First person: Vigilant Defense Needed
March 19, 2008 Wednesday
Kieran Lalor

Editor's note: Kieran Lalor, a Wappingers Falls native living in Peekskill, is a candidate for Congress in New York's 19th District, was asked to write about his experiences in Iraq.

In the aftermath of 9/11 our Albany-based Marine Corps Reserve unit was mobilized by President Bush for domestic duty as a ready reaction force. The unit was activated a second time and deployed to Iraq in March 2003. I served as a squad automatic rifleman while conducting humanitarian and security operations in the Shia city of Nasiriyah.

Prior to the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime, my unit was tasked with protecting a bridge that spanned the Euphrates River and was part of the main supply route to Baghdad.

When the regime was toppled we moved into the city and performed a two-pronged mission. Job one was helping the people of Nasiriyah rebuild their civil and economic infrastructure after decades of oppression by Saddam. Our second task was to patrol the streets and mop up remnants of the Fedayeen, a corps of irregular fighters intensely loyal to Saddam.

We acted in a proactive manner, establishing checkpoints and acting on intelligence to thwart enemy attacks and confiscate their weapons. We were relieved by the Italian Army who subscribed to a reactive doctrine of remaining in the compound until an incident occurred and then responding. Sadly, the Italian allies were hit by a suicide attack that killed 19 MPs two months after they took over the building formerly occupied by our unit.

This event confirmed my belief that victory in the war on terror requires proactive tactics that take the fight to the enemy. The Italian strategy of reacting and staying in the compound until something happened in the streets, was basically American foreign policy up until 9/11. The Marine Corps' doctrine of being proactive and being omnipresent in the streets is a micro-version of what I believe to be the best post-9/11 national defense strategy.