Marine Sergeant still concerned over country's stability, security
Precisely a week ago, President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. would remove all remaining troops from Iraq by the end of the year, bringing Operation Iraqi Freedom to a palpable end after nine years, 4,400 U.S. military deaths and an estimate of nearly 100,000 civilian casualties (according to the Iraq Body Count).
Across the nation, citizens and news networks have criticized the move as either premature, foregoing the original plan to leave at least 4,000 stabilizer troops, or nine years and thousands of deaths too late. Either way, it means that 40,000 servicemen and servicewomen will be back home for the new year.
The compromised move now sets a paradoxical mood of individual relief and devoted anxiety for many soon-to-be Iraq Veterans. Third-year political science student John Laferriere certainly understands the feeling. It’s the feeling he had when he came home from Iraq six years ago after 13 months at the Al-Taqaddum air base west of Baghdad, where he and his comrades in the eighth communication regiment attached to 2nd CLR-27 were given the mission “to do everything we could to build relations with the people.”
In an interview with The Daily Gamecock, Laferriere recalled the duties of the regiment — the security patrols, the police training, the occasional shoot-outs, where he thankfully never had to fire back. Those memories resonate less than those of the people of the small town where he was stationed — the mothers, the business owners, the children who he remembers “just wanted to have fun.”
He remembers the excitement of the community during the country’s first free election in 2005 despite the danger of voting, which required extra American security forces.
“The people were just as nervous as we were, but after a while getting acclimated to their culture they became our family,” Laferriere said. “There’s such a dissent toward the people there with the idea that most are anti-American, but the community really welcomed us — they would cook for us, and we would play soccer with the kids.”
Looking back on his work as an aid to the Iraqi police force, Laferriere fears what the removal of supplemental U.S. forces will mean for the safety of the people surrounding the air base.
“I feel like we still need to be there for the sake of numbers, because we were definitely an influential force. These guys (the Iraqi police) didn’t look ready. They were confused, disorganized, sometimes trigger-happy when they weren’t supposed to be,” Laferriere said. “They simply didn’t have the equipment or the organization that we do here. Granted, that was in 2006, but from the current reports I’ve read, that’s the state they’re still in, and I’m not surprised. And I don’t blame them — a lot of them had been threatened into joining the force by a government that was corrupted.”
Laferriere’s greatest concern is for the children he met and what type of influence they will fall under after U.S. support has left. Most of them would be 16 to 18 by now — around the age when they could be easily be influenced by money and threats against their families.
“I think we’ll definitely see in the next year how good the training is, how they’re using it and how well the people put to govern can avoid corruption,” Laferriere said. “If they’re not strong in foundation, there will be a lot of terrorist activities resurfacing — if not totally, then to a point of concern.”
Despite his concerns as an officer, Laferriere shares in the joy, and even the restlessness, felt by the 40,000 returning officers and their families in the tame transition into American life“When you’re over there for so long, you learn to live without all the things people are attached to — your iPhone, satellites, big old rims that take up half the car,” Laferriere said. “People here can get so lost in translation. The people in Iraq have so much less to live on, but know what’s important — they fight for freedom, for their families, for a democratic country. Being over there, I learned how to appreciate family — that has to be the first thing, followed closely by a bed with springs to sleep on and just the quietness to sit and read on a beautiful day.”