Mohaned F: "Two years, one month. I'm from far away, Nasiriyah."

Jabbar: "Two years, four months."

Mohaned N: "Three years."

INDC: What motivated you to become a soldier?

Mohaned F: "I want to prevent terrorist activity here. I want to build my country."

Jabbar: "I want to help my country."

Mohaned N: "I also want to help my country, and I need the money. I have to support my family."

INDC: Who do you think the terrorists are, the insurgents who are fighting you?

Mohaned F: "The terrorists want to damage my country and I want to bring my country back to the years long ago, before Saddam Hussein."

INDC: But why are they fighting? Who are they?

Mohaned F: "The terrorist wants control of the government, he wants the power."

INDC: And how can the insurgency be stopped, in Fallujah, specifically?

Mohaned F: "I am a soldier, I have many duties. We guard the base here, go on patrols and raid houses; we catch the terrorists and prevent them from putting down IEDs. This is my job here, to prevent terrorist activity."

INDC: So you think the Iraqi Army can do it?

Mohaned F: "Yes. But we need time."

INDC: How much time?

Mohaned F: "Maybe by next year. But we need more staff. New weapons and more staff."

INDC: What do you guys think about the Iraqi police in Fallujah?

Jabbar: "In the past, we didn't work together with the police. But now, something is different - we work with the police. The terrorists are attacking both of us, the police and the Iraqi Army. So we are the same. And now the police works with the Army and they sometimes give us good information. So, we work together well now."

INDC: How long has that trust and cooperation been going on?

Jabbar: "(Since) a month ago. We have the same target and we both want to build the future of my country."

INDC: I've also heard that some local Fallujans distrust the Iraqi Army because you guys are from different parts of Iraq and many of you are Shia. Does that hamper your ability to operate in the city?

Mohaned F: "If we don't trust another we'll lose battles ..."

INDC: If you don't mind me asking, are you guys Shia, Sunni, what?

[All are Shia]

Mohaned F: "But some of our guys are Sunni, but they are on leave right now."

INDC: "Does that cause any tension with the local Sunni population in Fallujah? I've heard about the tension between the two ...

Mohaned N: "Everybody here is Iraqi. We don't like the state of affairs here (with terrorism and insecurity), so there is no difference between the Shia and Sunni."

INDC: So once again, who do you think the terrorist insurgents are? Are they locals, are they from other countries?

Jabbar: "He has just one target, he wants to attack everyone. So he does not care whether you are Sunni or Shia."

INDC: Yes, but that's their target; who are the insurgents?

Mohaned F: "We don't know who. The terrorist is very strong: he has mortars but we don't have the mortars to shoot him back. Another thing, when we leave to go home we don't have the military convoy. He has the power."

INDC: Speaking of challenges, I've heard that the Iraqi Army has had some issues with pay, with Jundi not getting paid. Some have quit. Have you personally had problems getting paid?

Mohaned F: "We don't know anything about that. You need to ask the Ministry of Defense in Baghdad."

INDC: But have you personally received paychecks? Are you getting paid right now?

Mohaned N: "We've met with the Division commander when he visited here two months ago, and he promised that he would fix it. And we wait."

INDC: Does it hurt your motivation to go so long without pay?

Mohaned N: "The Commander of the Division said he would fix it for everyone who did not get their pay. And we'll wait. He's fixed the pay of people who have gone the most time without pay, others he has not."

INDC: Do you think you have enough troops to patrol the city and provide security? Are you full strength?

Mohaned F: "We don't have enough soldiers to send regular patrols out here. So it's a very dangerous area and we need more soldiers, more patrols. We don't have enough manpower to conduct patrols every day. We have few."

INDC: What do you think of the American presence here? How do you feel about the Americans, and has this feeling changed over time?

Mohaned F: "We work well with them. The MiTT team teaches my soldiers something new every day. We have classes with them."

Mohaned N: "I wish to keep the US here because it is good for us. We can learn new things every day, and if we work together a long time, it will be good for the Iraqi Army."

Jabbar: "I want the US to stay a long time. We need weapons, we need training we want to work with the Americans for a very long time."

INDC: How do you view Iraq's future? What do you think is going to happen here?

Jabbar: "We have a good future."

Mohaned N: "It will be good."

INDC: OK, let me ask one more time: do you have any idea who the insurgents are? Who are the people you are fighting?

Mohaned N: "In the past, some people work for Saddam Hussein, like his intelligence service or the Fedayeen Saddam. These people hate the new army because they can't join the new army. But we are different than them - we hate the terrorists, we hate these people. And we want to build our country."

INDC: How did you feel about the execution of Saddam Hussein?

Mohaned N: "He's been in custody for years so this was a long time coming. He hurt a lot of people."

INDC: What would you tell the American people if you could tell them anything?

Mohaned N: "Tell the American people we need the US Army here. We want to work with them for a longer time. And in the future we can say that we have built the Iraqi Army together."

The others nodded approval.

***


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