[USMC Chuter]

Comparing Ramadi and Tikrit
:: thu 10.13.2005

So what is the difference between Ramadi and Tikrit? Ramadi is a city of nearly a half million people and the place the U.S. and coalition forces shoot it out with the insurgents every day and night.

Tikrit is a city of 30,000 where it is remarkably quiet and orderly. At least it looks that way to a person who’s spent a couple of weeks ducking mortars, watching IEDs blow and listening to the evening gunfight in town.

American soldiers and minds are at serious risk each time they enter Ramadi. In Tikrit, they move carefully but with some confidence they can get where they’re going without a couple of buried artillery shells blowing up under their Humvee. The insurgency is here, in Sadaam Hussein’s home area. It’s just not as widespread, not as organized or as motivated as in Ramadi.

The U.S. military commander here is Lt. Colonel Todd Wood, who happens to be from Indianola. He commands the 2-7 Infantry Battalion, a part of the Third Infantry Division. The Battalion is responsible for maintaining order in Tikrit and the surrounding area and seeing to it army and police units are properly trained.

I took a ride downtown today with some of the 2-7’s soldiers and watched as people prepared for Saturday’s referendum vote on Iraq’s new constitution. Kids waved and shook hands and had their pictures taken with some of the soldiers. Shopkeepers were open for business. Things seemed relatively normal.

The gas stations were open as well. About 100 cars were lined up to get gas at one of the stations we passed. There’s not really a shortage of fuel. It’s just that if a station has 10 pumps, only two might be working at any one time. Another reason? People drive everywhere. They might as well. Gasoline is about a dime a gallon here.

Met a senior enlisted man in the Iraqi army today. He told me he used to be in Saddam’s Republican Guard. I asked which is better, Saddam’s army or the one being built today?

“No question,” he said. “Today’s is much better.” I waited for some words on professionalism of a properly trained military, backed by democracy, loathe to terrorizing its own citizens. He may think that. It’s not what he said. Things are better now because of soldiers get paychecks — a much better situation than when Saddam was running things.

Wood also told me about how he introduced the battalion headquarters staff to Cleveland Indians baseball. Not that he’s a big Indians fan. It’s just that Wood’s fellow Indianola native Casey Blake plays for the Indians. So, every day during the baseball season, the 2-7 Battalion’s morning meeting began with the Casey Blake report. Somebody was tasked to find out Blake’s stats from the previous day and they were posted, with Blake’s picture, on the slide show. Wood said Casey’s dad Joe, coached him when he was a kid back in Indianola.

--John Carlson