Army: FIRST, The End State

On the night before relinquishing command of Multi-National Division North-Central in Iraq, Maj. Gen John R. Batiste, commanding general of the 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized), stepped onto the columned portico of a Saddam Hussein-regime mansion that was his command post during the previous year. He paused several moments to admire his unit's farewell to the people of Tikrit and the surrounding area. A few dozen paces away, the division's main headquarters building-Saddam Hussein's former grand palace in Tikrit, situated un a high bluff overlooking the Tigris River-was awash in a golden tungsten glow. Portable light trailers surrounded the massive building; it was lit up like a Las Vegas casino. Task Force Danger was leaving Iraq in style.

"They can see it for 50 miles," Gen. Batiste said with a grin. "But I guess we'll have to shut it down in about an hour; we might start catching some mortars," he added. Nevertheless, he was obviously pleased with the gesture.

In a way, I think it symbolized the defiant brand of hope that sprang across Iraq in the aftermath of the Iraqi elections. The 1st Division's transfer of authority was held about two weeks after the January 30 vote, and there had been an amazing turnaround in Iraq in that short time, starting on Election Day. It was something that anyone who's been around Iraq for a long time could palpably sense, readily distinguish and still be hard pressed to explain. Something major happened: something profound and positive.

I've been involved with U.S. Army forces in Iraq from the get-go as an embedded reporter during the invasion phase and for several extended periods since, accompanying most divisions that have served there over the past two years. I've seen everything from conventional mechanized combat to what looked like victory to the slide into the violence and insurgency that branded the term "IED" into the American lexicon.

My previous trip to Iraq had been bloody and disheartening. That was last summer, when street fights, mini-sieges and medevacs had been the daily norm for American soldiers there, and Iraqi troops were tearing off their uniforms and running away in droves. I departed from that trip on a plane laden with American flag-draped caskets. (See the August and September 2004 issues of ARMY.) I admit now that I left battered, dejected and secretly thinking, "How the hell are we going to get out of this mess?" and asking myself whether those soldiers had died for nothing. It looked so frightfully bad, even to someone who kicked every bush to shake out goodness and truth and heroism from the chaos. I had found these positives in the soldiers, not the situation they were enduring.

I arrived this time prepared for more of the same. But it wasn't the same. Yes, violence and casualties still occurtoo much, too many, but there has been progress, leveraged on the lead-up to the Iraqi elections and pivoted on Election Day itself.

My first day back in Iraq, I sat in a crowded dining hall and watched U.S. network and cable news programs during dinner. Most soldiers were watching the programs, too. They, like me, were stunned-and scared-to hear how bad the television reporters thought the elections were going to be: an unprecedented wave of violence most likely. Bock in the States, you probably heard the same reports and had the same reaction. For us, though, the predicted violence would occur about 700 meters away from that mess hall. It was rather personal. Everyone was nervous; nobody knew what was going to happen, or where, or to whom. Now, all of us know. The elections were a startling success. Violence was relatively low. The gloomy TV predictions were wrong.

People voted despite sporadic terrorist acts. One U.S. soldier told me about a mortar barrage hitting a voting line in his area of responsibility. "They cleared away the casualties and got right back in line," he said.

Iraqi security forces-culled and trained-stood their ground when it came down to it. Election officials gathered and counted the votes. A free election worked.

Confidence in freedom has grown throughout Iraq. Nobody knows if it will last, but there is a window of hope because of the election-hope shining defiantly in spite of the threat of violence like the lights beamed onto the Task Force Danger headquarters that night.

It all seemed spontaneous, but it didn't happen by accident. There was hard work, planning, preparation and mission execution behind it by American soldiers throughout Iraq, from the top brass to the lowest private. In the pages that follow, I offer some sense, from the limited view of a correspondent embedded with soldiers at the platoon and section levels, of how one of many U.S. Army units helped the Iraqis accomplish that spontaneous turnaround: a view of the 1st Infantry Division during its last days in Iraq.

Text and Photographs

By Dennis Steele

Senior Staff Writer