During his September 2003 to September 2004 deployment in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, Major Thomas Neemeyer served as the intelligence officer (S2) for the 1st Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team, based in the Iraqi city of Ar Ramadi. Operating in an area he described as the "support zone for the greater insurgency throughout the rest of Al Anbar Province and the rest of the Iraq," Neemeyer was tasked with developing and analyzing intelligence on a "fused enemy" comprised of former regime remnants, ex-Republican Guard soldiers, foreign fighters, hostile tribal confederations and religious extremists. In this interview, he shares detailed insights into the nature, motivations and capabilities of the insurgent elements his unit was combating, the "desert bandit subculture" from which they came, as well as what he calls Saddam Hussein's calculated plan for "Phase IV chaos." Neemeyer also explains why, in his estimation, Al Anbar will likely be the "last province in Iraq to be pacified.” There, he says, “every key indicator of human progress is rock bottom, from levels of education and the degree of tribalism to a lack of respect for the value of work.” In fact, Neemeyer adds, his unit had to content themselves with being a “fixing force” that “hindered, delayed and gummed up” local insurgent activities in order, hopefully, to “enable someone else’s decisive operation somewhere else in Iraq – in areas where more political and economic progress could be made.”

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