First, let me start by telling you a little about myself and how I ended up in Iraq. For 21 years I was a police officer in New York State. For 17 years of that time I was a certified instructor in both firearms and general topics. When I retired from the police department, I joined the United Nations International Police Task Force. After completing their training program, I was deployed to Bosnia, where I spent two tours preparing a SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) team.
During my time in Bosnia, I met several Ukrainian police officers. They told me about Kyiv, about what a beautiful city it is. I decided to visit, and came back several times as a tourist while I was in Bosnia. When the UN Mission in Bosnia was finished, I moved to Kyiv and made it my home. Kyiv is a beautiful city, and its people are very friendly and kind.
Baghdad nights
In August of last year, I was asked to go to Iraq to help train the Iraqi police. After completing another preparation program in the United States, a group of us were deployed to Iraq. We arrived in Kuwait on a regular commercial jet, and from there we flew to Baghdad on a C-130 military cargo plane. We were required to wear our helmets, and we sat on our bulletproof vests to protect us if our plane was shot when it was trying to land.
We were met at the airport by a group of our colleagues, who drove us to a compound in Baghdad. We traveled in small convoys of three or four vehicles, with a 5-10 minute gap between each convoy. Everyone carried weapons and wore their full armor and helmet. This is normal in Iraq. It's simply too risky to travel by yourself, or even with just one vehicle. Full gear and weapons are required for any travel.
My first night in Baghdad wasn't good. Several times during the night I woke up because I heard gunfire and explosions. I found out later that the insurgents ambush Iraqi and Coalition patrols almost every night. The strange thing was how fast I got used to it. After a few nights, I would wake up from the firefights but go right back to sleep because they weren't that close.
Triangle of death
After some more training in Baghdad, I was given the job of instructor at the Iraqi Highway Patrol Academy. I was assigned to a small military base located south of Baghdad, in the Sunni Triangle. This is the area the media refers to as "The Triangle of Death". It didn't take long for me to understand why it was named that. My first night there the insurgents shelled the base with mortars. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well that night either. We would get mortar attacks two to three times a week, at all times of the day or night, and we regularly took casualties. Sometimes at night we could see the tracers from firefights outside the perimeter, when the insurgents would try to infiltrate the base.
I lived at the base with three other instructors, and every day we would convoy about eight kilometers to the Academy, where we would train the officers, then return to the base at night. Life there was pretty austere. We had no TV, our mobile phones wouldn't work, and the Internet was accessible only about half the time.
Dan Rather came there in January and did a special on the base for the weekly American new program "60 Minutes". He compared it to living on a base in the French Foreign Legion. We lived in tents and slept in sleeping bags on cots. We wore our clothes to bed because if we were mortared during the night, there just wasn't enough time to get dressed before running to the bunkers for shelter. There were no toilets, just Porta-Potties, which were located 100 meters from our tent. We would get running water about twice a week and hot water almost never. We had to carry our guns and wear our bulletproof vests wherever we went, and we couldn't use flashlights at night, due to the threat of attacks. In spite of all this, I enjoyed my work immensely. We four instructors all got along very well and became good friends. I think in situations like this, where people work together so closely and depend so heavily on each other, they form a bond that's hard to explain, and hard for other people to understand. We lived together 24 hours a day. We were mortared, ambushed and shot at together.
Training the brave
After four months, we were transferred to another, larger military base. We opened up a bigger Highway Patrol Academy and now are graduating about 200 officers a month.
Life at the new base is pretty good. We have regular toilets, hot water for showers and real beds. Mortar attacks are rare and the food is above average. The Internet works most of the time, and sometimes our mobile phones can be used.
Instructing at the Academy has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Of course, we do a lot of training on firearms and tactical responses. We also train recruits on topics such as policing in a democratic society, ethics, human rights and civil rights. They want to build a better future for their country and they're eager to learn. My job is hard and risky, but it's nothing compared to that of the Iraqi Police. Being a Police Officer in Iraq may be the most hazardous job in the world today. Make no mistake about it: these are brave men who are committed to making their country free and safe. I'm honored to work with them and proud to call many of them my friends. Some would literally die to protect us.
I know for a fact this is true, because they have done just that. Not too long ago, a group of us were convoying from Baghdad to the Academy. We had two armored Chevy Suburbans and three Iraqi Highway Patrol vehicles for escorts. We were ambushed, and one of our Suburbans was disabled. The IHP Officers did just what they were trained to do. They provided security while we evacuated our people from the disabled vehicle and got them into the other vehicle. Even though they had officers who had been wounded, the IHP didn't leave until military units arrived at our location. After the military took over scene security, the IHP vehicles headed to the hospital with their wounded. Two IHP Officers died enroute.
Commitment confirmed
I absolutely believe that what we're doing in Iraq is right. I live with these people, and we've had many conversations about what has happened in Iraq. The vast majority of them are glad Saddam Hussein is gone. He was an incredibly cruel tyrant who cared nothing for his people. Individuals were arrested, tortured and killed, oftentimes for no reason whatsoever. Iraq should be a rich country. It has huge oil reserves and tremendous agricultural potential. There is a professional, educated class, including doctors, engineers and scientists. In spite of this, poverty in Iraq is a huge problem. The average salary in Iraq under Saddam was $18 per month.
Meanwhile, Saddam built huge, lavish palaces throughout Iraq - a total of 79 in all, often costing tens of millions of dollars each. Each palace was required to prepare three meals every day, just in case Saddam showed up unannounced. After mealtime was over, the meals were thrown away. The workers at the palaces weren't even allowed to eat the food that had been prepared.
The people of Iraq just want to have a normal life for themselves and their families. They want to be able to live without fear, and for their children to have the chance for a better life than what they had. What's happening in Iraq is historic. Our children and grandchildren will read about this in their history books. Very few people have the chance to be a part of history being made. I'm extremely glad and thankful that I've had that chance. Ukrainians should be proud as well. Their country and their servicemen have been a part of this process and deserve credit for it. For those who disagree, all I can say is that I've been there and seen the situation first hand. How can helping these people build a free, democratic country be wrong?
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