Iraqi Rebels Kill Two U.S. Soldiers
By Toronto Star CA
Thursday 19 February 2004
Bremer says date for power transfer won't change
BAGHDAD (AP) - An explosion killed two U.S. infantrymen in an insurgent centre west of Baghdad today, but the U.S. civil administrator said the date for handing power over to an Iraqi government would not change.
The blast occurred as troops from Task Force All-American were investigating an earlier attack on a U.S. convoy near Khaldiyah, a Sunni Triangle town about 80 kilometres west of Baghdad, witnesses said.
One Iraqi was killed and another U.S. soldier was wounded, the U.S. command and witnesses said.
"About 20 U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi policemen were on foot inspecting the area after the first blast," witness Bilal Hardan said. "Then the second explosion came. I think they hit a landmine."
U.S. troops rounded up dozens of Iraqi suspects after the second attack, the witnesses said. The U.S. command confirmed the American casualties but offered no further details.
The latest deaths brought to 545 the number of American service members who have died since President George W. Bush launched the Iraq war on March 20, 2003. Most of the deaths have occurred since Bush declared an end to active combat May 1.
With casualties mounting in an election year, the Bush administration would like to transfer political power to the Iraqis by the end of June and shift more security responsibility to the U.S.-trained Iraqi force.
Bush wants to end the occupation well ahead of the November presidential election in the United States to minimize Iraq as a campaign issue. However, the formula for establishing a new government remains in dispute.
U.S. administrator Paul Bremer said today there were "dozens" of methods for selecting the new Iraqi government, including a redesigned "caucus" system or partial elections.
But he was firm that power would be handed over to Iraqis by June 30.
"Changes are possible, but the date holds," Bremer said in Baghdad.
Bremer spoke ahead of an expected announcement today by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the feasibility of holding legislative elections here before June 30, as demanded by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani and others in the influential Shiite clergy.
Washington hopes Annan will say that elections are impossible by June 30 and will endorse the idea of extending and expanding the U.S.-picked Iraqi Governing Council so it can take interim control of the country July 1.
In an interview with the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri, Annan said elections were essential in Iraq, but they could probably not be held before the transfer of power.
"There seems to be a consensus emerging that elections are essential and everyone would want elections. But at the same time, there seems to be a general acceptance of the fact that it is not going to be possible to arrange an election between now and the end of June," Annan said in the interview published today.
Rather than hold elections, the United States proposed choosing members of a new legislature by regional caucuses. The lawmakers would then select a government to take power by July 1. However, the caucus idea has little support among Iraqis, who fear the Americans could manipulate the process to ensure their favourites were chosen.
Bremer has said he would not allow the council to adopt a basic law or constitution that was based upon Islamic law. While calling for any charter to acknowledge the Islamic nature of Iraq, Bremer said the law must be based on secular democratic principles.
"We have an obligation as the sovereign power that an appropriate democratic structure is put in place here while we are here so that we can deliver to the Iraqis what they want, which is a democratic, unified, stable country at peace with itself," Bremer said.
The top U.S. military officer said today he could not estimate with confidence how long American forces will have to stay in Iraq after that transfer of power.
"There is not a range in my own mind. We're going to have to let events dictate" when the military can leave, said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Today, Ahmad al-Barak, a Shiite council member and co-ordinator of the Iraqi Bar Association, said after meeting with al-Sistani in Najaf that the Shiites were hoping for an early election but would be willing to wait a few more months if Annan recommends against a vote before June 30.
"I think that elections can be held after five months from now and in that case we have no problem," al-Barak told reporters. "Power could be transferred to the Iraqi people through the Governing Council or any other body which will take the responsibility to make the right preparations for the elections."
However, a Shiite party, al-Dawa, said it would be disappointed if elections were delayed.
"The Iraqi people have suffered a lot because of the UN resolutions in the past," said Hussein al-Zamily, a spokesman for the Shiite al-Dawa party. "I think that this is repeated now. I think the expected decision is not a right one. I believe that the security situation will be much better when the power is transferred to the Iraqis."
Other Shiites have said any expansion of the Governing Council must respect the current alignment of power. The Shiites, believed to make up about 60 per cent of Iraq's 25 million people, hold 13 of the 25 council seats.
In Baghdad, a Sunni council member, Samir Shaker Mahmoud, said he also believed that expanding and extending the Governing Council was possible.
"But of course all members of the council believe that elections, credible elections, must be conducted as soon as possible," he said.
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Suicides in Iraq, Questions at Home
By Theola Labbé
The Washington Post
Thursday 19 February 2004
Pentagon Tight-Lipped as Self-Inflicted Military Deaths Mount
LUFKIN, Tex. -- Two-year-old Jada Suell tumbled out of the car and ran ahead of everyone -- her grandmother, her mother, her cousins and her 4-year-old sister, Jakayla -- toward the grave of Joseph Dewayne Suell.
"Dada," said the little girl. In the Sunday afternoon quiet of Cedar Grove cemetery, her toddler voice reverberated like a shout.
"Yes, we're going to Daddy's grave," her grandmother Rena Mathis said reassuringly.
The silver grave cover bore colorful wreaths and American flags -- a nod to Suell's three years of military service. He was deployed to Iraq in April 2003 as an Army petroleum supply specialist out of Fort Sill, Okla. Less than two months later, he was dead.
A report provided to the family at their request says that the 24-year-old died of a drug overdose on Father's Day, one of 22 suicides reported among troops in Iraq last year.
According to William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, who discussed the suicides in a briefing last month, that represents a rate of more than 13.5 per 100,000 troops, about 20 percent higher than the recent Army average of 10.5 to 11. The Pentagon plans to release the findings of a team sent to Iraq last fall to investigate the mental health of the troops, including suicides.
The number Winkenwerder cited does not include cases under investigation, so the actual number may be higher. It also excludes the suicides by soldiers who have returned to the United States. For instance, two soldiers undergoing mental health treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington reportedly committed suicide there, in July 2003 and last month. In its weekly report on the treatment of returning battlefield soldiers, the hospital never mentioned the deaths. An official at Walter Reed said the deaths are "suspected" suicides and are being investigated by the Army's criminal division.
Stephen L. Robinson, who visits the hospital regularly and is executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, a nonprofit advocacy group for veterans and soldiers, said there was no public record of the deaths. "They just covered it up," he said.
The military's emphasis on honor, valor and courage makes suicide perhaps one of its last taboos. The Pentagon does not publicly identify a soldier's death as a suicide but may classify it as a "non-hostile gunshot wound," or death from "non-hostile injuries," which can also include accidents such as negligent discharge of a weapon. In comparison, the Pentagon will release a description of the cause of death -- enemy fire, a land mine, a car crash -- for a soldier killed in action or as a result of an accident.
The Washington Post contacted more than a dozen families of soldiers whose causes of death were listed as non-combat related. Some said that although the military had not provided further details, information from soldiers in the field indicated that the deaths were from "friendly fire" or an accidental weapons discharge. For others awaiting the results of an investigation, the possibility of suicide was too painful to bear.
"I am not ready to hear that," said the mother of one soldier who died from a gunshot wound to the head -- a "non-combat weapons discharge," according to the Pentagon.
In Texas, the Suell family says the military has it wrong. Suellboy, as he was known to those closest to him, was strong-minded and a God-fearing Christian. The son of a minister, he preached to others that suicide was a sin. He drew hearts on the letters he sent to his wife and said he could not wait to come home to see his daughters.
Rebecca Suell, 23, said she will never believe that her husband killed himself. She and her mother-in-law, Mathis, 47, are demanding answers, and they say the military has been silent and unsupportive.
"We call them, we have questions, we want to know, and they don't have anything to tell us," Rebecca Suell said, standing at the edge of her husband's grave. "They don't have nothing to say, and that's not right."
'A Different Kind of War'
The 130,000 troops stationed in Iraq are fighting the first prolonged ground war since Vietnam. What the two conflicts have in common is a public debate over the war itself, which can cause soldiers to question themselves, said Ronald W. Maris, a professor emeritus of psychiatry at the University of South Carolina.
"World War I and World War II seemed a little more righteous in that there was an initial aggression by an enemy that we didn't start," he said. "That would not apply to Vietnam and not to Iraq."
The rate of military suicides is traditionally lower than that in the general population when looking at comparable age groups. And it usually decreases during wartime. A spike in the number in July prompted the military to send a mental health team to Iraq to investigate.
"Once the fighting is over, that's when people have time on their hands in an austere environment and 24-hour access to guns," Pentagon spokeswoman Martha Rudd said. "And they have the time to brood on their problems."
The postwar troops stationed in Iraq have to contend with roadside bombs, mortars launched into their base camps and the plaintive cries of women and children that are sometimes a ruse for an ambush. Although units are starting to be rotated and replaced, the length of deployment is uncertain.
By contrast, there were four days of ground war in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, after which the U.S. coalition declared victory. Two suicides were recorded during that conflict.
Other recent U.S.-led engagements "were more like video games," Maris said. "When you have hands on, face to face, see the dying, see the injured, see the blood, see the suffering, it's a lot more difficult."
Robinson, of the resource center, who is a retired Army ranger and fought in the first Gulf War, said Iraq is without a front line.
"Everybody's the enemy, there are no lines in front of you or behind you and the dangers are everywhere. . . . Every trash pile is your potential death," he said.
"It's a different kind of war."
That kind of stress can lead to low morale. For some, it can lead to full-blown depression and anxiety. And suicide is an overwhelmingly male behavior, by at least 4 to 1.
"A lot of times it's about feeling trapped," said Army Col. Ricky Malone, who recently returned from Iraq, where he was chief of mental health services at the Baghdad military hospital. " 'I've got to get out of here, and if I can't I'd rather be dead.' "
Ben Gonzalez, former emergency room chief of the same hospital, said: "For the comrades left behind, death of a soldier by suicide is much more devastating than enemy fire. The emotional attachment comes back. There's more participation from the unit, their buddies are here, they're standing around, they want updates -- it's a much more emotional level."
Soldiers looking for ways to cope have several options. Military chaplains, assigned to individual units, offer comfort without the label of mental illness. Soldiers in more serious distress might be referred to inpatient psychiatric wards or be sent home. The Army sent 596 soldiers from Iraq to mental health treatment facilities in 2003.
Still, some soldiers don't speak up or don't get noticed.
A Quest for Answers
In Lufkin, population 32,000, the names and faces of local troops serving in Iraq hang in the Lufkin Mall; shoppers pause briefly to look before continuing their stroll. Suell's picture is there. It has also been on the front page of the local paper, which is reporting his death as a suicide.
Mathis, Suell's mother, said she avoids the beauty salon and sometimes skips the Wal-Mart Supercenter, just to get away from the chatter. "No matter how he died or what happened, he still deserves respect and honor," she said. "I just want some honor for my son."
Floyd Slaughter, 74, who owns Lufkin Army Navy, doesn't know what to believe about whether Suell committed suicide.
"What could have happened -- fright? If he did, we don't have any proof except the word of the Army -- and they protect themselves," said Slaughter, who added that he supports a just war but not this one, because no weapons of mass destruction were found.
"If he did, he was scared and saw no way out. The officers should have caught that, pulled that boy out and sent him home."
Suell went against his mother's wishes when he enlisted in 2000. But when he returned from basic training, Mathis said the Army had made a man out of her son.
The family moved to Fort Sill, Okla. Suell went on a yearlong tour to Korea and missed the birth of his younger daughter. His wife called to complain that she was distressed and that Suell was granted a short visit home from his tour.
During the Iraq tour, too, Rebecca Suell pleaded, but she said she wasn't taken seriously. Her husband asked her to talk to his commander and say that his family needed him. She was working at Wal-Mart and attending school. She felt it was too much for one parent. "The commander said, 'We'll do everything that we can to get your husband home, it'll take a while' -- they ignored it," she said. "If he just had some time with his family, he'd still be here."
In his letters, Joseph Suell wrote that Iraq was a shadowy conflict. "Over here you never know what's going to happen next," he wrote to his mother-in-law, Janice Doggett, 41. "So I just keep faith in Jesus and keep my eyes open."
To his widow, those are not the words of a suicidal man. He had no history of mental illness, and even while in Iraq he was making plans. Married at City Hall, he and Rebecca planned a church wedding upon his return.
Maybe he took some pills because he couldn't sleep, Rebecca Suell suggested. Or because he was feeling a little bit stressed. But the intention was not death.
"When he got his teeth pulled he wouldn't even take one pill for the pain," said Rebecca Suell. "Why would he take a bottle?"
At the cemetery, one of two African American burial places in Angelina County, she circled the perimeter of the grave, stopping to straighten a fallen section of the white wooden fence. Nearby, her two children and nieces squealed as they ran around on the red Texas dirt.
Back at her house, Mathis has decorated her home with four yellow ribbons outside and a small shrine to Suell inside. It consists of a crisply folded American flag inside a triangular case with three of Suell's medals. A framed photo of Suell in military uniform stares out into the living room. There are several red and blue candles and two large birthday candles that say "2" and "5." Mathis had a birthday party for Suell in October, when he would have been 25 years old.
His younger brother Michael Shepherd, 23, sat silently on the couch. He speaks very little about his brother's death but wears several dog tags, one specially made. It says:
My Brother.
My Friend.
We Miss You.
RIP.
Suellboy.
"He didn't commit suicide," Shepherd said. "That ain't him."
Mathis has continued her quest for answers in her son's death. The search has taken her to the local office of her U.S. senator, and to a nearby town where she drove around for three hours on a tip that a sergeant who used to know her son was back home on leave. She never found him. She leaves messages for an Army criminal investigator to check up on the case.
Tears crawled down her cheeks at a Sunday morning church service when the minister spoke of having a good year. In her living room, they fell again as she tried to make sense of Suell's death.
"I have no autopsy report, no toxicology report, nothing," she said. The one document that Mathis has from the military is a DD Form 1300, a casualty report that lists the cause and circumstances of the death as "self-inflicted: drug overdose."
"I believe in my heart that he did take some medicine, but it wasn't to kill himself. He probably had a headache," she said.
"I'm not blaming God -- God don't make mistakes. I'm not mad at the war -- Joseph wasn't war material."
Suell told his mother that he hadn't killed anyone, and he hoped he wouldn't have to.
"God looked down on Joseph and said he's not that type of person. God came down and took my son."
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