Rahim's Battle

My longest story yet. I hope someone reads it. *is desert storm **is operation desert fox. launched by Clinton cause Saddam kept defying no fly zones

A-10 "Warthog." Designed to attack and destroy enemy armor. A-10's
carried a variety weapons. Most notably a 30mm revolving cannon
mounted under it's nose that fired at a rate of 3900 rounds a minute.
When fired an A-10's cannon sounded like sheets of metal being ripped
in half. Hajji called A-10'S "Wahs" or monster in English.


Bradley fighting vehicle equipped with a 25mm chain gun and a
TOW missile system.

US Army utility truck.

Humvee

Rahim was looking through his binoculars down onto the road that ran parallel to the sloped, rocky bluff he and his men were positioned behind. His two diggers were scrambling their way back up the bluff as the sun rose a pale yellow in the morning desert sky. The diggers reached the top of the bluff and ran up to Rahim and saluted. They were mere boys no older than thirteen. Rahim looked down at the lads:
"Are the bombs planted in the right positions with their detonators set?" He asked the boys.
"Yes Sir!" the one boy replied.
"Good work lads." Rahim said. "You've done your regiment proud."
Rahim patted the boys on their shoulders and beamed a big, approving smile through his thick black beard. The boys smiled back at him. Their youthful exuberance warmed Rahim's heart and broke it at the same time. Such beautiful boys he knew would likely soon be dead. He had two sons and a daughter of his own and had a strong urge to tell these two lads to go home and wait until they were men to fight the Jihad. A combat regiment was no place for children. The boys scampered away laughing. Rahim shrugged off his fatherly feelings and turned his focus to the task at hand. His regiment, such as it was, fifty six men in all. A rag tag team of men and boys from from a half a dozen jihadi groups. Iraqis, Saudis, Jordanian's, Sunnis, Shea. Most were good men but their were some bad elements. The worst was a gang of thugs from Syria that claimed ties to Al-Qaeda. They're were rumors circulating among the men that the Syrians were financing their Jihad through kidnapping, extortion, paid assassinations and robbery. There was no doubt in Rahim's mind the Syrians were bad men but he needed all the fighters he could get. Iraq needed all the fighters it could get.
     Before the American invasion Rahim had been an officer in the Republican guard. His family was Sunni with ties to the Baath party and Rahim had been ferociously loyal to Saddam Hussein. He fought the Americans in 1990 in the mother of all battles.* He had narrowly escaped death by American air power when an A-10 attacked his unit as they fled Kuwait over the Saddam highway. He fought the Traitors of Iraq in the Kurdish uprising that followed the American withdraw. During the unprovoked attack by the Americans in 1998** with their cruise missiles and stealth bombers Rahim's base was badly damaged and several of his comrades were killed. Rahim vowed revenge on the Aggressors but he was growing weary of war and death. In his heart he knew the Americans would come for Saddam one day and Iraq would be destroyed if she resisted. When the Infidels invaded again in 2003 like many members of the Iraqi military Rahim took off his uniform, donned civilian cloths and sat the fighting out. Rahim was no coward but he was a practical man. He knew Iraq was no match for the American war machine. At first Rahim was skeptical of the Americans. They did nothing to prevent the chaos and looting that followed in the wake of their invasion and they were quick to use excessive force over the tiniest infractions. After a few months and some good will by the Americans Rahim had a change of heart. He thought that perhaps the Americans could help restore Iraq to her former glory. Everyone knew about Saddam's notorious brutality against his own people, particularly the Shea and Kurds. As a Sunni Rahim feared reprisals on his people from the Shea majority. He hoped the Americans would prevent this from happening and for a time believed what the Americans were saying about free elections, security and peace in his country. Then Rahim was detained in a sweep of his home town of Ramadi by the Americans and was sent to Abu-Ghraib prison. He sat in a grossly overcrowded cell for six weeks and witnessed the American guards taking pleasure in terrorizing and humiliating the prisoners. One night Rahim was blind folded and made to lay naked in a pile of other men while the guards walked vicious dogs around them. Rahim could hear the dogs barking and snarling while the guards laughed. The guards kicked the pile of men while the dogs nipped at them. When it was over Rahim was thrown back into his overcrowded cell naked and had to wait days to get his cloths back. It was the most humiliating experience of his life and when he was released from Abu-Ghraib Rahim was radicalized and vowed revenge on his oppressors. He hooked up the Al-Qa-Cerra brigade and as a former officer in the Republican Guard he was given a leadership role in organizing and executing ambushes. He was now on his Biggest assignment yet. Ambush an Army supply column that was set to pass by his position within the hour. His commander assured him the intelligence was good and the Infidel's blood would run through the streets. Rahim was excited but wary. He knew all to well how overwhelming American firepower could be.
     The sun was rising high into the sky and the temperature was soaring. Flies were buzzing around everyone's heads as scorpions came out of the rocks spooked by all the commotion. Some of the men smashed the scorpions with their rifle butts while others tried their luck with picking the scorpions up and throwing them at each other. Rahim shook his head in disgust. He remembered his days in the Republican guard where honor and discipline was the rule. Now he was leading a pack of childish hooligans into battle. He prayed they wouldn't all get themselves killed. He ignored his men's antics and called his lookout on his cellphone.
"Uday. This is Rahim. Do you see anything yet?"
"No sir. Nothing yet." Uday replied.
"Are your detonators ready?" Rahim asked.
"Yes sir. They're ready." Uday replied.
"Good Uday. Rahim said. "Remember your training Uday. Look for big trucks and tankers. Don't fire the detonator until a tanker is over the first bomb. The wreck and fire will slow the rest of the convoy down and our mortor men and RPG crews will have a better shot at the convoy. Do you understand your orders Uday?"
"Yes sir. I understand." Uday said.
"I hope so Uday. Rahim said. "You have the most important job in this attack. You have to get it right.
"Yes sir. I understand." Uday said.
Rahim said out and flipped his phone shut. Uday was as dumb as a mule and prone to excitement. Rahim hoped Uday's training, the hours of looking at different shapes of vehicles, of observing convoys, of learning to identify different weapons, of working with explosives, detonators and timing would pay off and Uday would blow the right truck. All Rahim could do know was pray. Rahim's phone rang. He answered and said:
"This is Rahim."
Uday's excited voice was on the other end.
"Sir! They're here! I see the convoy!"
"Tell me what you see Uday." Rahim said in a calming tone. "Do you see any big trucks or tankers?"
Uday gave his report:
 I see four Humvees with weapons mounted on their roofs. Looks like .50 caliber machine guns and Grenade launchers. Two Bradley fighting vehicles with big chain guns and what looks like missile launchers. More trucks are coming. Two three axle utility trucks and two more Humvees. I don't see any tankers. The first Humvees are almost over the first bomb sir. What do you want me to do?"
Rahim peered over the road with his binoculars. He could see the four Humvees and the two Bradleys. This wasn't a supply column. It was mobile combat infantry and from the looks of the vehicles it was the Marines. This wasn't the mission Rahim was sent to accomplish. Blowing supply columns was one thing but attacking Marines. He knew they wouldn't run the kill zone the way a thinly guarded supply column would. They would take up defensive positions and fight and what was worse they had heavy weapons. Rahim's casualties would be many if he tangled with this column. Before he could make a decision as to what to do his men opened up on the column. With automatic weapons fire and RPG's screaming down on the Marines they quickly took up defensive positions and started pounding the bluff with their .50 calibers and grenade launchers. Rahim had no choice now but to attack. With .50 caliber rounds whizzing past his head and grenades exploding everywhere he yelled into his phone for Uday to fire the first detonator. A Humvee went up in a deafening explosion. Rahim's men cheered "God is Great" and waved their weapons in the air. Marines frantically ran to the burning Humvee to save their wounded comrades. A Bradley fighting vehicle fired a TOW missile at Rahim's position. The missile found it's mark and tore a gaping hole through the bluff. Men were thrown into the air and hit the ground in grotesque heaps of mangled flesh and blood. The screams and cries of the wounded mixed with the roar of automatic weapons fire. The horrific symphony of war. Rahim's line started to waver when the Bradley's big chain guns started ripping apart the bluff. Men ran from one position to the next to get away from the chain gun's vicious pounding. Rahim's mortar men were raining rounds down onto the Marines as his RPG crews and machine gunners fired their weapons. A mortar round found it's mark on top of one of the big trucks. The truck went up in a blaze of fire and metal. Another missile was fired into the bluff and another massive hole was blown open. More of Rahim's men were killed and wounded.
    The battle had been raging for a good thirty minutes. Despite the pounding the Marines were giving them and the two missile strikes Rahim managed to reform his line and his men were holding it as well as the Marines were holding their position. He knew the Marines could call in an air strike on his position which would be a catastrophe. He had to do something quick.
   Rahim was considering a withdraw when above the roar of battle he heard a deafening, shrieking scream fly over his head. When he looked up his heart leaped into his mouth. A-10's. Two of them. His chest was gripped with terror as he watched the two planes bank right and come around to strafe his position. Men dropped their weapons and ran at the site of the aircraft but in their panic they ran into the open.
Rahim screamed for them to take cover but it was to late. The revolving cannons on the A-10's opened up on Rahim's men with a sound like giants ripping sheet metal in the sky. Earth, flesh, men and bones, flew everywhere as the huge 30mm rounds ripped Rahim's position to pieces. Rahim threw himself against the rocky bluff as if trying to become one with it. The two A-10s screamed over head and banked left for another pass. Rahim watched in horror as the two planes seemed to come right at him. One of them fired two rockets that found their mark not twenty meters from where Rahim was taking cover. There was a ground shaking explosion and fireball as more 30mm rounds tore into the defenseless men. Then the A-10's disappeared into the sky leaving a twisted heap of bloody carnage in their wake. The battle was effectively over. What was left of Rahim's men ran away in complete disarray and as for Rahim, he was incinerated by the rocket attack. Their was no body left to recover.

    Rahim was survived by his father, his wife and two of his three children. His eight year old daughter had been killed by a cluster bomb dropped by an F-15 a mere week before he was killed. Always an inquisitive child she had found the odd little shiny object with the funny tail in the street a block away from her house. When she picked it up it detonated blowing her arm off and mutilating her face and torso. She was identified by her pink socks. Not much of an identification but it was all her mother had. Rahim never knew of the tragedy as he had not heard from his family for nearly a month before he was killed. When his family heard the news of his death Rahim's wife and two surviving children, perhaps still numb from the girl's death managed to hold themselves together. Rahim's father on the other hand was devastated. The old man threw himself on the floor weeping:
"Oh God! My Son! Oh my heart is broken! Allah take me now! I don't want to live without my son!"
The old man never recovered from the loss of his beloved son.
Rahim's wife promptly packed their meager belongings, sold their house for next to nothing, hired an SUV and driver and fled with her surviving family to Syria. A bold move for an Iraqi woman but she knew Iraq was descending into chaos and wasn't going to see another one of her children killed. Once they settled with distant relatives in Syria she put a framed picture of Rahim and her daughter on the mantle. She told everyone they were martyrs but in her heart she knew they died for nothing. A senseless war of aggression against her home land by a country she'd never seen and knew nothing about. She hoped that one day she might return to Iraq but with what she was hearing about all the violence between the Shea and Sunni and the Americans bombing everything she wondered if their would be an Iraq to return to. Everything she had known, her family, her friends, her culture, her heritage lay in a heap of smoldering ruins. Now she was alone left to care for a sad old man and two boys with no father in a violent world she was terrified of. Every day she prayed for a miracle she knew would never come. She was dead inside yet still among the living. She was in a silent hell.

Author's Note

Most Americans have a view of the insurgents we fought in Iraq as fanatical bad guys hell bent on dying in a glorious Jihad so they could get some from 72 virgins just like the kings and sheiks did in the stories their culture grew up on. The truth, as always was much more subtle and complex than that. If you read this whole thing I thank you and I hope I shed just a little bit of light on who the Iraqi insurgency really were.

Reviews

[Tate Morgan]

The middle east seems to have closer ties to its populations.They seem to be much more intimately acquainted with each other. It is as if they are all related in some way or another. With that said I think it is so different from their European wars where many die .Because the middle easterners never stop wanting revenge and see every fight as a holy affair. We can never win the hearts and minds of this population. They will never see us as friends.

[Baby Ricochet]

Tribalism culture with eye for an eye biblical rules they take deadly serious. Ancient rules and ways mixed with 21st century technology.saying its a Bad combination doesn't begin to cover it.

[Nia Hope]

This really can open some eyes to what war really is, just us killing and taking for no reason because they aren't too different from us. I personally don't really believe in war but my mom does call me her hippie lol. Amazing story Baby Ricochet you are so talented I love reading your work keep writing :)

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you ankara

[emmajoy]

Sure you know that Montgomery and Rommel had great respect for each other, even tho most definitely on different sides during WW!!
There is a respect and feeling between opponents, they're human beings doing what they have to but rarely want to. Terror is on both sides.
Rahim was a man with experience, knowledge; your story shows how some of his views changed about the ever increasing battles. At the end of it all, like so many on both sides of the conflict, he died and his family suffered a living hell. That's war. One day all the past and present rehearsals of it will finally play the opening night... and close - once and for all . How ironic that his wife and what was left of the family went to Syria.
This writing's amazingly graphic and powerful; tis hard to find negatives but if any, for me, there are too many military facts for what appears to be a tale, a story. Perhaps the writing of 'Rahim's Battle was cathartic. Only you know that.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you for your input Emma. I appreciate it

[emmajoy]

It's far, far more than a finely written story, isn't it.

[MOON]

You touch on so many salient points here, history I suspect is written by the aggressors and the victors and often they one and the same. Your writing frequently shows lots of introspection and questioning. I admire that . Heartbreaking write and the reality of so many in this world.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you Moon.

[Angi]

This piece shows that there are humans on both sides of war. Humans with thoughts, feelings and families at home. The civilians and innocents are looked at as enemies. (the part about Rahim's 8 year old daughter had me gasping.) The powers that be control the puppet strings on both sides. So many soldiers would really rather come home, but this is the job they have signed up to do! What else can they do?! War is an ugly, ugly thing. Having said that, I support our military 100%. Our men and women are out there fighting! Some of my son's friends are off to boot camp right now. They are 18 year old boys! Just boys! They are the first line that protects us when the fanatics do come calling! ...But you know all this, you are one of our boys. I thank you for that.

The storyline really pulled me in. I would have liked more descriptive words, more showing (less telling), so I could really create a picture in my mind. It kept me reading though and that is always a good thing, Baby! Angi~

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you Angi. The beginning of the story could stand to be more descriptive. That's for sure. Cluster bombs or "Anti personal" bombs are an evil piece of ordinance responsible for hundreds of civilian casualties because so many them don't go off on impact and they're designed to be movement sensitive if you step on one or pick one up it'll detonate. They're a throwback to the cold war days when the US was expecting the Commies to roll over the German boarder with a massive conventional army. Under those circumstances cluster bombs would be quite effective against massive columns of infantry and light armor. Dropping them in areas with large civilian populations turned out to be a humanitarian disaster. The UN along with the international red cross has been pushing for a world wide ban on cluster bombs for years now. They drafted a convention that's been signed by 86 countries pledging not to purchase or use cluster bombs in any conflict. Naturally as the worlds leading producer of military armaments and about the only power that could actually make a difference the US didn't sign the convention. hat's a few thousand civilian casualties when billions of dollars are being made selling a weapon that should have never seen the light of day.

[Mark]

I think it would be great if you could sell this story somewhere. It has a truth 'ring' to it that drew me in immediately.

I think the story is well written, though you tend to tell it through the thoughts of Rahim. This is rather passive, even for such an active story. I dunno, just a thought.

It kept me riveted throughout, I think it's a story that people need to know.

[Baby Ricochet]

Pryde Foltz kinda said the same thing. The beginning of the story is weak and it could stand to be more descriptive. All I got in the first paragraph is two kids running up a rocky bluff. I should have painted a move vivid scene than that. I get hung up about the length of a piece though. On the WC the longer it is the less it gets read. I'm working on another story that when published I might break it into 3 short chapters to keep the "Jesus this is to long" thing from happening. Then it could run into "I don't read books." Stories are tricky on the WC. Thank you for your input Mark. I appreciate your criticisms. It helps me stand back from my work and look at it objectively and make adjustments

[Mark]

Short descriptives, less thoughts maybe. Its an exercise. I really like that you put uppictures and descriptions of the war machines in the story. That was brilliant.

[Mic]

Excellent story, Ric. Reality checks are essential, though most prefer the shelter of simplicity provided by those calling the shots. Not sure what alternative other than war is viable when deranged fanatics seize power of a culture, but do know the innocents suffer disproportionately. Remember not that long ago when every German was considered a nazi and all the Japanese were equally maligned. Lessons to be learned there, but still seems only time tempers everything. Guess some just never learn.

Once again, applaud your prose...poignant write!

[Baby Ricochet]

thank you mic

[Keith]

''Truth is the first casualty of war' Not sure who said that, but I am painfully aware that those of us back home only see news of our good guys fighting the good cause against the bad guys. Great write from one who was there, and gutsy effort as most don't want to know that some of those bad guys might actually be great men, women or children. You have also brought to light the havoc caused by the 'liberators'.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you keith

[Ohhhwillow]

"She was dead inside yet still among the living." This line was so powerful Mark, and I applaud you on your unshaken commitment to the exploitation of war, from a perspective the public may well have never come near to having. Morality is stripped, and where a man finds himself may no longer be at the mosque or chapel but in the bar. Religious stories, as all others, can be a way for people to deal with the match that's lit, but they can also turn patriotism and loyalty to terror. It can therefore be the instigator, and the solution to war - a cruel paradox indeed. Anyway, good job mark, it's that attention to detail you never fail to present that gives your story such gripping integrity, and never ceases to pull me by the hair, sit me down, and staple my eyes open.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you Willow. I appreciate your insights

[TL Boehm]

Let me just put this out here. I think I've reviewed you enough that I can speak freely. I didn't like this. I didn't like it one bit. I have a position. A faith. A pride if you will. And this was like rubbing alcohol on a sunburn. It made my stomach hurt to read it. So here is my next comment. YOU are a helluva voice. This is the type of writing that simply begs to be published - because it makes a chick like me ache. It reminds me that war is complex and humans are humans and we need doses of reality like this to snap us back into a position of logic and empathy. I don't have to "Like" something I read to think it is AMAZING. In fact sometimes the fact that I don't "like" it is enough to show that the writer has mettle. Standing O.

[Baby Ricochet]

Wow! Thank you TL. I appreciate your input.