Not the right desert

Published 01 October, 2008, 13:12

Ukrainian military officer and journalist Dmitri Timchuk spent more then a year in Iraq with the Ukrainian troops stationed there. RT is the first to publish his observations of daily life in the Middle Eastern country in English. (Part II)

Things to do in Iraq (Part I)

Disappointment number one is the absence of desert in Al Kut. ‘Classic’ sands and dunes are the privilege of southern Iraq, while here we have clay. The oasis on the bank of Tigris, where the Delta base camp is located, is quite scraggy. It makes a sharp contrast with the lavish greenery of the Euphrates riverbank oasis that houses the ancient city of Babylon and the Alfa camp with the headquarters of the Center-South multinational division.

Our unit, headed by the Poles, is also part of this division. The Wasit province is full of date palms and coarse bushes and the brown-grey soil is covered by sparse plants. Previously, the vegetation must have been better. Now, since the irrigation system was ruined, the locals don’t even grow rice – the staple food product for Arabs – as it requires lots of water to grow.

Maize, though, is abundant everywhere, which is quite scraggy too and doesn’t grow as high as in Ukraine. Yet, still, on some rural roads winding among the maize fields I felt as if I were somewhere in the south of Ukraine. The only thing is that midsummer in the south of Ukraine is far cooler than this autumn in the north of Iraq.

Clay land is a real handful in winter. In winter it doesn’t really rain often – mostly it’s drizzling, as our long-termers say. However, the soil absorbs almost no water at all, so all low-lying spots are flooded, and moving is only possible on roads, and there’s that ubiquitous sticky clayey mud that sticks to your boots and makes walking a torture. And swarms of mosquitoes…

That, however, will come later. Now, in the scorching heat, it is surprising to see that nobody rolls up the sleeves of their safari uniform, specially developed in Ukraine for the Iraq mission.  At home, they are allowed to roll up sleeves even in less heat. It turns out there are two reasons for this self-punishment. Number one is to avoid burns from touching hot armour, as most trips outside the camps are done onboard APCs. Number two is protection from the bites of the ubiquitous chiggers. The little bugs only bite naked skin and don’t go under clothing.

The name of the base ‘Delta’ (just like ‘Alfa’ in Babylon, and ‘Zulu’ in As-Suveira, where our 72nd  battalion is stationed) is a

tribute to NATO identification standards. But right on the territory of these camps one can come across some names that are so dear to the hearts of Ukrainians. For example, the checkpoints in ‘Delta’ that watch over the exits to the territories outside the camp are called ‘Zoloti vorota’ and ‘Lvivska brama’. The check point on the highway was quickly renamed ‘Trasser’. One of the camps on the territory of ‘Delta’ was most likely named by some guys from Polesye – the sign in front of it informs you that this camp is called ‘Lisova Pisnya’. You read the name once again, look at the fig trees around – and it warms your heart.

The knowledge passed from previous generations

The second disappointment in Iraq, no criticism of the Defence Ministry intended, is about our army equipment. Our APCs, and there are quite a few of those, have metal gratings with sacks and boxes of sand welded to the sides. This is a counter-HEAT effects protection as well as protection from the Soviet grenade guns, RPG-7, that are used by the militants. It’s a horrible weapon, but we are supposed to know it perfectly well, unlike our American counterparts, since we have those in the inventory. Americans though figured out the RPGs as soon as the military action started, and their APCs already come with the factory-made counter-HEAT effects protection. Our army still gets “bare” APCs – local handymen have to come up with the needed protection of their own, although, perhaps, we don’t really need that many APCs in Iraq to launch the production of a new APC, but still…
 

The same can be said about the lack of armoured vehicles forpurposes other than transporting the troops. For example, the Ordnance Corps need them to transport weapons and ammunition. In the zone of responsibility, a large number of mines is discovered and confiscated on a regular basis. You can’t just carry them in your lap! So, handymen attach armour plates to our army Urals to provide at least some sort of protection. Again, it’s all hand-made. What’s comforting is that our polish ‘division allies’ have to do just the same.
 
Apparently, we continually suffer from not taking into account the experience of previous military actions. Soldiers from the brigade kept telling me stories about their best sniper. His father was a sniper in Afghanistan and fought against the colleagues of today’s Iraqi militants and against Afghan mujahedin.  So the father imparted his skills to the son and taught him how to make special devices and fittings for shooting that he himself invented. Of course, it’s good that our guys go to Iraq not just to earn more money – for them, it’s an important job, an opportunity for self-realisation. But when I hear such stories, it saddens me, somehow. Didn’t Russians go through wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya? Can’t we learn from their experience, so that a sniper or someone else won’t have to study in an army training centre, but rather get the benefit of his father’s experience? And can’t they learn to make certain necessary devices and adjustments on their own, just like their father did in due time?

Story and photos courtesy of Dmitri Timchuk

Americans happy to sleep with bugs (Part III)

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