvement, sir.

REP. COLE: Terrific. My time is running a little short but let me address a question, Colonel Linnington, to you and also to you, Colonel McCoy. And if we have time for the others, that would be great. As was alluded to earlier on, we've seen-you know, it's been pretty tough couple of days, to say the least. And we're moving into the height of the political season in this country. Do you have any speculation as to whether or not we're seeing intensified activity partly to impact public opinion inside the United States. I'm not asking you to draw parties but just impact American morale and determination at home or do you think this is just happening independently of our own political timetable inside this country?

COL. LINNINGTON: Sir, speculation on my part. But we saw similar spikes in activities as we are approaching the election period in Iraq. And I think with the elections coming up in Iraq in January, it may be more tied to their election period and trying to destabilize the country for their election period than our own. And that's, again, speculation on my part.

REP. COLE: It's a very speculative question.

Colonel McCoy.

COL. McCOY: One coincidence that may be there is that we are doing troop rotations. We experienced, when we rotated back in for OIF-2, an increase in enemy activity as they introduced the new unit to the AO, so to speak. That is going on with the 1st Marine Division right now in Fallujah and out west in Al Anbar Province with units that are doing what we call (Left C/Right C ?) that's just part of the relief in place process. That has historically been a window when the enemy attempts to increase their operations and exploit a seam in command and control, a perceived seam.

REP. COLE: My time has expired. Unless somebody else has an observation-did you have one?

COL. SPRINGMAN: No, sir. Not to add to --

REP. COLE: Well, just, again, thank you, gentlemen, very much for your service. It is deeply appreciated.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.