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KUWAITI DESERT – Monday afternoon I ate a hamentaschen on the hood of a humvee in the Kuwaiti

 

desert, 40 km. south of Iraq with US Army 1st Sergeant Michael Mansfield. I

 

lit a zippo lighter for a candle and we said the blessings.

 

We clinked hamentaschen for l'haim. In lieu of the megilla reading, I told his driver

 

an abbreviated version of the Purim story. The hamentaschen were courtesy of

 

the sergeant's uncle Norman in Florida. The rest of the experience was

 

compliments of the US army.

 

This is by far the most bizarre holiday celebration I have ever had, but

 

Sgt. Mansfield, a 39-year-old Brooklyn native who has been in the US army

 

for 18 years, has experiences that far outpace our humvee Purim picnic.

In the first Gulf War he was a squad leader with the same battalion he is

 

presently attached to – the 2-7 mechanized infantry battalion of the 3rd

 

Army Infantry Division's 1st Brigade.

 

'Being a Jew in the army means knowing how to compromise. But back in 1991,

 

when I was in Saudi Arabia, I insisted on being allowed to celebrate Hanukka

 

with other Jews.

 

'They flew me to this camp in the middle of nowhere in the desert; out there

 

they had this tent set up and inside the tent was a rabbi and five other

 

Jews. We said some prayers and lit the menora. The rabbi sang and pulled out

 

the Manischewitz wine. I don't know how he got that wine into Saudia. That

 

was by far the most memorable Hanukka of my life.'

 

As far as postings go today, the 2-7 Battalion is a pretty good place for

 

Jews. The commander, Lt.-Col. Scott Rutter, is Jewish.

 

Rutter cuts an interesting figure. The 40-year-old, 1.8 m. commander with

 

bright blue eyes and salt and pepper hair is the only Jewish combat

 

battalion commander in the US army and one of the only Jewish commanders at

 

any level. Rutter is also the only battalion commander in the 3rd infantry

 

division who fought as a company commander in the Gulf War.

 

Rutter, an only child, grew up in Philadelphia. He finished college at the

 

age of 20 and joined the army. In June he is set to round out his 20 years

 

of service and to the great consternation of his superiors, is determined to

 

leave 'at my peak,' and become a civilian.

 

Today he, his wife Joline, and their sons Seth and Luke live in Manhattan

 

and are members of the Lincoln Square Orthodox synagogue.

 

He is proud of his background and his heritage and is open to sharing it,

 

especially with a writer from Jerusalem. His mother's family came to America

 

from Germany before the US Revolution in 1776 and they have maintained their

 

Judaism throughout the centuries.

 

But today, the story for Rutter is not about his Judaism. It is about his

 

battalion and the war that he and his 730 soldiers and officers are about to

 

fight.

 

I ARRIVED at Rutter's battalion on March 11, about 10 days after they left

 

the cultivated Camp New Jersey and moved to the outback closer to the

 

border. Conditions for the battalion are harsh. In their desert camping

 

ground, they have much sunlight during the day, much darkness during the

 

night and very little else. They have no running water and receive

 

electricity from generators. They live off combat rations and food trucks

 

that come from the brigade command some 10 km. away.

 

The troops have all learned one word in Arabic since arriving in this spot –

 

shamal – which means sandstorm. I experienced my first shamal on Wednesday

 

night. In this type of storm, once the sand starts moving, there is no

 

stopping it. Day and night visibility can be limited to less than 20 cm.

Wednesday night I could barely make out my hand in front of my face.

 

Unlike the Negev or the Judean Desert, the Kuwaiti desert is perfectly flat.

 

Any hills are the result of either Kuwaiti mining or oil drilling

 

explorations or US military maneuvers. There are no natural obstacles to

 

hide a person from the wind or to slow it down.

 

And yet there are no complaints. As Lt.-Col. Rutter says, 'Our forces are

 

much happier here than they were in Camp New Jersey. It's true that there

 

they had showers and regular toilets. They even had Internet access. But now

 

that we are here they know that the battle is approaching. And they know

 

that the way home goes through the north.'

 

The topography of the desert is one of the reasons that the US forces here

 

foresee little resistance for their troops in their initial push into

 

Baghdad. Commander of 1st Brigade, Col. William Grimsley explains, 'It is

 

hard to defend in this terrain. If a side in hostilities believes that it is

 

best to place troops in a location where their presence will reinforce

 

naturally defended terrain then this would not be the place to deploy them.'

 

The US military leadership in Kuwait is exceptionally confident about its

 

ability to complete the march from Kuwait to Baghdad within four to five

 

days. A mechanized infantry battalion like the 2-7 can move an average of

 

20- 30 km. per hour and at that rate Baghdad, at 450 km. from the border is

 

just about four days away.

 

Rutter's battalion today is an almost wholly autonomous offensive strike

 

force. The 2-7 mechanized infantry battalion, (nicknamed the Cottonbailers),

 

includes a heavy mechanized infantry company equipped with 10 Bradley

 

fighting vehicles and 4 M1A1 Abrams battle tanks, a fully mechanized company

 

with 14 M1A1s, and a third company with 10 M1A1s and four Bradleys. The

 

Bradleys have a 25 mm. cannon, two TOW missile launchers and a 7.62 machine

 

gun. They are heavily armored and can dismount eight troops. In addition,

 

the battalion has an engineering company, a mortar company, a scouts company

 

and an air defense artillery platoon armed with stinger missiles launched

 

from their Bradleys instead of the TOWs.

 

For the purpose of the invasion, the 2-7 battalion will also be carrying two

 

Patriot missile batteries. The battalion will receive heavy artillery

 

support from the brigade's battalion of Palladin howitzers. The Palladin

 

cannons have a 33-km. range and their payload includes laser-guided heavy

 

explosive charges. The 2-7 battalion's indigenous mortar range is limited to

 

7.2 km.

 

In addition to its fighting forces, Rutter's 2-7 battalion has a civil

 

affairs team of reservists who were called up for 365 days as well as a

 

psychological warfare team of active duty soldiers. Both of these attached

 

assets are part of the Special Operations Command from Fort Bragg. The task

 

of these forces during the fighting stage will be to keep civilians away

 

from the battle and to instruct Iraqi forces how to surrender.

 

Captain Bill Thompson, the head of the civil affairs team, teaches photo

 

journalism at a junior college back home in South Carolina. The soft-spoken

 

38-year-old is to lead the civil affairs team in setting up displaced

 

persons camps, POW camps and, in later stages of the war, identifying Iraqis

 

who will cooperate with the US in regime change as well as in coordinating

 

the work of NGOs in rehabilitating the country.

 

Thompson recalls the success of the US psychological operations in the Gulf

 

War.

 

'We had Iraqi soldiers surrendering to us with our leaflets in their hands.

 

If we hadn't come they would have died. They had no water and all the food

 

they had left were these inedible black oranges.

 

'Our leaflets had pictures of food on them. They came with their hands up

 

with their fingers pointing to the food pictures. They ate our entire

 

rations, including the powder for the coffee creamer and the Tabasco sauce –

 

the
y were so hungry. On the leaflets there was a picture of a banana and the

 

prisoners kept pointing to the picture. We figured out that in Iraq bananas

 

were a delicacy so we flew in a planeload on a C-130 (Hercules) and gave

 

them to the Iraqis.'

 

WHILE THE attack plan is complete, it is far from clear how Iraq will be

 

stabilized after the fall of Saddam's regime. Third- Infantry Division

 

commander Maj.- Gen. Buford Blount believes that his division will remain in

 

Iraq through the initial stabilization stage after the hostilities die down.

 

'Our mission here is to set conditions for a new regime and to locate and

 

seize all weapons of mass destruction,' Blount, a 1.9 m. model of an

 

American general says. 'All of this is necessary to prepare the country for

 

a new regime.'

 

It appears that the Pentagon planners believe that after the initial push to

 

Baghdad it will take some time to put together a new Iraqi government. First

 

there is the problem of northern Iraq. In the absence of Turkish bases, US

 

forces will have to move from south to north and it will take time to arrive

 

in Kurdistan.

 

Second, there is the problem of civil affairs. While there are 100,000

 

ground forces in Kuwait and heading for Iraq, there are only 180 civil

 

affairs troops. These men, all reservists, will be responsible for going

 

from village to village and making the determination of whether or not the

 

local leaders should stay in power. Of the 180, only 30 speak Arabic. No

 

doubt it will take months for the US to train and deploy a sufficient force

 

to operate a civil administration for the Iraqis. In the meantime, they seem

 

to be operating under the impression that NGOs will volunteer happily to

 

work with the US military government in rebuilding infrastructure and

 

providing for the basic humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people.

 

One Civil Affairs soldier, 36-year-old St.-Sgt. Yancey Christopher explains,

 

'We want to avoid a Balkan situation where the country fell apart after Tito

 

left power. Hopefully we can bring democracy to Iraq but I don't know how

 

that can happen. As Civil Affairs soldiers we don't do rebuilding work

 

ourselves. We farm it out to NGOs. We have a bird's eye view of the country

 

and we coordinate the activities of others.

 

'The problem is that many of the NGO's look at us as aggressors. We

 

understand that after September 11, the world changed for us. They may look

 

at the Americans as colonizers. I know that this is not the case. I hope

 

they will understand that this is not our objective. But today, instead of

 

being reactive, and waiting to be attacked we need to be proactive and take

 

care of these guys before they can attack us.'

 

As for the attacking forces, they are ready and their motivation is high.

Captain Matt Paul from New Jersey, who commands the mortar company has a

 

picture of the World Trade Center in his command car. For Paul and his men

 

the mission is clear. They have American flags flying on the backs of all of

 

their vehicles.

 

The US troops, whose average age is 22-23, are sophisticated in their

 

analysis of the need for the war and the morality of the battle, if perhaps

 

a bit innocent about the likelihood that the Iraqis will view them in the

 

same light as they view themselves.

 

Paul says, 'I can think of no battle more moral than the one that we

 

approach. Saddam has caused mayhem and will continue to do so, both against

 

the US and our allies, as well as against his own people. To me, it would be

 

unacceptable not to go in and take him down. Were we to stand down, I know

 

that we would be back here in a few years to do this. But in the meantime,

 

we must ask how much damage will Saddam have caused?'

 

Twenty-four-year-old Bradley gunner Jason Trombley from Vermont makes the

 

case even more bluntly.

 

'This man Saddam tortures women and children in front of their husbands and

 

fathers. I know what has to happen to a person like that. And we are going

 

to take care of it.'

 

The US forces come from all over the US, from all social classes, races and

 

regional affiliations. While the US itself has over the past decade or so

 

upheld diversity rather than unity as the pinnacle of its social pluralism,

 

the army is a study in melting-pot socialization.

 

In one of Paul's mortar carriers sits a crew from South Carolina,

 

California, Russia and Ohio.

 

'We all work together,' says the commander, a 34-year- old sergeant from

 

Georgia. 'Sure there are lots of differences between us but we find things

 

in common. We talk about sports or movies or work. We don't run out of

 

things to say.'

 

The troops seem to believe, like their commanders, that because they have

 

nothing against the Iraqi people, the Iraqi people will have nothing against

 

them once they enter the country as liberators. When I mentioned the word

 

'conquest' to the deputy battalion commander Maj. Kevin Cooney, the husky

 

native of Arkansas with a smile forever on his face, looked surprised.

 

'I have never thought of us as conquerors. We are going in to liberate the

 

Iraqis from a terrible dictator and set up a new government that will treat

 

them with respect. I guess we are going to conquer their country but we

 

don't want anything from them. We just need to safeguard the security of our

 

country and help them.'

 

Specialist Bobby Roberts from West Virginia, who joined the army at 25 and

 

divides his time fairly equally between driving Rutter's humvee and writing

 

poetry expressed the same sentiment.

 

'It will be clear to the Iraqis that we mean them no harm. We'll be helping

 

them. They'll understand that.'

 

IN AN address before the 1st Brigade's battalion and company commanders on

 

Tuesday morning, Lt. Gen. William Wallace, who commands the army's V Corps

 

in charge of all army forces in the theater, told the men that he is not

 

concerned about the ability of the forces and indicated perhaps the root

 

cause of the army's sense that the Iraqis will accept them.

 

'You are all a hell of a lot better than the force needed to get this done

 

quickly, decisively and on our terms.'

 

The US forces believe that terrorism is likely to be used against their

 

forces but do not believe that it will be used to much effect. Col. Grimsley

 

explains, 'Terror won't stop us.'

 

The terror attack that most concerns the forces is the prospect of a bombing

 

of the fuel tankers that will resupply the armored columns.

 

'A car bomb or a human bomb is more effective against a fueler than against

 

a Bradley or an M1A1. But in the event that a 5,000 gallon tanker is blown

 

up, while it will be a terrible tragedy, it won't stop me from moving

 

forward.'

 

Due to fear of terror attacks against the support lines, the US has

 

collapsed the distance between its front and its rear. Maj.-Gen. Blount

 

explains that all the convoys 'will be armed and protected.'

 

The coming battle will be significantly different from Desert Storm not just

 

in its ends but in its means as well. If the air war in Desert Storm

 

continued for 30 days before the introduction of ground troops, the coming

 

war will introduce ground forces at an early stage. As one high level source

 

explains, 'It will be a matter of hours or at most a couple of days between

 

the beginning of the air campaign and the ground campaign.'

 

At the battalion level the men can be packed and ready to go within four

 

hours. By Tuesday the
camp was already being broken in preparation for the

 

advance northwards. The actual movement to the edge of the border is set for

 

Wednesday morning and the breach is presumably to begin early Thursday

 

morning – at the end of President George W. Bush's 48-hour deadline.

 

The troops are infused with a sense of the justice of their cause. Fire

 

support officer, Capt. Jason Happe from West Virginia found a chapter from

 

the Bible that expresses their feelings, and the purpose of their mission

 

best for himself and his men. He read from the Book of Joel, chapter 2, to

 

his troops as the move toward battle became palpable.

 

'Behold the trumpet of Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who

 

live in the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at

 

hand.

 

'A day of darkness of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness.

'Like dawn spreading across the mountains, a large and mighty army comes

 

such as never was of old nor ever will be in the ages to come.

 

'Before them fire devours, behind them a flame blazes. Before them the land

 

is like the garden of Eden, behind them a desert waste – nothing escapes

 

them…

 

'The Lord thunders at the head of his army; his forces are mighty beyond

 

number, and mighty are those who obey his command. The day of the Lord is

 

great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?'