PERSON OF THE YEAR The American Soldier: Defender of Freedom They swept across and conquered it in 21 days. They caught . They are the face of America, its might and good will, in a region unused to democracy. The U.S. G.I. is Time’s Person of the Year

By NANCY GIBBS winter wrapped in yellow ribbons and duct tape. But in a year when it felt at times as if we had odern history has a way of being nothing in common anymore, we were united in modest with its gifts and blunt with its this hope: that our men and women at arms might reckonings. Good news comes like a soon come safely home, because their job was breeze you feel but don’t notice; the done. They are the bright, sharp instrument of a markets are up, the air is cleaner, we’re blunt policy, and success or failure in a war unlike beatingM heart disease. It is the bad news that any in history ultimately rests with them. comes with a blast or a crash, to For their uncommon skills stop us in mid-sentence to stare and service, for the choices at the TV, and shudder. each one of them has made and Maybe that’s why we are the ones still ahead, for the startled by gratitude in the sea- challenge of defending not only son of peace. To have pulled our freedoms but those barely Saddam Hussein from his hole stirring half a world away, the in the ground brings the possi- American soldier is Time’s Per- bility of pulling an entire coun- son of the Year. try out of the dark. In an ex- It is worth remembering that hausting year when we’ve been our pilots and sailors and sol- witness to battles well beyond diers are, for starters, all volun- the battlefields—in the streets, teers, in contrast to those of in our homes, with our allies— most nations, which conscript to share the good news of Sad- the citizens who serve in their dam’s capture felt like break- armed forces. Ours are serving ing a long fast, all the better since it came by in 146 countries, from to Zimbabwe. surprise. And who delivered this gift, against all The 1.4 million men and women on active duty odds and risks? The same citizens who share the make up the most diverse military in our history, duty of living with, and dying for, a country’s and yet it is not exactly a mirror of the country it most fateful decisions. defends. It is better educated than the general Scholars can debate whether the Bush Doctrine population and overweighted with working-class is the most muscular expression of national inter- kids and minorities. About 40% of the troops are est in a half-century; the generals may ponder Southern, 60% are white, 22% are black, and a whether warmaking or peacekeeping is the more disproportionate number come from empty states fearsome assignment; civilians will remember a like Montana and Wyoming.

2 time, december 29, 2003–january 5, 2004 PERSON OF THE YEAR

The unstated promise is that soldiers are sent to launcher? How do you win the hearts and minds war only as a last resort, to defend their country of residents in a town you’ve had to wrap in barbed from harm. But while the threat posed by Saddam wire? How do you teach about freedom through was chief among the stated justifications, George the bars of a cage? W. Bush’s war was always about more than the It is a fantastically romantic notion, that thou- weapons that have yet to be found. The son of the sands of young men and women could descend on President who had trouble with the Vision Thing a broken place and make it better, not decades offered a vision so broad it bent the horizon: this from now but right away, hook up the high school was nothing less than a “battle for the future of lab, send the Army engineers to repair the the Muslim world,” an expression of American soccer field, teach the town council about Robert’s idealism in all its arrogant generosity. Once again, Rules and all the while watch your back. They de- we thought we could liberate a country just by bate how much to tell their loved ones back home, walking in the door. The President could move who listen to each news report of victories won and this immense fighting machine halfway around lives lost with the acute attention that dread de- the world and ignore old allies, leaving us to act mands. They complain less about the danger than without their support and rescue the uncertainty: they are told a captive country. The same soldiers who they’re going home in two It may be that idealism re- swept across 350 miles weeks, and then two months quires naiveté to survive, because later they have not moved. no war ever goes as planned, and in 21 days soon found When the Pentagon an- peace can be just as confounding. themselves being shot at nounced that instead of six The same soldiers who swept by the people they had months abroad the troops would across 350 miles in 21 days, to be spending a year, it began ro- be greeted by flowers and candy come to save. tating them home for a two- and cheers as the statues fell, week leave to rest and recharge. soon found themselves being shot at by the people Some turned the offer down; they said it would be they had come to save. As it turned out, the Iraqi too hard to go back when the 14 days were up. civil servants who were supposed to keep the lights Some went home to meet their babies for the first on after Saddam was gone instead stayed home time. They flush the toilet over and over, just be- when there was no one to give them orders. The cause they can, celebrate a year’s worth of birth- sudden collapse of the Iraqi army was such an days in 14 days, meet the new neighbors, savor indignity to the Iraqi people that in a way it made rain. Troops come home to a Heroes’ Parade; the Americans’ job harder: You can rebuild a bridge, towns don’t call it a Victory Parade, because they but how do you restore national pride at the same know it’s not over yet. time, or impose order on people who have been It now falls to the Iraqis themselves to decide taught to distrust authority and Americans? what they are willing and able to do with the The fight for peace demands different skills of chance they have been given, and the rest of the the soldiers: not just courage but constancy; not just world to decide how to help. Freedom’s conse- strength but subtlety. Liberty can’t be fired like a quences, intended and otherwise, will determine bullet into the hard ground. It requires, among whether the world is safer for having been forcibly other things, time and trust, and a nation scarred by rearranged, and how long it will be before the tyranny and divided by tribe and faith is not going soldiers can come marching home for good. π to turn into Athens overnight. A force intensely trained for its mission finds itself improvising at Questions every turn, required to exercise exquisite judg- 1. Why did Time select the U.S. soldier as its Per- ment in extreme circumstances: Do you shoot son of the Year? What is your reaction to this choice? the 8-year-old when he picks up the grenade 2. What skills does the “fight for peace” require?

time, december 29, 2003–january 5, 2004 3 THE WAR IN IRAQ “WE GOT HIM” Inside the daring nighttime raid that nabbed Saddam Hussein— and what it means for George W. Bush and the future of Iraq

By NANCY GIBBS broadcast address from the Cabinet Room. “It marks the end of the road for him and for all ven before he is brought to trial, who bullied and killed in his name.” there was justice in the news that Saddam It was a team of 600 soldiers from the 4th In- Hussein had survived by being buried alive. fantry Division and U.S. special forces that acted Like a pharaoh in his tomb, he had sur- on the tip that Saddam was hiding in a little town rounded himself with symbols of his lost called Dawr, 15 miles from his hometown of power—twoE ak-47s, a pistol, $750,000 in $100 . These soldiers had been scouring the area bills. The Butcher of Baghdad was nestled under- for months in the belief that he would stay close ground with pictures of Ben Franklin. The hunt for to home, where loyalty among those who most Saddam that began with a hellfire of bombs eight benefited from his rule still ran deep. U.S. - months ago ended without a shot being fired. ligence sources tell Time that over the past month With his capture, we exhale, after a long, deep they were getting better leads. breath we have held for a year. We can measure But it was not until 8 o’clock on Saturday, Dec. the meaning of his capture by the measures we 13, with the launch of Operation Red Dawn, that have taken—old alliances and long traditions dis- they finally began to close in on the prize. The carded to go to war to take him out and, in the hunters spread out across two locations, labeled name of democracy, a war that was opposed by Wolverine One and Wolverine Two. Locals in vast majorities in most democracies on earth. Dawr say the house is owned by Qais al-Nameq, Hundreds of soldiers killed, hundreds more a personal attendant of Saddam who returned a wounded, $4 billion a month spent and billions few years ago. His two sons were arrested along more to come, a country broken in pieces that we with Saddam. These residents say al-Nameq was will be helping rebuild for years to come. And so arrested and the second location the Americans what is the gift this capture has brought? Perhaps searched was his farm. At first, the searches of a a true taste of freedom from Kurdish fear for 25 million people who IRAQ area could never quite have faith Tikrit that the tyranny was over Dawr Tikrit while the tyrant was still Samarra Lake Tikrit Baghdad loose. It was an antidote to Tharthar Saddam’s IRAQ the contempt expressed by hometown E uph Arab and European com- rat es R T iver ig r mentators who poked the Fallujah is R iv American tiger: See, you e r can’t even catch Saddam. BAGHDAD Lake Dawr “The capture of this man Razzazah Saddam T captured ig ri was crucial to the rise of a s R Satellite photo iv Karbala er from Space Imaging via free Iraq,” President George Keyhole Inc. 40 miles W. Bush said in a nationally 40 km Kut

4 time, december 22, 2003 THE WAR IN IRAQ rural farmhouse turned up little that was suspi- role. However, his arrest could still profoundly rat- cious. But after all these years of deception, all tle the resistance. The Pentagon estimated that these months of hunting, given Saddam’s repu- nine of 10 insurgents were former regime loyalists. tation for tunnels and safe rooms and secrets, To the extent they were driven by a rational agen- the soldiers knew to scrape the paint off the walls da—restoring the old regime to power—they are in the event he was hiding behind them. So they now deprived of their goal. The insurgents are, cordoned off the area and began the long process for the most part, Baathists, and throughout his rule of searching every corner. On the premises was a Saddam was the party and the party was Saddam. small, walled compound with a mud hut and a At the same time, no one is expecting the conflict metal lean-to. There they found the entrance to to end abruptly, especially the military commanders the hole, camouflaged with dirt and bricks, with who work out of one of Saddam’s palaces in Tikrit. just enough space to lie down, a fan and an air “We expect a spike in enemy activity,” says Captain vent. It appears he had been Mitch Carlisle. “We’re not let- shuttled around in an orange- 25 million Iraqis could never ting our guard down at all.” and-white taxi. U.S. ground- quite have faith that the The news meant that the man forces commander in Iraq Lieut. George Bush vowed to hunt General Ricardo Sanchez said tyranny was over while the down was now at his mercy, and Saddam put up no fight, was tyrant was still loose. so the U.S. President has choic- talkative and cooperated. es to make. He could declare President Bush first got word from Secretary victory and go home, but nothing in his reflexes or of Defense on the afternoon of rhetoric suggests that, having placed Saddam in a Dec. 13, in a call to Camp David. “We think we may cage, he is inclined to leave his other promises have him,” Rumsfeld announced. Bush called unfulfilled. And so the latest in the series of tests of Adnan Pachachi, the acting president of the Iraqi a President’s instincts and motives comes to this: governing council, to congratulate him; as they Does he trust the people he says he went to war to were trying to get him on the cell phone Pachachi free to do the right thing? If a sense of justice is the was with U.S. Ambassador L. Paul Bremer at necessary rock on which democracies stand, how Saddam’s holding location. can anyone other than his countrymen have a “Ladies and gentlemen, we got him,” Bremer, greater right to put him on trial? But how would tears in his eyes, told the news conference, which that work, and what laws apply? “There’s an Iraqi erupted in cheers. From the first moment the catharsis that has to take place,” says one senior American video of Saddam in custody began State Department official. “The nation has to see it rolling, Iraqi journalists stood and screamed. Some on their TVs and they have to feel like they did it.” yelled, “Kill him! Kill Saddam.” The people of With Saddam at last captured, one mystery is Baghdad caught the spirit of hope and pain, firing solved, but others now simmer. What happened bullets into the sky, throwing candy, and lighting to his weapons, his money, his remaining allies? firecrackers in the street. “They got Saddam!” “The Will all the Iraqis who have never learned what devil is gone.” It was like a wedding day, or perhaps happened to their brother, their uncle, their neigh- more a birthday. bor now get the maps to the rest of the mass graves? Does this mean that the daily attacks on U.S. Will they find a way toward reconciliation, Sunni soldiers, the roadside bombs and downtown am- and Shi’a, Arab and Kurd? The world waits for a bushes and mortars fired at headquarters would new chapter and history prepares, once again, to die away? There never was good evidence that turn on a dime. π Saddam was controlling the insurgency, and the circumstances in which he was found—hiding in Questions a hole, accompanied by an entourage of only 1. Where and when was Saddam captured? two—suggest he was too isolated to play any central 2. What is the expected impact of Saddam’s capture?

time, december 22, 2003 5 Name Date WORKSHEET✍ The Capture Of Saddam A GALLERY OF VIEWS On the afternoon of , George W. Bush got a call from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who told the President: “We think we may have him.” As it turned out, Saddam Hussein was captured in what General Ricardo Sanchez referred to as a “spider hole.” In response to this develop- ment, commentators offered a variety of perspectives on the meaning and ramifications of Saddam’s capture. Study the cartoons at left. Then answer the questions below. 1. Describe the action taking place in each image. What is the setting for each cartoon? How is Saddam depicted? 2. What symbol does the creator of the top cartoon use to depict the U.S. and its actions in Iraq? Why does the middle cartoon refer to weapons of mass destruction? What symbol does the bottom car- toon use to represent a political victory for President Bush, and what victory is being referred to? 3. What comment is each cartoon- ist making about the ramifications of Saddam’s capture? Consider the impact on the Iraqi people, the U.S. presence in Iraq and the 2004 election. 4. According to “We Got Him” on page 4, what are some of the questions left unanswered by the capture of Saddam? 5. Do you believe that with the capture of Saddam the U.S. has achieved its objectives in Iraq? Why or why not?

6Worksheet Prepared by Time Learning Ventures THE WAR IN IRAQ

says Ahmed, who fingers amber-colored prayer The Insurgent beads as he talks. “Everyone wants to defend his country and his honor.” Says Bear: “I want my wife and family to be proud of me because what I am And the Soldier doing is protecting them.” Both view themselves as men of honor; On a recent night, Ahmed met seven other men both are fathers. And they are trying to wipe at a safe house in Fallujah. Sometime after midnight each other out in Fallujah, Iraq’s red-hot core he retired to a bedroom in the safe house and prayed for a few minutes. Then he and the others By SIMON ROBINSON/FALLUJAH stole out into the night. Five moved on foot; three rode small motorcycles. Near 1 a.m. they attacked nder the saddam hussein regime, from two directions, opening up with Kalashnikovs “Ahmed” was an insider, a commando who and firing two rocket-propelled grenades. Userved in the feared Fedayeen Saddam militia. The soldiers of the 1-505 are on the alert for Now he’s a guerrilla battling the American occu- people like Ahmed at all times. Bear and his col- piers who rule his homeland. leagues patrol the streets around Ahmed, 40, looks more like a sim- “They have their way of Fallujah and try to provide secu- ple farmer than a killer: deeply fighting, and we have our rity for convoys whenever soldiers etched lines radiate from the way of fighting. Everyone travel to another base. In Sep- corners of his eyes, and his face is tember, Bear was in the last anchored by a stubbly salt-and- wants to defend his humvee of one such convoy cross- pepper beard. But his intentions country and his honor.” ing a bridge over the Euphrates are lethal. “If you come like a -“Ahmed,” an Iraqi guerrilla when a roadside bomb blew up in friend, we will say, ‘Welcome,’ front of him. The convoy stopped and help you,” he says. “But if you come like the and within seconds was taking light arms fire from Americans did to control us, then we will kill you.” three directions. Despite the risks, Bear doesn’t American Staff Sergeant Richard Bear is in Iraq second-guess his mission. “Why do I think that to stop men like Ahmed. It was a desire to do I’m here? The answer is, to help the Iraqi people,” something significant with his life and gain notice says Bear. “We don’t want to turn this into a little that put him on the path that would eventually lead America. We just want to help people.” Bear says him to Fallujah. “Right after the first ,” he he wants to “make sure Iraqi kids have some of recalls, “I was driving back from my job at Wal- the opportunities my kids have.” Mart when I saw a busful of reservists returning Ahmed sees things differently. The Americans’ home. People were clapping and cheering and purpose, he believes, is to subjugate Iraq. “We do honking their horns. These guys were heroes. I not hate the American people. We hate their gov- thought to myself, That’s what I want—recognition, ernment,” he says. “So we ask, ‘Why send your a sense of accomplishment.” And so he enlisted. sons to us so that we can kill them?’ During the Bear arrived in Iraq two months ago with Charlie struggle I may live or I may die. But even if I do die, Company of the 1-505 Parachute Infantry Regi- there are plenty of others who will follow me, and ment of the 82nd Airborne Division. they will keep fighting until the last American has The two men—an Iraqi insurgent and an Amer- left Iraq.” The months ahead will decide whose ican soldier—have more in common than one vision will prevail. π might expect. Both are fathers who care deeply about their children and their country. Both see Questions their jobs as their duty. Both pray each time they 1. What do Ahmed and Bear have in common? head out on a new mission. “They have their way 2. How do Ahmed and Bear each explain the of fighting, and we have our way of fighting,” Americans’ purpose in Iraq?

time, november 17, 2003 7 THE WAR IN IRAQ If At First You Don’t Succeed... Faced with growing violence, George W. Bush changes the playbook for handing Iraq back to its people. Now all Jerry Bremer has to do is figure out whether the country can meet the new timetable

By MICHAEL ELLIOTT Washington that followed turned out to be fateful. At a press conference in Baghdad on Saturday, t’s hard to have an afternoon’s uninter- Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader who holds the ro- rupted fun when you are the National Securi- tating presidency of the , ty Adviser. On Nov. 9, Condoleezza Rice, a announced the new scheme. In effect, Bremer has passionate football fan, was at FedEx Field junked the plan for Iraqi self-rule that he unveiled outside Washington, watching the Redskins last summer. Under the original proposal, the coun- playI the Seattle Seahawks, when she got a call cil, made up of Iraqi notables appointed by the from L. Paul (Jerry) Bremer, the American pro- U.S., was to propose how a constitution might be consul in Iraq. For the better part of two weeks, drafted by December. After the document was Bremer and Rice had been discussing how to speed written, it would be ratified in a referendum, and the transfer of power to Iraqis. Both agreed that the only then would a sovereign Iraqi government be matter now required face time with Administration elected. The whole process could have taken up to principals in Washington. When the conversation four years. In recent weeks, however, it had become resumed the next day, it took just a quick look at plain that the council would not meet the Decem- calendars—President Bush was off to London for a ber deadline, which had been enshrined in a U.N. state visit, then to Texas for Thanksgiving, and De- Security Council resolution. “They got things built fense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was about to into an impasse. They basically said to us, ‘Help us leave for Asia—for everyone to recognize that get out of this,’” Bremer told Time last week. “We Bremer should get back to Washington, fast. understood the desire for them to have sover- Together with Robert Blackwill, a veteran diplo- eignty more quickly, and we wanted them to have mat who is Rice’s point man on Iraq and had been sovereignty. We had to find a way forward.” visiting Baghdad, Bremer flew to Washington. So Under the new plan, the Governing Council urgent was his trip that he put off a meeting with will be wound up at the end of May. A national as- Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller, whose troops sembly will be elected from Iraq’s provinces— make up the third largest contingent in the occu- the details on how that will happen are still pying force in Iraq. The two days of meetings in murky—and the assembly will form an executive The New Plan for Iraq’s Future The U.S. had hoped to delay returning power to Iraqis, but resistance to the occupation has provoked a rethinking 2004 Feb.March AprilMay June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. 2005

FAST TRACK TO SELF-RULE Governing Council Representatives of a The legislature will appoint a U.S. A new Iraqi When the 25-member Iraqi will draft procedures transitional legislature provisional executive council. presidential constitution will Governing Council was appointed for each Iraqi will be elected by the local The Coalition Provisional Authority election be drafted and by the U.S. in July, it was to retain province to elect a councils. The U.S. will not play will be dissolved and sovereignty elections for power, overseen by the U.S.-led local council. a role in the selection of the handed over to the Iraqis. The U.S. a permanent Coalition Provisional Authority, legislature, but will supervise occupation will technically end, government will until a constitution was written and the convening of the local though U.S. troops will remain in Iraq be held by the free elections held. The council councils. at Baghdad’s invitation. end of 2005. pushed for a faster transition to sovereignty, and the U.S. has now agreed. The two sides have settled on the following schedule:

8 time, november 24, 2003 THE WAR IN IRAQ

TURKEY cia station chief in Bagh- TRIBAL NATION dad details, the number, Iraq’s population Kurdish areas is an amalgam intensity and organiza- Rawanduz of often competing tional sophistication of at- ethnic and religious Mosul groups ... Arbil tacks on coalition forces Sunni Sulaymaniyah Arabs: are all on the increase. Last Shi‘ite 20% Kirkuk Arabs: week seven Americans 60% Sunni Kurds: Ba‘iji were killed in six attacks, 17% Tikrit Others: 3% IRAN and at least another 17 died Sunni areas Anah when two U.S. helicopters Hadithah Ba‘qubah crashed in midair as one apparently dodged shoot- BAGHDAD Ramadi ing from the ground. Rutbah Tigris IRAQ Karbala River To address the security Kut Hillah challenge, the U.S. has

Nukhayb Map key Najaf Amarah gone back to a war footing. Diwaniyah Shi‘ite Arab ... that the Sunni Arab Shi‘ite Coalition forces launched Iraqi Governing areas Sunni Kurd Council was Samawah an offensive, code-named structured to reflect Sunni Turkoman Sparsely Nasiriyah Operation Iron Hammer, populated areas Basra 5 Salman that included attacks from Arabs 11 13 Sunnis helicopter gunships on Shi‘ite 5 Iraqi province Arabs* Kurds boundaries KUWAIT supposed safe houses and 1 Turkoman arms dumps used by the *One Shi‘ite council member was killed in 1 Assyrian Christian September opposition. Long before last week’s council. At that time the Coalition Provisional policy change, it had become evident that the Authority (cpa), which Bremer heads, will dis- Governing Council has not gelled into a body solve, and sovereignty will be devolved to a pro- that can be presented—to Iraqis or a skeptical visional Iraqi government. A constitution will fol- world—as the nucleus of Iraqi self-rule. The coun- low. At the same time the Administration is cil’s performance has been lackluster. At times in preparing to accelerate the transfer of political the past four months, half its members have been power to Iraqis, it is also looking for ways to aug- outside the country. On the Iraqi street, the coun- ment Iraqi military capabilities. Sources tell Time cil has never garnered much support. Mohammed that the Administration is rethinking its opposition Thabit Rifat, an accountant in the Ministry of to bringing back senior Iraqi army officers who Finance, reflects a common perception among served under Saddam Hussein. Iraqis that the council is dominated by exiles The change in plan is more than a minor course who enjoyed life abroad while everyone else suf- correction. It is an admission by the Administration fered under Saddam. “They lived outside the that the basis of its policies since the spring has country in luxury,” says Rifat, “and came here crumbled. Bremer’s initial plan for transferring without knowledge of the traditions and habits of power to Iraqis had seven points, which should the country.” π have been a warning. Any seven-step program is almost by definition a leisurely one. Questions Time is what the Administration now knows it 1. What is the key difference between the original does not have. Without some swift assumption of plan for Iraqi sovereignty and the new approach? real power by Iraqis, local resentment of coalition 2. How is the U.S. addressing the deteriorating forces will only grow. As a leaked report from the security situation in Iraq?

time, november 24, 2003 9 THE WAR IN IRAQ

records are unreliable, and because Iraqi Muslims Losing Hearts usually bury their dead swiftly, deaths are not al- ways recorded. The Project on Defense Alterna- tives in Cambridge, Mass., estimates that about And Minds 200 Iraqi noncombatants have been victims of Unmoved by Bush’s visit, Iraqis blame the coalition firepower since May 1, when President U.S. for civilian deaths and razed homes Bush announced the end of major hostilities. The widespread arrests and detentions are no By BRIAN BENNETT and VIVIENNE WALT/BAGHDAD less troubling to Iraqis. U.S. officials are holding roughly 5,000 “suspected terrorists” in custody in ohammed ali karam wants to kill a u.s. Iraq, including 300 with foreign passports. But of- soldier. He doesn’t love Saddam Hussein, ficials aren’t always able to say where the detainees Mand he was happy in April when U.S. are, frustrating Iraqis desperately looking for friends Marines rolled through his Baghdad neighbor- or family members who have disappeared. hood on their way to liberate . But he A U.S. intelligence official in Iraq says even he turned against the Americans the night he saw his has trouble locating detainees he wants to talk to or brother Hussein, 27, take two bullets in the neck. get released. “There’s no accurate list,” he told At 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 17, Karam says, he and three Time. “It’s a big problem.” It may also be a violation of his brothers were driving to a neighborhood of the . “There is a responsi- where the pumps were working in order to get bility to at least notify families that someone is water for their home. Hussein, in the passenger arrested,” says a Red Cross spokesman. seat, talked about having his new suit tailored The Geneva Conventions also prohibit occu- for his upcoming wedding. That’s pying powers from destroying when 82nd Airborne paratroop- Iraqis cite three areas of property, unless it “is rendered ers, crouched in an observation concern: the killing absolutely necessary by military post across the street, opened of innocents, the operations.” Around Tikrit this fire—after rounds struck their po- month, U.S. forces demolished sition, they say. Three of the “disappearance” of more than a dozen facilities, in- brothers ran to the safety of a countrymen detained by cluding private homes. Colonel creek bed, but Hussein didn’t U.S. forces and the James Hickey, 1st Brigade com- make it. In the car, said Karam, destruction of buildings. mander in charge of the area, told the soldiers found Hussein but no Time that every targeted house weapons. Hussein died on the way to the hospi- had been either a source of direct fire on coalition tal, three days before his wedding. troops or had been used to store weapons. U.S. troops face a difficult task in trying to root Some property owners dispute that claim. One out the insurgents who want to drive them out of is Laith Klabos, 22, who grows apricots in Boasil Iraq. But in pursuing this enemy, the Americans village. On Nov. 19, U.S. soldiers wrecked his are frequently guilty of excesses that are turning family’s house. Klabos insists his family had no ordinary Iraqis into foes. Bush’s Thanksgiving weapons and was not helping the resistance. “Is visit meant little to Iraqis, who cite three areas of this the democracy they promised us? They come concern: the killing of innocents, the “disap- and blow up our houses?” π pearance” of countrymen detained by U.S. forces, and the destruction of buildings, including fam- Questions ily homes. 1. What is the estimated number of noncombatant It’s hard to say how many Iraqi civilians have Iraqis killed since May 1? been killed in the fighting. The U.S. military does 2. What treaty governs treatment of civilians and not track civilian casualties in wartime. Hospital soldiers in wartime?

10 time, december 8, 2003 THE WAR IN IRAQ

Secrecy was essential. Not since Abraham Lin- The Politics of War coln visited Richmond, Va., just days after the Whisked in secret to Iraq, Bush serves Confederates fled, had a U.S. President placed holiday dinner to the troops—showing himself so close to the front lines. If Iraqi insur- he can still pull off a killer photo-op gents had had warning of the President’s visit, the risk of an attack would have been too high. By JAMES CARNEY The circle of silence was so small that not even the President’s parents knew about the trip until after lmost no one noticed when a large jet they had arrived to celebrate Thanksgiving at swooped over the military mess hall at the Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. ABaghdad airport on the evening of Thursday, The President’s aides knew that, given no ad- Nov. 27. The 1st Armored Division’s big brass band vance notice, the media would treat the visit as was noodling through jazz standards like Take the unfiltered breaking news, with less of the usual A Train while 550 soldiers sat at refectory tables, talking-head dissection of the President’s motives. looking hungry and impatient to return to their They would instead focus on the event itself—the camps so they could call their families for Thanks- shock and excitement of the troops, the images of giving. Finally, L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. proconsul Bush standing in the serving line, and the tributes in Iraq, took the stage and asked if there was any- of appreciation from individual G.I.s after he left. one in the room more senior than he who could And that’s what happened. Cable anchors broke read the President’s Thanksgiving message to the the news between the end of the Macy’s Thanks- troops. There was: George W. Bush himself, who giving Day Parade and the start of the day’s football entered on cue, inspiring the stunned soldiers to games. Scenes of Bush, his eyes moist with tears, leap to their feet and cheer. A few hours later, speaking with the troops, serving them dinner and Americans watching television at home heard that posing for snapshots, played all day long and into their President had made a secret visit to Baghdad Friday. Nearly every daily newspaper in the coun- to share Thanksgiving dinner with the troops. try carried the story on its front page. Scenes of President Bush serving turkey and sweet But if the President has learned anything, it is potatoes to G.I.s saturated the news for the next 24 that p.r. triumphs can quickly fade or even sour. hours and beyond. Although his Thanksgiving gambit played well When his chief of staff Andy Card approached at home, reviews were decidedly mixed in Iraq. As him in mid-October and asked whether he would word of Bush’s visit filtered across Baghdad, some consider flying into Baghdad to have Thanksgiving Iraqis applauded the news, but many either dinner with the troops, Bush didn’t reject the idea dismissed it as meaningless or chided the U.S. as opportunistic or foolishly risky. As long as no one President for never leaving the military base or was put in harm’s way, Bush told Card, he would go. meeting with any Iraqis. “I am very proud he came, but he should have come inside the real Baghdad,” says Shuan Gharib, 32, a wait- er. Says Alah Ghanam, 31, as he stands guard outside a western Baghdad restaurant: “He did it all for the coming election. But I have to say, coming to Baghdad was a very coura- geous step.” π

Questions 1. What was the value of keeping President Bush’s trip to Iraq a surprise? 2. How did Iraqis view President Bush’s visit?

time, december 8, 2003 11