This week, New Hampshire Public Radio presents the views of people who have spent a significant length time in Iraq.
Today, we hear from embedded reporter Doug Grindle.
Grindle files reports for television stations all across the country.
He spent 20 weeks in Iraq this year- his most recent visit was this fall.
NHPR's Dan Gorenstein asked Grindle whether Iraq would be safer if the United States left.
5:00 over the short term of course, no you would be taking a lot of the reasons for the violence would go away. There wouldn't be Am. Presence there. There wouldn't be any road side bombs. But once people start fighting for each other for power over there, personally, it would be a complete nightmare for the Iraqis people. and they are sort of in this situation right now where they are damned if they do, damned if they don't. right now, if Am. Stays there will be violence for a few more years at a reasonably high level. If Am. Leaves then there will be violence...but that mi9ght go on for 4-5 yrs.
1:29 when you look at the things going on in Iraq, the areas that are more pacified already are getting better. The areas which are not pacified, are actually they are getting more lethal.
3:08 simply b/c the insurgents are figuring out how to put better bombs together. They will use shape chargers. They will use more artillery shells all bundled together. You will find in the worse areas if there is an IED, there is slightly more chance of a person in a Humvee get hurt....it used to be someone gets hurt, the gunner would have the problem...nowadays, if there is an attack on a Humvee, no one will get hurt or you will lose 4-5 guys. The entire crew. The enemy, the insurgents...seem like they are just getting smarter about how to attack the American forces.
17:27 you'll find that a lot of the soldiers- what do they think about being there? I don't know, I haven't really done a formal survey. I do know I have talked to 500 soldiers from all around. And 5-10% actually come up and say this isn't the best idea in the world. And about 30% come up and say this is ithe best thing since sliced bread, b/c it makes life back in America that much safer. And I think you get the broad mass of soliders saying I don't know if this is good or not, but I'm here and I'm doing the job, b/c these kids are getting something to eat. Most soldiers have a soft heart for Iraqi kids who never have a decent meal, who never get clean water, and it just seems to be a good idea to us in those terms alone. They leave the high politics alone.
28:13 I was talking with a NH air ambulance unit in the summer and they said, when they first got there about 70% of the guys they treated- they guys with gun shot wounds- were Americans. And by the time August rolled around 75% of the guys with the gun shot wounds were Iraqis. So the Iraqis are putting themselves in harms way. The air unit from Concord, covered the whole half of the country to the North. If anyone is going ot see what is going on on the ground it's those guys. And they were like, the Iraqis are out there and they are getting shot, so they must be doing something.
27:38 the draw down will be happening. I think that is inevitable b/c there are hundreds of thousands of Iraqi soldiers coming on line. And some of them are good, some are lousy. But overall they are just going to get better...I think the rate of change will be in about a year. In 18 months we should see a significantly different situation on the ground, where the Iraqis are doing a preponderance of it.
