Dempsey: aiming to make Iraq safe and secure

Major General Martin E. Dempsey, a West Point graduate, earned a master's in English at Duke in 1984. As the commander of the U.S. Army division based in Baghdad for a year beginning in July 2003, he had responsibilities that included stabilizing the city and training Iraqi forces. In an interview, he reflects on that experience--and on Iraq's future.

What were your responsibilities in Iraq?

I left Saudi Arabia after a two-year tour working on security assistance with the Saudi Arabian National Guard and took command of Task Force 1st Armored Division. The task force has approximately 39,000 soldiers, who were a mixture of active, reserve, and National Guard--about 80 percent active and 20 percent reserve. We were tasked with establishing a safe and secure environment in Baghdad. In a very real way, we returned the city to life. Most essential services had been disrupted and many destroyed by the period of instability and lawlessness between April and June 2003. My responsibilities included U.S. military operations, the re-establishment of indigenous Iraqi Security Forces, the restoration of basic services to the Iraqi people (trash, sewage [treatment], electricity, water), and the establishment of local neighborhood and district councils to encourage a "bottom up" understanding of representative government.

Do you think that our tactics, particularly early in the campaign, contributed to the insurgency?

We were always alert to that risk, but I don't think so. The early days in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq were days of lawlessness and corruption. Faced with little credible intelligence and with the clear need to establish some measure of security, we acted in ways that have since been described as "imprecise" and "heavy-handed." That description is unfair and, interestingly, that characterization of our early actions is only prevalent outside Iraq. Within Iraq, the people eager for security are more likely to criticize us for being too tentative in our actions in dealing with the lawlessness. Moreover, the insurgency grew from among that part of the population that benefited most from the rule of Sadaam Hussein. They were predisposed to be dissatisfied with any political outcome that didn't leave them in a privileged position. That said, we did work throughout the year to become increasingly more precise in our military operations to avoid alienating parts of the population. In such a complex environment, this was no small task.

Will we accomplish our goals in Iraq?

There is a definite sense of national pride among the Iraqi people, but not always a sense of national unity or what it may take to achieve national unity. The Iraqi people are educated and industrious. They have oil, agriculture, and water. They have a rich history and culture. They are diverse. Their religious leaders are, for the most part, moderate. Of course, this potential will not be achieved overnight. It's been very carefully controlled for the past thirty-five years. In my view, Iraq has the potential to be a force for moderate government and religious tolerance in a region of the world where there is little of either. Having lived there for three years, I believe the region would be better for that outcome. I also believe that America would be safer for that outcome. When I arrived in Baghdad, there were perhaps 500 satellite television dishes in a city of about six million. Only the privileged and elite had access to information. When I departed Baghdad, there were at least 1.5 million satellite dishes in the city; everyone had equal access to information. Over time, these kinds of changes will make a difference.

When you were in Iraq, did you find yourself recalling the difficult history of occupation there?

I did. When I learned I would be going to Iraq, I studied that period of their history closely. Many Iraqis discuss it as though it were yesterday. It's one of the reasons that sustaining their trust and confidence is so important. We've done that very well in parts of Iraq and struggled with it in other parts.

Did anything at Duke prepare you for your efforts in Iraq?

During one of my semesters at Duke, I studied the works of a late-nineteenth-century journalist and cartoonist named Finley Peter Dunne. In one of his cartoons, he describes history as the study of how people die and literature as the study of how people live. I'm probably not going to make many friends in Duke's outstanding history department by recounting that particular memory, but I do feel that my two years at Duke studying literature--and a good bit of art history--refined my ability to think about what connects us as people. I also think I became a more confident writer and public speaker, and I have had many opportunities to think about and discuss the military profession among my peers who knew very little about it.

--Robert J. Bliwise