Second try (bad link first time)
Macleans interview with BGen Natynczyk
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/index.jsp
March 8, 2004
'This Is a Dangerous Theatre'
BRIG.-GEN. WALTER NATYNCZYK: a senior Canadian soldier, seconded to the U.S.
army, discusses serving in Iraq
OTTAWA'S decision not to join George W. Bush's coalition of the willing in
the U.S.-led war in Iraq last March has led to frayed relations with
Washington. That's despite Canada's contribution to the war on terror: the
2,000 troops in Afghanistan, the largest contingent of the 5,000-strong,
NATO-led International Security Assistance Force based in Kabul. And, as it
turns out, Canadians have served in Iraq -- while on exchange programs with
American and British forces. That's currently the case with Brig.-Gen.
Walter Natynczyk, a 28-year veteran of the armed forces who is the most
senior of the dozens of Canadians deployed in Iraq to date. Since July 2002,
Natynczyk, accompanied by his wife and one of his three children, had been
seconded to the U.S. army's III Corps in Fort Hood, Texas. (The couple's
other two kids are attending school in Canada.) While in Texas, the Winnipeg
native, an armour expert whose regiment is the Royal Canadian Dragoons,
served as deputy commander. When III Corps began shipping out to Iraq in
January, Natynczyk, 46, was part of the troop rotation. He is now based in
one of Saddam Hussein's former presidential palaces in Baghdad, where he is
the coalition's deputy chief of policy, strategy and planning, helping
direct the movements of U.S., British and Australian troops. Natynczyk spoke
with Maclean's correspondent Scott Taylor in Baghdad about the U.S. army,
the conflict in Iraq and the role he is playing.
One of your duties as deputy commander of III Corps was training.
Pre-deployment, how much time was spent on the lessons learned on the ground
here?
Quite a lot. It was a really novel approach where the senior leaders flew to
Jordan to the Jordanian Peace-keeping Institute, kind of akin to the Pearson
centre in Nova Scotia. We participated in cultural awareness and stability
operations lessons.
The newly arrived soldiers have watched the news and know that Americans are
not being greeted as liberators. Mentally, how do you train them coming in
here?
I think that the American soldier is really well trained. Their ability to
turn over lessons learned from Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo and other
theatres and put them into their techniques and procedures is very
impressive. I'm also impressed to see the number of people who have combat
patches, so they are ready for the low-intensity fight, they are ready for
the high-intensity fight. The American army has also gone to the U.K. army
to learn as many lessons as possible from them. There's a lot of sharing of
all kinds of experiences.
The problem is that this is an unconventional war being fought by
conventional fighters. I applaud the leadership for trying to give these
young soldiers as much depth and breadth of experience as they have.
The U.S. is consolidating a number of bases in Baghdad, reducing the
footprint of the American military. Is that for military or political
reasons?
All I can say is that it's really important that we grow the Iraqi security
forces, whether they are police, civil defence or the new Iraqi army. We've
gone through a lot of training with these people, but at some point you've
got to back away. In the end, the issue is handing sovereignty back to the
Iraqis and allowing those maturing security forces to take the helm.
But without the body armour, the heavy weapons, they're considered soft
targets.
This is a dangerous theatre, there's no doubt about that.
When it was announced in November that you would be here, opposition parties
in Ottawa objected, questioning how Canada could oppose the war yet deploy a
senior officer. How do you feel about that?
I take orders from the Canadian government. The Canadian government sent me
to Fort Hood, bottom line, to show in a tangible way the close affiliation
between the U.S. and Canada. The Canadian government approved my deployment,
so from my perspective there was no controversy. The instructions to me were
clear: "move out" -- and as a soldier I complied.
Still, you have to operate under something of a dual command. Does that make
it difficult to function here?
I answer to the [Canadian] deputy chief of defence staff and through him to
the chief of defence staff. Whether I'm here or in Bosnia, Afghanistan or
wherever, he maintains full national command of me. In this environment, I'm
under the operational control of the III Corps commander. At the end of the
day, there's a hierarchy of command. But I've been given pretty clear
guidance to soldier on.
Personally, do you feel the intervention was justified?
That's way above my pay scale to speculate. But I am incredibly impressed by
this country and its potential for the future. What I can say is that I
believe we're making a contribution. There's a heck of a lot of people who
will have a better life and a better future because of what we're doing here
today.
Thomas Skelding