“Rules of engagement: A life in conflict” by Tim Collins. 2005
Tim Collins, an ex-general in the British army made his name on the eve of the Iraq war. He addressed his assembled regiment, the royal Irish, about what was about to happen. The troops knew that the war on which they were about to embark was a highly controversial one. At the time the media frenzy and dodgy intelligence had also installed in all of them a great fear, and indeed expectation, of imminent chemical or biological reprisal attacks as they crossed the border. Collin’s compassionate and insightful words were designed to reassure his men. Purely by chance they were recorded by an embedded female Daily Mail journalist and from her they were distributed around the world. In comparison to the gross displays put on by some of the American commanders (one of who came out to sounds of MC hammer and instructed his armoured division that it really was hammer time) Tim Collins’ words struck a note around the world about as he reflected on the absurd necessity of conflict, and of the honour and respect due between men caught on opposing sides of political lines.Cont...
posted by Benjamin Nakizo at 4:25 AM
1 Comments:
His book is a very good one indeed. From Northern Ireland, the fire fighters strike to Iraq the book follows the later half of his career. What immediately struck me was how vicious Northern Ireland could be. I'm from a generation, which caught only the very tail end of the fighting, and has little idea about what really happened. Only fifteen years ago British troops drove down British streets, being confronted by angry mobs that surrounded them and tried to roll their vehicles over. IEDs on British roadsides, snipers on rooftops, the assassination of off duty policeman and busses set alight and driven at top speed toward lines of British soldiers. It frightened me that somewhere so close to home, and so recently, could be have been so totally hostile
It was therefore a worry when the Royal Irish were playing the role of fire-fighters in Nottingham to hear him compare some parts of that English city to Northern Ireland. Here he said the violence was being fuelled by drug money rather than religion. A truly worrying comparison.
When it comes to his time in Iraq he has some interesting things to report. It has been a while since I read this book and I'm pushed for time so ill just note down what I remember in bullet point form, and in no particular order.
1. Complaints from Iraqi locals that their boys had witnessed British female soldiers washing their hair in public. Followed by the slightly more serious complaint that British troops looking to give something to the begging local children handed them battered copies of 'Zoo' and 'Nuts' magazine. Conservative Islamic societies aren't quite ready for these publications yet and it caused uproar when the parents found out.
2. The sheer scale of the looting. Since all government agencies including education and health were very much in the grip of the Baathist party (with party membership being a prerequisite for most government jobs) the liberated people of Iraq could not distinguish between public services vital to their future and symbols of Saddam’s regime.
3. The immediate presence of Iranian support for militia factions.
4. He also spoke widely of the missed golden opportunity the CF had when it came to running Iraq. As soon as the Baathists had fled and the CF entered there was about a week of grace when the Iraqis looked to America and its allies for leadership. When all that was forthcoming were vague promises of committees and constitutional advisory boards the Iraqi people took it upon themselves to fill the power vacuum, with devastating consequence. A more united and resolute message from the CF in the early days could have led to a very different outcome.
5. After establishing his men in the town he had been entrusted with securing he set about establishing security. First on the agenda was to collect in as many weapons as possible. Weapons were everywhere after the fall of the Iraqi army. The CF had not made provisions for securing all the arms depots littered around the country since they were not expecting the Iraqi army to dissolve so quickly. They had it in their mind that the 'Republican Guard' were going to make things tricky. Unguarded depots made tempting targets for looters where they could help themselves to expensive equipment such as heat seeking missiles and heavy machines guns, which if nothing else would fetch a good price across the boarder in Iran. However. The British troops immediately began upsetting the locals by storming into homes to search for weapons. They would only act after a tip off from other locals and usually they were correct and many weapons were recovered. Yet the Iraqis would hide their kit under their beds. The sight of foreign soldiers entering women’s bedrooms and looking through their underwear draws in search of RPGs caused outrage. All the talk of the town the next morning was not 'what were the Jones’s planning to do with a £500,000 stinger missile' but more 'how dare these Christian men insult us by entering our women’s bedrooms'. As you can see it was very easy for cultural differences to cause problems.
6. Once settled in the town Tim Collins was visited by a succession of elders, all of whom claimed legitimate authority and demanded he give them control of the province. With so many pretenders to the throne it is little wonder Iraq so quickly descended into civil war.
6. Tim Collins was embroiled in a rather nasty court martial concerning war crimes. At the centre of the case were the accusations of an American captain who claimed he saw Tim Collins beating civilians. Instead what really happened was this: Collins had just diffused a rather sensitive situation between families of former Baathists and families of those looking to take some revenge. On their way back from the meeting the Iraqis had the misfortune of running into a captain from the American Army Reserves. In civilian life he was a policeman in NY but had earned himself a rather suspect report card, with superiors noting he had a bad attitude and an enormous ego. Thinking he had missed all the fun and wanting to impress his men he saw this large group of Iraqi males as a threat and had his men push them to ground and put rifles to their backs. Upon hearing the commotion Collins ran down the road and - as you can imagine - the Irish general went totally mad, yelling at the American captain who in turned refused to recognise the British generals authority. Tim Collins may have lost it a little at this point and told the captain to be outside his office asap - or else. The American captain swaggered over to meet Collins in his office. After some VERY stern words the American left - in tears. Embarrassed in front of his men the captain began concocting a plan to get his own back - and fabricated war crime accusations. This is something he eventually admitted to. An astonishing story to say the least which at the time put the British press in a frenzy and made Tim Collins life hell.
And that's about all I can remember. Sorry its not very well structured or written, but hopefully it has got a few points across.
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