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thedrifter
03-19-04, 08:34 AM
One Year Later, Iraqi Invasion Remains a Question Mark
By SCOTT LINDLAW
Mar 19, 2004, 06:52

One year after ordering the first military strikes against Iraq, President Bush marks the anniversary with a fresh defense of his actions for a voting public that remains split over his decision and international allies who are growing weary of continued postwar violence in that country.
Bush's speech Friday in the East Room of the White House ends a weeklong administration effort to boost support for the war on terrorism at a time when cracks are forming in the U.S.-led alliance that toppled Saddam Hussein from power.

The president was offering a favorable progress report and issuing a call for support in a "time of testing."

Aides said Bush's remarks would echo the warning he delivered Thursday at Fort Campbell, Ky., when he said the deadly train bombings in Madrid showed that terrorists kill innocent people "without conscience, without mercy."

"They cause suffering and grief and they rejoice in it," Bush said. "This terrorist enemy will never be appeased, because death is their banner and their cause."

That message, aides said, was also a caution against the kind of decision Spanish voters made Sunday in the wake of the bombings when they ousted the government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, one of Bush's staunchest allies in the anti-terror war, and elected someone who opposes the Iraq war as their new leader.

Bush's speech was also given added impetus by rising criticism from Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and Bush's expected opponent in the November election.

Kerry marked the anniversary on Wednesday, two days early, by accusing Bush of stubbornly holding to policies that he said have driven away potential allies at the cost of lives and money, "with no end in sight."

"Today we know that the mission is not finished, hostilities have not ended, and our men and women in uniform fight on almost alone with the target squarely on their backs," Kerry said. "Every day they face danger and death from suicide bombers, roadside bombers, and now, ironically, from the very Iraqi police they are training."

In a gesture of unity despite Spain's threatened defection from Bush's "coalition of the willing," dozens of ambassadors from countries closely aligned with the United States were attending Bush's speech. Spain's new leader, Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has said he will withdraw 1,300 Spanish troops from Iraq unless the United Nations takes control of peacekeeping.

Bush's effort was dealt another blow Thursday when Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, another key U.S. ally, said his country was "misled" about whether Saddam's regime had weapons of mass destruction and said he may withdraw his country's 2,400 troops early from Iraq.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush was framing the shadow of terrorism as "a time of testing."

"The terrorists are trying to shake our will, but the terrorists are finding out that they cannot shake our will and resolve," McClellan told reporters Thursday.

Bush was to highlight progress in Iraq, but less than eight months before the presidential election he's also still working to erase doubts about the wisdom of going to war.

The National Annenberg Election Survey this month found Americans divided on whether they approve of the way Bush is handling Iraq, with 47 percent saying "yes" and 49 percent saying "no." The survey also found they were split on whether the Iraq situation merited going to war.

As of Thursday, 568 U.S. service members had died in Iraq since military operations began on March, 19, 2003, with most of those killed during combat. More than three-fourths of the dead, or 430, were killed after May 1, when Bush flew to the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq.

Billions of U.S. dollars have been spent on the operation, and the Bush administration looks anxiously ahead to a June 30 deadline for handing over control of the country to an interim Iraqi government, one without Saddam at the helm. The deposed Iraqi leader was captured in December and remains in U.S. custody.

But the postwar violence continues.

A deadly car bomb exploded Thursday in the southern city of Basra, three Iraqi journalists were killed in a drive-by shooting near Baghdad and three U.S. soldiers died in mortar attacks. Seven people died Wednesday in a bombing at a Baghdad hotel.

After the speech, Bush and first lady Laura Bush were to visit with soldiers and their families are Walter Reed Army Medical Center.


© 2004 The Associated Press
© Copyright 2004 by Capitol Hill Blue

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4258.shtml


Ellie

thedrifter
03-19-04, 08:35 AM
Marines' Iraq memories still fresh
March 19,2004
MIKE SHERRILL
DAILY NEWS STAFF

The memories no longer roll by each day, but a year later the stories are still fresh.

Today marks the first anniversary of when Marines crossed the border into Iraq and starting what came to be called Operation Iraqi Freedom.

A month later, Marines 1st Lt. Keith Montgomery and Gunnery Sgt. Michael Woods rolled in tanks into Baghdad.

At the height of the war, more than 20,000 Lejeune and New River Air Station troops were deployed.

Circumstance, they said, put them one and two in a line coming through an alley rolling over cars as gunfire came from the three-story buildings that were still standing.

At Camp Lejeune on Thursday the pair, often facing a line of TV news cameras at a media event scheduled to coincide with the war's anniversary, were able to give a few details about skirmishes they faced last year. At other times, they relied on comparison to battle scenes from popular movies.

But what really came through in their stories, besides utter faith in Marine Corps training, is a bond born in battle.

In the lead tank heading into eastern Baghdad, Montgomery was hit by the first of five rocket propelled grenades, initially disabling his weapons.

Woods, with 12 years in the Marine Corps, had spent most of his service up to that point as a Parris Island, S.C., drill instructor. Even he admitted to wondering through the years how he'd respond in battle. By the end he would be awarded the Navy Achievement medal with the combat V.

But he still wondered on the day he was called to the front.

"He was my commander and he was my friend (in a shot-up tank)" Woods, 29, said. "(But I thought) this is my time to step up and lead."

Montgomery, also 29, followed him into the alley, knowing another tank would both scare the enemy and help his friend. But another blast stalled the tank in its tracks after wounding the tank crew.

"I spent the next hour basically just sitting there waiting for the recovery vehicle to pull me out," Montgomery said, adding his shrapnel wounds were "not all that bad, considering."

But after 2 ??urs of urban combat, rumors spread on the radio.

"I heard some traffic about Lieutenant Montgomery being killed or seriously wounded," Woods said. "Then I saw him, sitting on a truck, smiling. Everything was OK."

The pair will always keep in close contact, and when one needs an opinion, he'll seek the other.

"He was the one guy I could talk to about what I was thinking and feeling. Given our ranks and responsibilities, you just couldn't do that with anyone," Woods said.

"It's nice to know Marines can have that camaraderie, forge those types of relationships. I think that's why we're so successful." Montgomery said.

They also talked of the Iraqi people opposing Saddam Hussein, throwing rocks at his statues, giving Americans "V" for victory signs or wanting to shake hands with troops, like the young girl Montgomery handed a piece of bread. Both say such humanitarian moments were seldom reported.

The fight also left them with similar perspectives. Both said family was more important now.

Woods fourth son was born March 5, last year. He found out in a letter and couldn't wait return to see him "and meet him" for the first time.

"The number one thing is just how much sweeter life is (now)," he said.

Montgomery also now listens to friends in the working world, or those living student life. He hears them complain about tests or projects. He understands the value of life and how it can be taken away.

"These are the things that I value," he said.

Montgomery, from Lake Arrowhead, Calif., and Woods, of Kansas City, Mo., also root for archrival opposing professional football teams, the Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs.

While they don't agree on that front, they agree on the importance of combat training, the automatic nature of it that really leaves no fear.

Rather it creates what Montgomery called "a Zen feeling" of clarity.

"Decisions are easy," he said.

Now their Alpha Company of the 2nd Tank Battalion is training others who are now deploying to Iraq. The Marines are spelling the Army in post-war Baghdad.

"Our experiences, the lessons learned in Iraq, will be a benefit to the Marines going over there," Woods said. "We thrived in an urban environment."


Contact Mike Sherrill at msherrill@jdnews.com or 353-1171, Ext. 237.


http://www.jacksonvilledailynews.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=21131&Section=News

Ellie

thedrifter
03-19-04, 08:36 AM
Lessons Learned in Iraq
By LISA HOFFMAN
Scripps Howard News Service
Mar 18, 2004, 08:20

Sleeping bags were a foot too short. Super-rugged laptop computers got so hot troops couldn't touch the keyboards. Indispensable batteries ran out. Armored vehicles tore through their tracks at a rate never seen before.
A year after Operation Iraqi Freedom began, the U.S. military is deep into its time-honored exercise of dissecting what did and didn't work in its prosecution of the war and the counter-insurgency that followed. The findings drive improvements in weapons, vehicles, gear and tactics -- and some changes already are underway.

As "lessons learned" reports stack up at the Pentagon, here's a behind-the-scenes look at some of the nitty-gritty of the war from the perspective of those who fought it.


GEAR

Troops uniformly sang the praises of the four-pound ceramic plates in their Kevlar body armor, which casualty experts say saved scores from death. Even so, soldiers are devising their own improvements for the vests, using pieces of the Kevlar blankets that reinforce the inside of vehicles to fashion extra protection for their vulnerable shoulders and sides.

Soldiers took their own measures to rectify another universally noted annoyance by sewing new pockets on their uniform sleeves and pant fronts. The pockets on their camouflage shirts were virtually useless as they were blocked by the thigh holsters and carriers for chemical-biological masks that troops had to wear.

Troops also spent their own money to buy and ship commercial global positioning satellite devices, Motorola hand-held radios, rifle-slings, Coolmax T-shirts and weapon lubricants -- all deemed better than what they were issued.

After realizing that the enemy was using garage-door openers and radio-controlled toy car transmitters to detonate roadside bombs, many troops had their families ship them the devices so they could trigger explosives before the bad guys could.

One of the biggest problems was a nearly disastrous shortage of the Army's all-purpose batteries, which power chemical-biological weapon alarms, Javelin missiles, radios, night-vision equipment, portable computers, satellite communications equipment and navigation systems.

When the war started, the Army had only about 100,000 of them in stock. That amounted to only one-third of the 300,000 that U.S. forces used during the first month of the war. Military logistics personnel scoured the world for all they could find, and battery manufacturers kicked into overdrive. The demand was met, but the Army says it came within days of running out, which would have stalled the push into Baghdad and put troops at great risk.


VEHICLES

Forget the whiz-bang, $2 million Stryker combat vehicle, which debuted in Iraq a few months ago. What the troops say they really need are armored Humvees and other everyday vehicles.

Because one of the most perilous places for GIs is on the road in a supply convoy, the troops say the biggest unmet need is for simple "gun trucks." Soldiers say they are sitting ducks in traditional trucks, which have neither armor nor weapons. Some are jerry-rigging machine-gun mounts and other protections on their trucks, but the danger continues.

To protect the trucks, the Army is sending Bradley Fighting Vehicles and M1 Abrams tanks on the road with convoys. This has triggered repair and supply crises, because neither vehicle was designed for such long, sustained use in an environment as punishing as Iraq.

One particular problem has been keeping the Bradleys fitted with the tracks on which they move. Normally, only about 67,000 Bradley tracks are needed by the Army in a year. But the first year of Iraq combat has required 480,000, a need the Army is trying to meet by working three shifts, seven days a week rebuilding old tracks. A commercial track producer also is on overdrive.

The Bradleys and tanks also proved less than ideal for urban combat, given that their gun barrels could not angle high enough to hit upper floors of Baghdad buildings.


WEAPONS

The most serious lesson the Army learned was that tens of thousands of support and supply soldiers were ill-trained for combat because, in traditional military doctrine, they were expected to stay far from enemy lines.

Overall, soldiers complained most that their M-16 rifles were too bulky, particularly for city combat, but praised their M4 assault rifles. Even more popular were XM107 sniper rifles, which one lessons-learned report dubbed "the most useful piece of equipment for the urban fight." Accurate even at long distances, the .50-caliber gun also cowed the enemy with its ferocious stopping power.

The once-vaunted Apache attack helicopters got bad grades for being too vulnerable to ground fire. The long-controversial Patriot anti-missile system successfully blasted enemy missiles from the sky, but also mistakenly shot down three coalition aircraft. The Global Hawk unmanned spy plane drew plaudits for facilitating the destruction of more than 300 Iraqi tanks.

So spectacular was the accuracy of precision-guided armaments in the war that the Pentagon's bombs were larger than they needed to be. With smaller bombs, collateral damage to people and property would be limited.


OPERATIONS AND TACTICS

Though they played down the problem at the time, Army brass now acknowledges the drive to Baghdad was so speedy that supply operations _ because of logistic overloads _ couldn't keep up. Spare parts, food, water, fuel and ammunition became so scarce that some troops had to scavenge the Iraqi countryside for provisions and equipment.

Compounding the logistics mess was the inability of the soldiers at the tip of the spear to get quick word to the supply chain about what precisely they needed. Radio communications were spotty, and some spare parts never even made it to where they were needed. An audit by the General Accounting Office estimated that more than $1 billion of supplies were simply lost.

"Friendly fire" was another dire problem, with more than 20 coalition deaths caused by mistaken attacks on U.S. and British aircraft and ground troops. Technical measures for identifying friendly forces failed at the task.

One of the biggest flops was the dropping of leaflets over Iraq in an attempt to convince Iraqi soldiers to surrender and regime leaders to turn themselves in. Millions of the colorful leaflets fluttered down across Iraq, but U.S. units reported that many of the Iraqi troops who got them didn't get the point of the propaganda.

Still, one of the first "kills" of the war came when a box of pamphlets accidentally fell from a U.S. warplane and hit an Iraqi soldier.

© Copyright 2004 by Capitol Hill Blue

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4253.shtml


Ellie