HUSAYBA, Iraq, March 8 (UPI) -- Just over a year after a major assault to oust terrorists and insurgents -- done at the request and with the help of local Sunni sheiks who had once been insurgent collaborators and now had become their victims -- stability seems to have taken root in the Iraqi town of al-Qaim.
The change comes in no small part to deft leadership by officers like Lt. Col. Scott Shuster, commander of the 3rd battalion, 4th Marine Regiment.
"I think I've discovered in myself a latent ability to get along with Arabs," Shuster said in his office at an old train depot outside of town. "But my battalion is not the reason al-Qaim is successful."
His Marines built on the foundation that was laid for them by previous battalions, acting as beat cops and civic boosters far more often than fighters.
"You don't join the Marine Corps to be a diplomat and a guy who soothes over hurt feelings ... Is this the infantry combined arms fight I was trained for? No. Is it challenging? Yes. Would I rather be in a more kinetic area? I guess professionally that would be more along the lines of what I trained for. But emotionally there's a potential to lose so many more of my marines," Shuster said. "What's expected of me here is to be a diplomat and work with the Iraqis."
Those diplomatic skills were tested two weeks ago when a sheik of a minor tribe in al-Qaim was killed in a U.S. helicopter strike on his house. Details on the operation are classified, but it was not a 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment attack.
Nevertheless it fell to Shuster to handle the problem.
"You have to honor their culture and understand where they are coming from when they are angry," he said.
Shuster met with the area sheiks and received a two-and-a-half-hour tongue lashing. He told them he understood their anger and accepted responsibility, and laid out his plans to make amends.
Two days later he called them together at the dead sheik's house.
He took the dead sheik's chair and said he had fond memories of sitting at this table with him.
"I said, 'I remember happy times, but now this house is empty. I share your sorrow. I share your anguish.' They were satisfied. They said, 'you have show honor and respect for us. We respect what you've said and what you are doing and we are putting it behind us."
Al-Qaim almost seems like Disneyworld compared to the rest of Anbar province, but the fight is far from over. Shuster has lost 10 Marines, one to a helicopter accident, one when he was defusing an improvised explosive device, and eight to IEDs.
The latest death by IED was Lance Cpl. Brian A. Escalante, 25, of Wichita, Kansas. He was married with a two-year-old son. He is the first combat death for Weapons Company but his was the second serious IED attack in a week.
The battalion is in a vast area north of the river that has had no U.S. presence until now, and it is still only being patrolled rather than occupied by Marines. It is a major drop off point for weapons brought down the Euphrates from Syria and as such a major battleground. The roads are limited and therefore well littered with IEDs. Marines patrol there mostly off road to avoid the bombs and mines while they search out weapons caches with metal detectors.
Weapons Co. gathered on Feb. 24 to honor his memory in a canvas tent that serves as a chapel. Escalante's helmet, dog tags, rifle and boots stand at the front of the room, his M-16 jammed straight down into sand bags. The young men in the room hung their heads and tried to conceal tears.
Escalante's best friend eulogized him by calling for revenge.
"I want to be able to tell his son when he is old enough to understand that we killed the (expletive deleted)that did this," he said.
It is a 25-year-old's understandable response to a violent death. But it is exactly the wrong message company commander Capt. Greg Gordon, 31, wanted his company to hear. The officers' backs visibly stiffened when the words were uttered.
"Comments like that lead to emotionally charged situations, which every enemy contact is," said Gordon. "You have to be able to rise above the emotion."
"It's entirely appropriate to conduct aggressive operations in response to a death, but only with careful planning for such operations to ensure you don't create the dynamic where atrocities can happen," he said.
Restraint is a fundamental part of counterinsurgency operations. The adversary is continually trying to tempt U.S. forces into an overreaction which can send the populace back to its side. One of the major challenges for U.S. commanders is reining in the human passions ignited by war. With notable exceptions -- Haditha in 2005, for instance -- it is, remarkably, the standard here.
Shuster said the Marine would not be disciplined for his eulogy.
"It's what he feels. It was honest," he said.
But Shuster will keep a close eye on the unit, and Gordon will be enforcing discipline through his non-commissioned officers. Escalante's platoon was given the day off to recover. There is a limited time for mourning, but then it is back to work.
On this day it is figuring out how to get the three trucks the mayor of Husayba sent to Bayji to pick up fuel back to town. They are being held in check by insurgents with guns who won't let them pass if they do not give up their cargo. And the fiber optic cables that link Husayba to the rest of the world are broken, and no one in Ramadi will come fix them because they are afraid to drive on the roads.
"They still think al-Qaim is still one of the hot spots," said Mayor Farhan Tehad Farhan, at his office in downtown Husayba. "We try to explain it even to the prime minister. They deal with al-Qaim as they deal with Anbar -- a bad place, a hot spot."
Farhan is cranky that Ramadi has gotten so much media attention for its sheiks recent overtures to the U.S. military to improve security.
"We did this a year ago," he said.
