Jun 18 2008
At the Iraq-Syria Border
Earlier this month, I took a trip to the town of Rabiyya. Rabiyya is an Iraqi town on the Syrian border. We are involved in an upcoming project to improve the border crossing in that area, also known as the POE (point of entry). In the picture below, taken from Google Earth, you can see the stark contrast between the development on the Syrian side of the border compared to the lack of development on the Iraqi side of the border.
Our project is to build a new immigration building. So we drove up to Rabiyya in our REVAs to take a look at the project site. In the past, this same drive would take approximately 4 hours because we had to avoid most of the major routes heading west out of Mosul. But because the security situation has improved, we were able to take a much more direct route and arrived in Rabiyya after driving for only a little over 2 hours. Unfortunately some Iraqi government officials from Tal Afar were killed by insurgents on this same road earlier this week. So the improved security comes and goes right now.
To get an understanding of the project, we basically walked the route an Iraqi would take if he were crossing the border into Syria. Here we are heading into the first check point for border crossing processing.
In addition to my normal security escort, we were supported by Eagle Troop, 3/3 ACR. They live at COP Heider right on the Syrian Border. It was pretty quiet this day because the POE was closed. Notice the lack of any traffic in the photo below. The large yellow arch is the actual border looking from Iraq into Syria. Compare how empty that is with the number of trucks lined up to cross the border in the first picture.
After spending about 30 minutes on the ground, we went back inside COP Heider, used the latrine, drank some GatorAde, and got ready to head home. We discussed the project with LTC Preskitt, the US Army Officer who runs the POE Transition Team (POETT). The POETT is a group of US Army personnel who advise the Iraqi Army unit responsible for running the POE. Unfortunately, the project is currently on hold while the Iraqi commander of the POE tries to get more funding to increase the scope of the construction project. After that discussion, we had the fun of another 2 hour drive in the REVAs to get home.
I have a dream. In this dream a construction project goes smoothly from start to finish.
