Publication:Chattanooga Times Free Press
Date:Sunday, February 20, 2005
Section:Front Page; Page:1
DISPATCH Iraq
By Edward Lee Pitts
Military Affairs
FORWARD OPERATING BASE BERNSTEIN, Iraq -- Sgt. 1st Class Bobby Mullins must wrestle with three languages whenever he mingles with Iraqis during frequent village visits to check on the status of U.S.-funded community projects.
"If you say something in Turkoman to an Arab, they won't talk to you," said the Mount Carmel, Tenn., resident who is here as part of the Tennessee National Guard. "You have three ways to say 'Thank you,' here, and you better not get it wrong."
Sgt. 1st Class Mullins is not alone in his struggles to converse. Others in the 278th Regimental Combat Team's 2nd Squadron find themselves juggling different phrases and respecting diverse cultural values among the area's mix of Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen.
Lt. Col. Frank McCauley, the squadron commander, said his sector is about 45 percent Arab, 45 percent Kurdish and 10 percent Turkoman.
The squadron's area of control includes three towns within 15 kilometers of each other with different dominant ethnic groups with histories of conflict toward one another.
Yanijah is predominately Turkoman, Tuz is inhabited mostly by Kurds and Arabs populate Sulayman Bak, one of the most volatile towns in the region.
In addition to contending with the three ethnic groups, the 278th soldiers must navigate around two distinct religious sects here: the Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Sulayman Bak is unfriendly primarily because the majority of its 30,000 population is Sunni Muslims, the minority Muslim sect that includes ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
According to Capt. Rob Mathis, 32, of Newport, Tenn., this smorgasbord of ethnic and religious differences creates a pubic relations minefield for the 278th soldiers. Making the challenge worse is the fact that even those who share an ethnicity often struggle with one another if their religions are different.
"It is like a key and a lock," Capt. Mathis said. "Unless you get an exact match, they are not going to get along very well."
HISTORY PLAYS ROLE
Soldiers must understand the region's history to grasp today's turmoil, said Maj. James Blevins, of Damascus, Va.
The Salah Ad Din province is about 50 percent Kurdish, 30 percent Arab and 20 percent Turkoman.
When Mr. Hussein ruled Iraq, he sent his Army here to rid the region of Kurds and replace them with Arabs.
About four hours from the 278th's sector lies the Kurdish city of Halabja, which the dictator ordered gassed in 1987. More than 5,000 died, according to the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs.
"Pushing the Kurds north caused hostilities," Maj. Blevins said. "They literally fought each other here, and it is hard to put that behind them."
The head of the local army unit here is an Arab. The police chief in Tuz is Kurdish, while the chief in Sulayman Bak is Arab. Maj. Blevins said he saw animosities among the ethnic groups while planning security for the Jan. 30 elections. The ethnic groups were reluctant to coordinate voting day efforts, he said.
Sgt. 1st Class Ronnie Houston, of Greeneville, Tenn., said the ethnic tensions force the squadron members to act as mediators and always to consider the source when an Iraqi comes to the regiment with information.
Kurds will call a largely Arabic town bad while Arabs will call a Kurdish city bad, Sgt. 1st Class Mullins said.
Soldiers said they sometimes find themselves acting as amateur sociologists or cultural anthropologists studying the different behaviors among the ethnic groups. The Arabs are stricter with their traditions than the Kurds, while Turkomen are more middle-of-the-road people, soldiers said.
The soldiers also have to look for visual clues.
The Arabs wear traditional headdresses and their older women sport tattoos, Sgt. 1st Class Mullins said. The Turkomen usually dress in Western suits, occasionally wearing Arabic robes but not the headscarves common on Arabs.
Sgt. 1st Class Mullins said he can spot Kurds by their baggy pants that gather at the ankles, which he calls "MC Hammer pants" after the rap artist.
The Kurds, he added, also are not as offended when someone shows them the bottom of his feet, an extreme insult for most Arabs. Furthermore Kurds are more comfortable about eating with the left hand and letting their women interact with the U.S. troops. Arabs
refrain from both practices. PUTTING ASIDE DISPUTES
When 278th soldiers visit Kurd and Turkoman villages, residents often come out and follow the troops, according to Sgt. 1st Class Mullins. He said in one Kurdish town a group of children asked him for help with their homework, a worksheet on basic English words.
Arabs, however, spend more time staring at the soldiers rather than interacting with them, he said.
Perhaps, he said, they are upset "because they were the chosen people under Saddam, and now they feel disenfranchised," said Sgt. 1st Class Mullins, whose civil affairs job frequently takes him to review the capital improvement projects in the area.
Sgt. 1st Class Houston said not all Arabs are angry at the Americans.
"I can't say all Arabs don't like us, because some of them are the nicest people you could ever meet," he said. "It all depends on who's talking to them and how the soldiers before us treated them."
But Capt. John Bowlin, of Greeneville, Tenn., said while the southern, largely Arab, part of the squadron's sector is active, the northern half is quiet mostly because that is where the Kurds live.
Regardless of how they are treated, 278th soldiers say they strive to spread the wealth among the ethnic groups when financing improvement projects and when accepting bids from contractors vying for construction work. Maj. Blevins said the goal is to make sure the projects are split evenly among the Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen.
"Our main goal is to put aside ethnic disputes and make sure all the Iraqi people are getting the help and security they need," he said.
This extends to religious groups. When a Sunni mosque gets repairs, Sgt. 1st Class Mullins said he makes sure funds are set aside for a Shiite mosque.
Soldiers said a tinderbox situation threatens to erupt because Kurds are moving back to reclaim their largely fertile farming and oil-rich lands now occupied by relocated Arabs.
The 2nd squadron sector sits right on the edge of the Green Line, the boundary of a semiautonomous region that has been controlled by Kurds since 1991. The Kurds have their own parliament, military and police.
Staff Sgt. Daryl Highfield, 34, of Dover, Tenn., said many Kurds around Bernstein want the area to be a part of an independent Kurdistan, something U.S. government officials said they do not support.
CITY REFLECTS DIVERSITY
Capt. Chris Vineyard, 34, of Rutledge, Tenn., said the Kurds have been investing more money in the area in an effort to gain more influence, said
"Kurds are trying to take it back over," he said. "Coalition forces have to stay neutral and watch."
Tuz, the largest city in 2nd Squadron's sector, is the most diverse with roughly 50 percent Kurds, 10 percent Turkomen and 40 percent Arabs among its population of nearly 90,000. Its geographic position on the Green Line makes it the dividing line between Arab-dominated land and Kurd-controlled territory. Maj. Blevins said Tuz offers a case study of different ethnic groups striving to unite in Iraq.
"It is the only area where Kurds, Turkish and Arab all come together," he said.
The government in Tuz reflects the city's diversity.
Its 21-member City Council is evenly divided with seven Kurds, seven Arabs and seven Turkomen. Its mayor is Kurdish, its deputy mayor is Arabic and its city projects manager is Turkoman. The city's police chief is a Kurd.
Many 2nd Squadron officials say the city is proof there is hope Iraqis can put aside tribal, ethnic and religious distinctions.
"Being right on the edge kind of forces them to get along, " Lt. Col. McCauley said. "They know each other's language. They know each other's ways. There is some ethnic tension, but they seem to rise above that. They work together like they've known each other all their lives."
This was never more evident than after the elections, according to Staff Sgt. Dennis Knight, a squad leader for the squadron's engineers.
Two days after the voting, Tuz residents held a spontaneous celebration with thousands of Iraqis on the streets, Staff Sgt. Knight said. Iraqis danced and sang while people drummed on gas cans.
Staff Sgt. Knight said one woman paraded around with a dress made to look like an Iraqi flag, and an old man gave a speech to a cheering crowd surrounding him. As he spoke, the man from Tuz raised high above his head the finger marked with the purple ink used by election officials as proof someone had voted.
E-mail Lee Pitts at lpitts@timesfreepress.com
U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika - Residents of the Turkoman village of Bustamoli, Iraq, follow soldiers of the 278 th Regimental Combat Team as they walk through the village.
U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika - An Arab child holds flowers in Jalula, Iraq, a town in the region patrolled by the 278 th Regimental Combat Team.
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