Posted on 04/17/2004 8:07:40 PM PDT by ODDITHER
Visit Makes World of Difference By Pamela Dickman Reporter-Herald Staff Writer
A retired Colorado State trooper says his stint helping train an Iraqi police force changed his view of the war.
When Loveland resident Jerry Lincoln left for Iraq on March 19, Lincoln said he was neutral about the conflict — inspectors had found no weapons of mass destruction.
After seeing firsthand the lingering terror of Saddam Hussein and realizing the persecution under which Iraqi people had lived, Lincoln said he now views the conflict as more about removing a tyrannical leader and helping people.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the coalition and our country for freeing these people from an ugly and ruthless regime,” Lincoln said.
“I just didn’t realize how important freedom is until I was visiting with these neighborhood children and neighborhood parents.”
He saw fear and pain in Iraqis’ eyes.
Lincoln spoke of one community leader in particular.
The young man said his father died simply for helping those he was charged with leading.
The father, a popular leader, was invited to Saddam Hussein’s home for dinner on June 22, 1998. There, the former dictator shot him in the head, Lincoln said.
“When he said the date his father died, you could see the tears in his eyes well up,” Lincoln said. “You could see the pain in his eyes.
“When people talked about Saddam, you could hear the fear and at the same time how much they despised the man.”
The retired trooper said before his trip he had no clue of the extent of the tyranny Iraqi people had endured for 35 years.
People were killed simply for littering or being too well-liked, he said. They lived in constant fear of death or torture for themselves or their family, according to Lincoln.
“I think he was worse than Hitler,” Lincoln said. “Hitler was the worst of the worst, but I think this guy was worse.”
During his 10 days in Iraq, Lincoln said, he did not see anger or hatred toward American people.
He did see cultural differences and misunderstandings.
“They want to see their government and their people in charge, which I think is great,” Lincoln said. But, he added, “because of safety, they need us there.”
While Lincoln has hope for the future of Iraq, he holds no illusions about the extent of work needed to rebuild the country and about the dangers still there. The country is in chaos, but the people are surviving and discovering realities about other countries that for years were kept from them, Lincoln said.
He witnessed people still too afraid to talk against Saddam or insurgents.
He rode in vehicles with blackened windows so no one could see that Americans were inside.
He ate in a restaurant that everyone left when they saw the Americans, for fear of an attack.
He stayed in a neighborhood just blocks from where mortars were launched. He saw helicopters flying overhead looking for insurgents. He felt the violence.
“It rattled our windows and the walls in the house,” Lincoln said.
He also saw what he described as kind, caring, intelligent people who are devoted to their families and their religion.
Many of those people, Lincoln said, were police officers.
While he heard stories of abusive police officers and a fear of police, most of the officers he met, from the top down, want to change the system and earn the trust of the people, Lincoln said. They want to protect and serve instead of thwart residents, he said.
A high-ranking Iraqi police official told Lincoln about an officer who, while Lincoln was in the country, beat a citizen for stealing another citizen’s gun. The Iraqi official spoke of the importance of changing from street justice to a newly formed court system.
The police official, Lincoln recalled, said: “‘This is the kind of stuff we have to stop. We need to change the attitude of police.’”
He added, “They know if they are going to get respect, they have to respect people.”
Still, the new system is not perfect.
Because of a backlog in cases, someone may sit in a crowded jail, packed elbow to elbow in a cell, for as many as 10 days before ever seeing a judge, Lincoln said.
“In America, if we had that many people packed in a jail cell, there’d be a lawsuit,” Lincoln said.
Lincoln and six other retired or current officers were in Iraq with Police Officers International to train Iraqi officers.
The Americans taught three groups skills including methods to arrest someone without causing injury, how to prevent someone from stealing police weapons and how to disarm a suspect.
They gave Iraqi police, who are lacking in equipment, gifts of handcuffs, flashlights and batons.
The nongovernment organization plans to send more officers in hopes of training Iraqi police so they, in turn, can train their own officers, according to Lincoln.
After visiting with the Iraqi people and seeing their hardships, Lincoln said he sees success beyond the hard work.
“Once insurgent things are handled and peace comes over all of Iraq, I think it’s going to sweep through the country like a firestorm,” Lincoln said.
“People are going to realize, one, they are free, and two, they are safe.”
He added, “My heart is so heavy for the Iraqis to succeed.
“I pray for them daily, basically that they will be protected and they will succeed, especially the police officers, that they will be respected and people can forget the tyranny of Saddam and realize that it is over.”
Maybe we should send old F.N. Kerry over there to do some community service. His sweet little "I hate America wife" could go with him.
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