An Iraqi's view..

1st Iraqi Officer Becomes Ranger
Already finished Captains Career, Airborne School
By Mick Walsh, Staff Writer
He looked like any other U.S. soldier about to complete Ranger training.
Trim. Fit. Young.
His fatigues carried no rank, but then again soldiers in Ranger School, for the 61 days they're testing their mental and physical limits, are neither privates nor captains. They're all treated the same.
They've pushed themselves over the mountains of Dahlonega, through the swamps of the Florida Panhandle and past every hurdle at Fort Benning, from the obstacle courses at Malvesti Field and Camp Darby to the water drop at Victory Pond.
One thing that separated this soldier and his classmates from another group toting rifles in the distance Thursday was the relaxed smile on his face.
He was one day away from graduation.
The others, it was learned, had just begun what most soldiers insist is the toughest nine weeks of their lives.
And, oh yes, his name and his accent also set him apart from the rest.
Capt. Arkan -- for security reasons he gives only his first name -- is a member of the Iraqi army. And he is the first from that force to complete Ranger School.
Most likely, he's also the first one-time enemy soldier to finish the U.S. Army's most elite training program.
"I was in Baghdad on an air defense battery when the invasion of our country began in March 2003," he said. Arkan has studied English since the fifth grade.
Arkan is from a military family -- his dad and six uncles were in the Iraqi Army of Saddam Hussein. He attended the equivalent of the U.S. Military Academy, completed his training in late 1999 and went on active duty that winter.
"Physically," he said as he glanced at Malvesti from a picnic table outside the Ranger Training Brigade headquarters, "my first week of training here was pretty stressful."
Pretty stressful?
"It was difficult to go from a full night of sleep to just one or two hours. And we only had two meals a day. And training all the time." He lost 20 pounds during that first week.
But after that, his training in Iraq kicked in. "It prepared me well for the rest of training -- my first year at the Iraqi military academy was tough, too."
Arkan doesn't have to be reminded that Fort Benning's 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division was among the first units to reach Baghdad in the spring of 2003.
"I learned that during my first trip here," he said.
After the collapse of Saddam's army, and the dismantling of the Iraqi army's officer corps, then Lt. Arkan returned to his Baghdad home.
"I tried to stay busy helping my father during that time," he said. "Then, in July, I heard that the new Iraqi army was being formed and I signed up."
He became part of an infantry training battalion -- "It was best that Iraqis trained Iraqis," he said -- and even worked with then-Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, the former Fort Benning commander who was charged with rebuilding the Iraqi army in 2004.
"He's a very smart man, very decisive," Arkan said. "He got us moving in the right direction."
Two years ago, Arkan attended the Captains Career course at Fort Benning -- his first trip outside Iraq -- and also graduated from Airborne School.
"I applied for Ranger School then but I wasn't accepted," he said, smiling. Eventually, though, he was tapped for the current class, which is scheduled to graduate today.
A Muslim, Arkan is bound to perform the Salaah, the fixed ritual of the Islamic prayer, five times a day. "That was never a problem in my company," he said.
Arkan, who is single, doesn't know if he'll return to the field or go into training when he returns to his home country next week. "But I'm certain," he said, "this training has made me a better leader."
'Your boys and girls are doing a great job'
As Arkan prepared Thursday to rejoin his platoon, he leaned over the table and said: "If you print anything, tell people that your boys and girls are doing a great job in Iraq. And that your media in this country is doing a bad job."
He explained his position. "I asked a friend who watches CNN, or maybe Fox News, that if TV was showing an infantry platoon getting bombed in Iraq or your Army opening a new hospital in Baghdad, which one would he watch? Of course he said the bombing. And that's what TV shows.
"It doesn't show the good things that are going on. Our economy is much better than it was under Saddam. Our way of life is much better. Our average income is up. And we have thousands of young men wanting to get into our army even though they know they are targets of the insurgents. Those are the stories that should be told."