Lejeune Marines back on old stomping ground in Iraq

[thedrifter]

Lejeune Marines back on old stomping ground in Iraq
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 200462712420
Story by Cpl. Shawn C. Rhodes



CAMP MAHMUDIYAH, Iraq(June 25, 2004) -- The Marines of 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, based out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. recently experienced a major case of déjà vu. The smell of stagnant water and the 'whump' of mortars impacting in the distance brought back many memories for the combat-hardened Marines.

It wasn't a dream. The Marines were just back on their old stomping grounds - Camp Mahmudiyah, replacing the Army's 1st Armored Division.

The battalion returned to the base they occupied at the beginning of their deployment. In between, they've taken posts at Camp Fallujah and Zadan as well as numerous field positions.

These Marines have become old hands at moving. For many, this is the fifth time they have tightened their packs and stepped off to a new base during this deployment.

"It made sense for us to come back to Mahmudiyah. The First Armored Division has been here for more than a year," said Sgt. Maj. Anthony L. Swann, the 43-year-old senior enlisted Marine from Sanford, N.C. "They're ready to go home and we've been in this area before. There are no plans to move us again until our departure (from Iraq)."

The Marines were moved to the forward operating base from Camp Fallujah over a period of four days. The rifle companies conducted a relief in place with the units that would be taking over their operational areas. Once the areas were turned over, the battalion began packing up the things it had worked so hard to build up at Camp Fallujah.

"We brought our gym, internet café, phone center, everything we need for the chow hall, a PX, bunk beds, power converters, extra flak jackets and helmets and $5.5 million dollars worth of ammunition, " said Lance Cpl. Jonathan A. Zabko, a 22-year-old rifleman from Boston serving as a logistics clerk. "It'll take about a week and a half to get everyone settled in but we have enough to make it comfortable for them when they do."

Once the battalion's assets were packed up, Marines were ready to make the move back to Mahmudiyah. Large convoys stretched across the highways in temperatures that peaked at more than 110 degrees to make the journey to their former home. The base was under the control of soldiers since the Camp Lejeune battalion left several weeks ago.
The soldiers experienced everything from vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices to mortar attacks from the anti-Iraqi forces in the area. After more than a year of fighting the people committed to slowing the progress of Iraq, the soldiers were more than ready to go home. For the Marines it was another chance to fight here - and win.

Setting the camp back up and bringing it to Marine standards was no easy task. As the soldiers vacated their spaces the Marines were quick to unpack their storage containers and settle in. For many, it involved establishing connections with their counterparts at higher echelons.

"We have to unpack our gear, set up our workspace and then liaison with the main post office at Camp Fallujah to get up and running," said Cpl. Jose G. Alcantar, a 22 year-old mail clerk from Pomona, Calif.

He also has to "... set up transportation with motor T, convoy back and forth to get the mail and then deliver it to the Marines. It should be about two days before we get our first shipment of mail."

The Marines found the camp with some modifications, courtesy of the soldiers. Every structure had been hardened with sand bags to protect from mortar attacks. The guard positions in the towers circling the camp had also been improved to increase visibility. In addition the leathernecks also discovered a new store that offers hot pizza, cold drinks and souvenirs.

Amenities they enjoyed at Camp Fallujah such as the Internet and phone centers will soon be available to the Marines as the camp infrastructure is built. For now, the Marines brave the heat and the mortars to get settled into their new - and old - home.

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/200462712657/$file/moving1lr.jpg

Lance Cpl. Lucas B. Hodges, a sniper with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, climbs the back of a transport truck in full gear. The 23-year-old from Chicago recently participated in a battalion-wide move from Camp Fallujah to Camp Mahmudiyah.
(USMC photo by Cpl. Shawn C. Rhodes) Photo by: Cpl. Shawn C. Rhodes

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/97EEED71C1F1E29F85256EC0001DB1D4?opendocument


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines, Iraqis foster hope for better future at native nook
Submitted by: 1st Force Service Support Group
Story Identification #: 200462771932
Story by Lance Cpl. Samuel Bard Valliere



CAMP TAQADDUM, Iraq(June 27, 2004) -- Green is often called the color of hope. One small patch of it here, an island in a sea of tan, is giving some Iraqis and Marines just that.

Setting itself apart from the rest of the scenery here with its lush emerald lawn, a locally owned and operated market and restaurant serves as a hangout for both Iraqis and Americans.

During the day, it resembles a traditional Middle Eastern market, called a souk. The scent of Iraqi cooking floats through the air while vendors bake flat bread in an outside oven, paint portraits, and sell everything from bicycles to old money adorned with Saddam Hussein's face.

However, when darkness settles and sight is clouded, the grass becomes a cushion for souls. Stores shut their doors and nightlife emerges.

The area transforms at night when lights, left white and unlit during the day, illuminate the perimeter with a dazzling array of colors.

For some Marines, the market is an after-hours hangout. When work ends for the day, they go in small groups to decompress, drink tea, play music and catch up with buddies. For at least a few hours they are not in Iraq; they are in a friend's backyard having a get-together.

The troops, mostly from the 1st Force Service Support Group and the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, aren't the only ones to enjoy this time off. The men who work at the market are also ready to relax at the end of the day.

Iraqis and Marines often sit together. They share food, drinks and as much conversation as the language barrier allows.

The Marines enjoy the opportunity to soak in the Middle Eastern culture.

"I think it's important for all of us to understand each other a little better," said Lance Cpl. Claude A. Swain. "That way there is not as much of a mystery."

Swain, a 29-year-old resident of Washington, D.C., comes to the market more often than most to play a guitar bought there and chat it up with locals and friends.

It wasn't the same when U.S. troops first moved onto the base and the workers initially set up shop. Language and cultural barriers intimidated both the Iraqis and the service members. At that time neither group trusted the other, said a Marine Corps translator with the 1st FSSG.

One worker named Waleed said that when coalition forces first entered Iraq last year, he opposed the invasion. He said he knew only what the local television news told him -- the imperialistic Americans were coming to take over.

With time, trust grew and preconceived notions were shattered. After he started working on base, he began to understand what America's mission was, and he started sympathizing with and caring about the troops here.

Now the Marines feel like his family, he said. He has begun to pick up English and helps to teach some of the Marines Arabic.

Paving positive relationships with Iraq's young people now could influence how they view Americans in years to come and vice versa.

"This is the young generation, the future of Iraq," said Staff Sgt. Damion C. Martin, 28, a reservist from Elizabeth City, N.C., whose frequent visits to the restaurant helped cultivate a friendship with Waleed. "I look at him and I see my brother, myself and my friend."

Despite the positive atmosphere, ghosts of Saddam's regime still lurk. Members of Waleed's family were killed by the dictator's henchmen. Another worker was a tank gunner in the Iraqi army until he was thrown in jail for taking a week off to visit his family.

Former soldiers often come to work for the Americans, said Gunnery Sgt. Gregg A. Smith, 39, the camp operations chief and Wahoo, Neb., native. Many military jobs went away when the country's army disbanded.

Like U.S. troops, the workers are from different parts of their country. Usually divided, Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds and Christians all work and live together here.

The workers live in tents behind the marketplace and only leave the base to visit their families every few weeks.

Traveling to and from U.S. camps is dangerous for Iraqis, nevertheless, they still come to work. The growing bond between the two cultures represents a sign of hope for both sides.

"I think in 10 years Iraq will be -- good," said Waleed, pausing to find the right word in English.

Other installations in Iraq may soon see a market like this pop up in their backyards. The manager here, who owns a prominent restaurant in Baghdad, is considering opening a similar souk at Camp Fallujah.


http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/20046277379/$file/Night040621_Low.jpg

A Marine and two sailors hang out at an Iraqi-run restaurant and market at Camp Taqaddum, Iraq, June 21, 2004. The eatery serves authentic local cuisine to Marines, sailors and soldiers hungry to learn about the local culture. For some service members, the market is also the after-hours hot spot. When work ends for the day, they go in groups to hang out with the locals, decompress, drink tea, play music and catch up with buddies. Other installations in Iraq may soon see a market like this pop up in their backyards. The manager here, who owns a prominent restaurant in Baghdad, is considering opening similar souk at Camp Fallujah. Photo by: Lance Cpl. Samuel Bard Valliere

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/597DB4D2F405577F85256EC0003E36C4?opendocument


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Second tour of duty in Iraq harder on Marines, families
By Abbott Koloff, Daily Record

They had planned a summer wedding, a honeymoon in the Bahamas, but then Tony Eresman was given his orders. He had just a few weeks notice that he was going back to Iraq with the Marines.

He told his parents, married his girlfriend, packed up his gear and was off to California for urban combat training.

Instead of two weeks with his wife on a tropical beach, he had just a couple of weekends with her before getting on a bus that took him to a training camp in the California desert. He and 850 other Marines with the 24th Expeditionary Unit spend 16 hours a day training, practicing to raid homes, getting tips on how to tell friends from enemies, and learning some new techniques insurgents have devised to hide explosive devices in concrete blocks or Pepsi cans.

Eresman and the rest of his company are scheduled to leave for Iraq, officials say, during the first few days of July. They are expected to come back seven months later.

"I have some mixed emotions," Eresman, 21, a lance corporal from Rockaway Township, said by phone on Friday. "I'm pretty scared about it but another part of me knows I'll be fine. I feel more scared for my family because they have to go through this twice."

He had been in combat last year, fighting in one of the war's most intense battles, in Nasiriyah where some of his friends were killed. He said he had nightmares afterward but the dreams come less frequently now. He had not expected to go back to Iraq. He was told he might be sent to Greece, to provide security for the Olympics. He was expecting a Mediterranean cruise.

That was before it became clear that the insurgency in Iraq wasn't going away and military leaders decided to send young men and women to Iraq even if they had been there before. Marine officials said last week that the first group of second-timers returned to Iraq in March. That group makes up more than half the 25,000 Marines now based in Iraq, officials said.

Eresman and others are going back to a county in more turmoil now than when they left. They say that when they came home last year, about the time President Bush declared major combat to be over, they expected things to calm down in Iraq. They thought they had finished their jobs.

"I thought that I would go back in 15 years to visit and it would be like Kuwait, where they're building hotels on the water," said Scott Davidson, 21, a Marine Lance Corporal from Green Township who's a member of the same company as Eresman. "I figured things would be working better by now."

He said Iraq is more dangerous now, partly because insurgents are using roadside bombs that can be hidden in piles of garbage, or buried in concrete and made to look like parts of a sidewalk, or packed in innocent-looking soda cans that contain black powder and ball bearings. The publicized abuse of Iraqi prisoners also has made the job more difficult, he said.

"It blew my mind that people were that stupid," Davidson said of U.S. Army soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners. "I know we're going to a place where they might not be as happy with us as they were before. It was like throwing gasoline on a fire. But you have to understand that stupidity and cruelty happen in war."

Mary Ann Davidson, Scott's mother, said her son didn't tell her much about the battles he fought the last time he was in Iraq. He did tell her he was lucky to be alive. He talked the other day about a rocket-propelled grenade that hit a wire and spun on the ground, failing to explode for unknown reasons, just feet from where he was standing. She said she wept with joy for hours when he came home last year.

"I don't feel it's fair that he's going back," she said. "I don't think we should be there at all. I see it as being a big mess after June 30 (when an Iraqi provisional government takes power)."

Davidson joined the Marines on Sept. 12, 2001, one day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, telling his parents that he wanted to serve his country. A one-time soccer goalie at Newton High School, he fought in Nasiriyah and later was part of a Marine soccer team that played against Iraqi teams. He came home and started thinking about the future. He said he wants to become a history teacher and talks about perhaps marrying his girlfriend after he gets out of the service next year. When he told his girlfriend he had to go to Iraq for a second time, he said, she replied with just a couple of words: "Come back."

Stephen Castora, 37, formerly of Denville and a major in the Marines, was told a few weeks ago that he was going back to Iraq to replace another engineer who was coming home, according to his family. They had not yet heard from him last week after he was scheduled to arrive in Iraq.

"I think it's more dangerous now," said Karen Castora, of Denville, his mother. "I am more worried now than I was before. … I know he didn't want to go but it's his duty and he knows that what we are doing there is the right thing to do."

Some relatives of military personnel headed to Iraq for a second time say they have more fears this time. They went through months of worrying last year and then they all had the same emotion, overwhelming relief, when their children came home. Now they are going through all of that again and the news from Iraq, with bombs going off daily, hasn't helped their nerves.

"I really don't like it," said Deb Gaughan, of Lebanon Township, whose son, Dave Jr. is going back to Iraq with the Marines. "It's a different situation now. The last time, it was combat. Now they're doing security."

Eresman and Davidson both said their biggest concerns are roadside bombs that often can't be detected until it's too late. They have been studying the latest techniques used by insurgents. They have been trained to look for enemies in people who say they are friends. You can talk for weeks with people who appear to be helping Americans by providing military intelligence, their trainers tell them, only to find out later that they have been probing for weaknesses. Some are Saddam Hussein loyalists while others are from outside of Iraq.

"We have translators who look for speech patterns to see if they are from other countries," Eresman said.

Capt. Dave Nevers, a public affairs officer with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, who once lived in Morristown, said the military has been handing out different kinds of equipment this year. Humvees are being fitted with armored plating, he said. Troops are given special goggles to protect their eyes from shrapnel. They have been given ceramic inserts to go inside their Kevlar flak jackets. That adds extra weight but Marines say it makes them feel safer.

"We were told that one Marine was shot three times and his plate took every bullet," Eresman said.

Eresman said he didn't know what he was getting into when he went to Iraq last year. He said he was more fatalistic. If his time was up, he said, he figured he couldn't do much about it. He said it's different the second time around. He is married and has been planning his future. He is a group leader helping to train some Marines he refers to as "the younger guys." He is not much older.

"I've already experienced so much," he said.

He asked his girlfriend to marry him this past April, while they were sitting on a rock overlooking the Hudson River in New York state. They had met last year and he said he quickly knew he wanted to spend his life with her. They changed their wedding date after he was told he had just a few weeks to get ready to return to Iraq.

"I guess it gave us a sense of comfort," Nicole Eresman, 20, his bride, said last week. "It makes them feel better if they can say they are coming home to their wives."

She said she was attracted to her husband because of the way he smiles, because he is more mature than most men his age, and because he knows life is precious. She went with his family to Camp Lejeune, N.C. last weekend to say goodbye. She imagines where they will be in five years. He wants to go to school and become a police officer. She wants to take business classes and become a hair stylist. They plan to have children.

Those dreams are on hold for at least the next seven months as her husband goes to Iraq, a place that gave him bad dreams the last time he was there, and where he never thought he'd return.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abbott Koloff can be reached at akoloff@gannett.com or (973) 989-0652.


http://www.dailyrecord.com/_photos/news/062404akbacktoiraq.jpg

Nicole Eresman, new wife of Marine Tony Eresman, who will be going back to Iraq, went with her husband's family to Camp Lejeune, N.C. last weekend to say goodbye. Tony Eresman will be on his second tour of duty in Iraq for at least the next seven months. Bob Karp / Daily Record

http://www.dailyrecord.com/news/articles/news5-back2iraq.htm


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Sunday, June 27, 2004


Iraq firefight shows difficulty of fighting enemy while protecting the innocent


By Charlie Coon, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, June 27, 2004

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq — The Marines were patrolling a highway east of Fallujah when they began taking fire. They doubled back and were shot at again.

The platoon pulled up along the highway and pointed its guns toward a truck stop and some men, who were dressed as civilians.

“They looked like regular Iraqi citizens,” said Lance Cpl. Brad Swenson of Northfield, Minn. “It was hard to distinguish where the enemy personnel were. They’re really good at hiding themselves.”

The guerrilla war in Iraq has forced the Marines of Company D, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion to think twice before they shoot. Armed insurgents blend in with everyone else, so U.S. troops use tactics to destroy the enemy while trying not to kill innocent people.

The enemy and the innocents both wear blue jeans and T-shirts or robes with headscarves. The only way to tell the difference is to find the ones with rifles cocked under their arms or rocket-propelled grenades hoisted onto their shoulders.

Third platoon was finishing its six-hour shift early Thursday morning.

They’d been patrolling Route 1, the main supply route between Baghdad and Fallujah, for weeks without being fired upon.

That changed around 7:30 a.m.

“One day you’ll have a guy waving to you, giving you the thumbs up,” said Private 1st Class Randy Williamson of Tobyhanna, Pa. “The next day he gives it to you with an AK-47 [automatic rifle].

“It’s hard when the civilians and insurgents are basically side by side. You kind of have to pick and choose who’s bad and who’s good.”

The Marines fired back and soon gained “fire superiority,” where the enemy was ducking and the troops were able to maneuver. The platoon moved to a position where it was pointed toward the enemy fire but not at the houses in the distance or the cars on the highway.

They say the enemy is trying to goad them into coming into the city and the residential areas. The Marines didn’t take the bait.

For the moment, the platoons are not allowed to proceed into the city with their eight-wheeled killing machines — light-armored vehicles equipped with a 25 mm Bushmaster chain gun, two smaller guns and seven Marines trained to destroy.

Instead, they dismounted their LAV-25s and pushed the enemy back past the hide-and-seek dunes behind the truck stop and held their position. Some of the bad guys who ran away ditched their weapons and reappeared as innocents.

After several hours, 3rd platoon was relieved by 1st platoon, which took up the fight, moving slowly back toward houses from where enemy fire was coming.

“The houses were about four kilometers [away],” said 1st Lt. Ronny Rowell of Anaheim, Calif., the 1st platoon commander. “People were running in and out of the houses.

“They looked suspicious but they also looked like everybody else around. They could have been running from house to house trying to go get weapons or trying to shoot mortars, or they could have been trying to get their kids so they could run away and get protected.”

Helicopters came in and destroyed a few houses from where rockets and mortars were being shot. The fighting on the eastern side of Fallujah continued into Thursday night and the weekend.

For Williamson, who finished boot camp in October and joined his battalion in January, it was his first firefight. He helped take out the enemy fighters and caused others to retreat.

He was happy that he didn’t choke.

“I was afraid we were going to get down to the nitty-gritty and I was going to freeze up,” he said. “It’s not something you want to do when you have [six other guys on your vehicle] worrying about you laying down fire or taking out the guy who is about to shoot an RPG at you.

“Your round can make a difference between something goes wrong and something doesn’t.”

The Marines know they’ll win almost every fight against the insurgents. Usually the score will be lopsided. On Thursday, members of 3rd and 1st platoons killed an estimated 20 members of the enemy but themselves suffered only a handful of minor shrapnel wounds.

Yet the enemy fighters kept showing themselves, only to be killed.

“They know [they can’t win], but in their minds what they’re doing is right for them,” said Lance Cpl. Ken Torok of Redding, Pa.

Yet the enemy runs for cover. Surely those men who were running must have wanted to live, Torok is told.

“They’re just running away to try to find a better spot to attack us,” Torok said. “And it doesn’t work.”

http://www.estripes.com/photos/22997_626145653b.jpg

Charlie Coon / S&S
A platoon of Marines from Company D, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, head out on Friday to patrol the main highway along the eastern edge of Fallujah, Iraq. Each of the Light Armored Vehicles, called LAV-25s for their 25 mm Bushmaster chain gun, carries seven Marines.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=22997


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Iraq braces for sovereignty shift <br />
GRIM EXPECTATIONS: U.S. troops anticipate onslaught of attacks <br />
<br />
John Koopman, Chronicle Staff Writer <br />
Sunday, June 27, 2004 <br />
<br />
<br />
...

[thedrifter]

Iraq Insurgency Showing Signs of Momentum
Analysts and some U.S. commanders say it could be too late to reverse the wave of violence. Sunnis are seen as the stronger, long-term threat.

By Patrick J. McDonnell, Times Staff Writer


BAGHDAD — As this week's coordinated violence demonstrates, Iraq's insurgent movement is increasingly potent, riding a wave of anti-U.S. nationalism and religious extremism. Just days before an Iraqi government takes control of the country, experts and some commanders fear it may be too late to turn back the militant tide.

The much-anticipated wave of strikes preceding Wednesday's scheduled hand-over could intensify under the new interim government as Sunni Muslim insurgents seek to undermine it, U.S. and Iraqi officials say.

"I think we're going to continue to see sensational attacks," said Army Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the 101st Airborne Division commander who will oversee the reshaping of Iraq's fledgling security forces.

Long gone are the days when the insurgents were dismissed as a finite force ticketed for high-tech annihilation by superior U.S. firepower.

Wreaking havoc and derailing plans for reconstruction of this battered nation, the dominant guerrilla movement — an unlikely Sunni alliance of hard-liners from the former regime, Islamic militants and anti-U.S. nationalists — has taken over towns, blocked highways, bombed police stations, assassinated lawmakers and other "collaborators," and abducted civilians.

Although Shiite Muslim fighters took U.S. forces by surprise in an April uprising, the Sunni insurgents represent a stronger, long-term threat, experts agree. The fighters, commanders say, are overwhelmingly Iraqis, with a small but important contingent of foreign fighters who specialize in carrying out suicide bombings and other spectacular attacks, possibly including this week's coordinated strikes that killed more than 100 people.

"They are effective," said Army Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, operational commander of U.S. troops here.

The insurgent force has picked up legions of part-time nationalist recruits enraged by the lengthy occupation and the mounting toll on civilians. Whether the result of U.S. or insurgent fire, the casualties are blamed on Americans.

The anti-U.S. momentum is evident in both the nation's urban centers and the palm-shrouded Sunni rural heartland, where resentment over military sweeps and the torturous pace of reconstruction is pervasive. Support for the insurgency ranges from quiet assent to participation in the fighting.

"We're talking about people who are the equivalent of the Minutemen," said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert who served as an advisor for the U.S.-led occupation here. "They pick up their weapons and join the fight and then go back to their homes and farms. It makes it so fluid. And the media functions as the town crier, like the calls from the minaret."

The nimble enemy has kept just far enough ahead of coalition forces to raise the question in Iraqi minds: Who will be here in the long run, the U.S. and its allies or the insurgents?

The characteristics of the insurgency in Iraq are familiar from earlier campaigns in Vietnam and elsewhere, Hoffman wrote in a recent paper: "A population will give its allegiance to the side that will best protect it."

Also like past insurgency campaigns, this one combines classic guerrilla tactics — ambushes and other attacks on occupying troops — with ruthless terror, including the massacres of religious worshipers and restaurant patrons and the beheading of hostages.

The insurgents' decentralized command structure, Hoffman said in an interview, echoes the atomized nature of the Al Qaeda terrorist network. Thus, the arrest of deposed President Saddam Hussein in December was not nearly the intelligence windfall that U.S. authorities had predicted. Nor did his capture dry up funding for the insurgents.

Although U.S. officials have labeled Jordanian fugitive Abu Musab Zarqawi a mastermind in the wave of attacks that has shaken the country since last year, commanders say the insurgents' coordination is unclear.

"We can't find … a particular command and control structure that leads to one or two or three particular nodes," Metz said. "But I'm confident there are some leaders who have the wealth to continue … paying people to do business."

U.S. authorities have jailed dozens of cell chiefs but watched in frustration as the groups have regenerated and fought anew. "These kinds of networks, you chop off one part and the other part keeps on moving," Petraeus said.

The insurgents have other strengths: plentiful weapons (in many cases, looted from unguarded armories at the end of the invasion last year); easy mobility, in the form of a relatively modern highway system; and communications, in the form of cellphones and access to regional television channels such as Al Jazeera.

Defeating a force this entrenched and energized is difficult, commanders say.

"There are some insurgent leaders who wanted to talk to us," said Army Col. Dana Pittard of the 1st Infantry Division in Baqubah, an agricultural city northeast of Baghdad that was the site of fierce fighting Thursday. "But there are others who are hard-core and just don't get it."

Trying to defeat such a foe militarily can drag opposing forces into a withering cycle of violence, especially in a culture where families feel obliged to avenge the death of loved ones.

"The nature of this culture is you can't win a war of attrition with them," said Col. Robert B. Abrams of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division in Baghdad, "because it's a circle of violence — there will always be someone in the family who will pick up arms. Unless you want to kill too many people. Which of course we never want to do."

The insurgents have time on their side: U.S. forces are already under pressure to leave. And the Sunni fighters are armed with another major advantage: They have no need to win, only to sow instability. Their goal is to stand in the way of the caretaker government as it navigates a difficult path toward elections scheduled for January. Whether the nation will be sufficiently secure for free elections in six months is in doubt.

The murky guerrilla movement first emerged in the spring of 2003 with sporadic attacks on troops after the ouster of Hussein's regime. U.S. forces were just consolidating their control of Iraq and basking in their relatively easy march to Baghdad.

At the time, U.S. officials — notably L. Paul Bremer III, the chief American administrator here — dismissed the embryonic opposition as "dead-enders" who owed their allegiance to Hussein. Their initial attacks were amateurish, often involving kamikaze assaults on U.S. armored vehicles or crude roadside bombs jerry-built from stray munitions, wires and makeshift triggers.

Amid the triumphant declarations, it is now widely agreed, the U.S. leadership was disastrously slow to anticipate that this primitive enemy could grow into a formidable foe.

continued.....

[thedrifter]

What Bremer and other officials failed to appreciate fully was postwar Iraq's combustible character: a nation brimming with arms, munitions and disenfranchised young men with military training, all...

[thedrifter]

Marines find it hard to stand by while fellow battalion members are stuck in firefight


By Charlie Coon, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Friday, June 25, 2004

CAMP BAHARIA, Iraq — It’s a desperate feeling for a Marine not to be able to join the fight when members of his company are less than two miles away, perhaps fighting for their lives.

Marines from Company D, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, watched a firefight Thursday morning from inside Camp Baharia, standing on top of buildings and vehicles, knowing one of their platoons was involved.

The Marines watched as helicopters flew over the city of Fallujah, firing missiles that sent up big clouds, and listened as mortar rounds exploded and rifle fire sounded. About 25 of their peers were in combat, and there was nothing they could do.

“You’re here confined to camp, and the only way you’re going to get hit is by a lucky mortar round,” said Cpl. Joseph Lorek, 19, of Mentor, Ohio. “You know your friends are getting shot at, and you can’t do a damned thing from back here.”

Third platoon was just finishing its shift at about 7:30 a.m. when it was fired upon as it patrolled Route 1. Explosions and the sound of rifle fire echoed over the camp. Another platoon prepared to leave the base. Four Light Armored Vehicles were staged and ready to roll.

Marines stood on top of them and watched the fight in the distance over the wall that surrounds the base.

“We’re kind of anxious,” said Lance Cpl. Samuel Herzberg, 20, of Norman, Okla., as he stood atop his LAV-25 waiting to be sent into the battle. “You know everyone else is out there getting some [fire], and you don’t want to leave them there hanging.

“I’d just really like to get out there and help them out.”

The Marines back at the camp heard rumors that a helicopter was shot down and that members of their company had been wounded. No one knew anything for sure.

As the morning turned to afternoon, the sound of exploding mortars became more frequent. It was reminiscent of April, when fighting in Fallujah between the Marines and insurgents was intense.

Lorek said it was not like standing on the sideline of a football game, pleading to the coach to be sent in.

“Here, you can always put more players in,” said Lorek, whose platoon has the capability of firing TOW missiles. “It isn’t like a football game where you can only play 11 guys.

“There’s definitely use for us out there, especially us TOW gunners, because they say there are [insurgents] in buildings. We could just blow up the building and take out the guys in it.”

It turned out four Marines were injured, none seriously, according to company commander Capt. Ladd Shepard. He said at least seven insurgents were killed.

Shepard said more troops weren’t sent in because there were already adequate numbers in the fight, including helicopter and air support.

One of the Marines who was in the fight, Sgt. Jack Leuba of Accident, Md., said later that he knew how the Marines left back at the base felt.

“We’ve been in their shoes,” Leuba said. “It’s the worst feeling in world knowing you got friends out there fighting their hearts out and you’re stuck here sitting on a cot drinking a soda. You just want to go out there and do your job.

“You want to make sure they’re OK. You want to be there with them. Instead, you kind of feel like you’re letting them down.”

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=22966


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Posted on Sat, Jun. 26, 2004





Marines hammer Fallujah again

Martial law still being considered

By SOMINI SENGUPTA

The New York Times


BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. Marines attacked the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah with air strikes again Friday, and Iraq's new government again strongly suggested that it would declare martial law.

Marine aircraft bombed what American military officials called a safe house used by Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's network in Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad.

Twenty to 25 persons were killed, an official of the American-led alliance told The Associated Press.

The Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television network broadcast a speech by gunmen in Fallujah denying al-Zarqawi's presence in the city.

The air strike was the third against al-Zarqawi's network in Fallujah in a week. It came as U.S. tanks exchanged fire with militants on the outskirts of the city.

U.S. and Iraqi officials say that al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida-linked movement was behind highly coordinated assaults Thursday against police stations and other buildings in five cities. More than 100 people were killed. A claim of responsibility in al-Zarqawi's name was posted on an Islamic Web site.

Several strong explosions were heard early today in central Baghdad, The Associated Press reported. The origin was unclear. On Friday night, six mortar shells exploded near the Green Zone headquarters district of the U.S. occupation, the military reported. There were no reports of casualties.

A bomb also went off outside the home of an Iraqi deputy defense minister, although no one was hurt, the military told The Associated Press.

For the last several days, officials of the Iraqi interim government, including Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, have indicated they would declare a state of emergency. At a minimum, they have said, it could include a curfew, checkpoints, and a ban on public demonstrations.

Questions remain about the ability of the new Iraqi security forces to enforce such measures, and the extent to which the American military would be willing to help carry them out.

The declarations of the government signaled that on the question of security — Iraq's chief problem — the new government intended to be tough.

“It's the people who want stronger measures in Iraq,” Defense Minister Hazim al-Shalaan said Friday, five days before the United States was scheduled to transfer sovereignty to the Iraqis. “We've come to build democracy, and building democracy requires patience.”

Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib urged Iraqis to report potential insurgent activity to state security forces.

Neither Cabinet member said anything about when such measures could start.

Iraqi government officials blamed foreign fighters for the latest violence. Predicting a showdown with the insurgents, al-Shalaan promised to “confront the beastly attackers from outside the borders of the country.”

Also Friday, a lawyer defending an American soldier accused in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal described his client as a low-level scapegoat, whose superiors were fully aware of what was going on.

The soldier, Spc. Sabrina Harman, 26, was shown in a photograph, posing with body of a detainee who apparently died during an interrogation.

Todd Pitman of The Associated Press contributed to this report.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inside

• Contacts between Iraqi intelligence agents and Osama bin Laden in the mid-1990s were part of an effort to work with organizations opposing the Saudi ruling family, a document shows. A-10

• Increased reliance in Iraq on the National Guard and Reserve is straining U.S. businesses, lawmakers are told. A-11

• Preachers in Iraq's mosques condemn Thursday's bloodshed and call for unity as Iraq prepares for sovereignty next week. A-13

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/9015973.htm?1c&ERIGHTS=-3958028850961182184kansascity::moms_taxi2002@yahoo .com&KRD_RM=3rrmlosjjnrprkjjjjjjjjlkpo|E|N


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines suited for hostile landscape
June 27,2004
ANDREW DEGRANDPRE
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Amid the steady diesel drone of six idling buses, the scene last week at Camp Lejeune unfolded like so many others of late.

More than 200 Marines decked in desert camouflage braced their gear and service rifles with one arm while clinging tightly to wives, children or parents with the other. There were tears; and there was very little conversation.

In all, nearly 1,000 troops with the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment of the 2nd Marine Division are now Iraq-bound - some for the second time since the start of U.S. military operations there. About 140,000 service men and women are currently in country.

While the 1/8's deployment last week teemed with familiar sights, the political landscape of their war-tattered destination is set for substantial change. With the planned handover of power to the fledgling Iraqi government now just days away, the United States' greater role in Iraq will soon shift from being an occupying force to becoming a partner in the attempt to rebuild that nation.

"Are they going to see a more-secure and stable Iraq?" said Gunnery Sgt. Marcus D. McAllister, a Camp Lejeune spokesman. "I think they will."

Given the pending political adjustment, Camp Lejeune officials say the new wave of Marines will carry out a mission that mirrors the ongoing effort to restore order and to keep those in Iraq safe amid continued violence orchestrated by terrorists like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The Jordan-born militant with purported ties to al-Qaida is allegedly responsible for beheading American Nicholas Berg last month and vowing more recently to stifle this week's handover - he's proclaimed his intent to kill Iraq's interim prime minister.

It's precisely this type of hostile venue, military officials say, for which the Marines train and remain best suited.

"The Marine Corps, since its inception, has been fighting and winning Â… in complex environments," said a 1/8 spokesman, who helped train the group that deployed last week but asked to not be identified. "This is what we should be doing - more so than anything else."

Focus intact

To keep pace with the "atypical warfare" being waged in Iraq - particularly now as the Wednesday handover approaches - the Corps has re-evaluated its training techniques somewhat, McAllister said. The overall focus, while perpetually ingrained with the concept of helping Iraq transition to a free and stable country, has evolved, he said.

"For example, we've learned that convoys are a good target for insurgents," McAllister said. "So, from that perspective, Â… we're (teaching) Marines what to do if they're ambushed.

"We've tweaked our training to make sure they're prepared for (whatever) eventuality."

In their security and stability exercises at Camp Lejeune, 1/8 Marines participated in situations that might develop as they operate vehicle checkpoints alongside the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, for example, or while the two entities are on joint patrols, McAllister said.

Additionally, troops prepped for Middle East deployment now receive more ethnicity education, said the 1/8 spokesman - the key philosophy being "to understand the nuances of a culture that's very important to us."

They're put into ethical scenarios under varying degrees of stress or fatigue to "increase the probability that they'll make the right decisions on the battlefield," he said.

Even simple hand gestures considered innocuous by Western standards can be interpreted differently in the Middle East. With the prisoner-abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib still fresh in the minds of many Iraqis, the spokesman noted, it's crucial that U.S. troops demonstrate the utmost forethought and sensitivity.

Changing mission

As the world awaits Iraq's transition to sovereignty, there's a buzz among Marines stationed at home and abroad, said Camp Lejeune Cpl. Adam C. Schnell, 20, another military spokesman on hand for the 1/8's departure. Everyday conversation once dominated by the out-and-out violence reported by the media is being replaced by talk of the country's imminent renaissance, he said.

"Now, you're hearing a lot more about the restructuring of Iraq rather than about the Marines fighting insurgents," Schnell said.

"You can definitely tell that our mission there is starting to change. When the handover occurs, you're going to be able to see that what we did in Iraq has been good for the Iraqi people."


Contact Andrew deGrandpré at adegrandpre@jdnews.com or at 353-1171, Ext. 224.




http://www.jdnews.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=23652&Section=News


Ellie

[thedrifter]

As handover nears, fighters vow to continue jihad

The Associated Press

June 26, 2004, 6:35 PM EDT


FALLUJAH, Iraq -- As a U.S. spy drone whirs overhead, a bearded militant lurking on a street corner Saturday gave his vision for the days ahead as Iraq regains its sovereignty: "Jihad will not stop until the last American leaves."

Anti-U.S. gunmen and policemen waved cheerily to each other in this normally turbulent city, which the American military had sought but failed to tame in 14 months of gunbattles, security raids, searches and detentions.

Days ahead of the handover of power to a new Iraqi government on Wednesday, tension is rising again in Fallujah. U.S. forces have mounted three airstrikes against suspected terrorist hideouts in the past week.

Gunbattles since Thursday on the edge of the city threaten to re-ignite the insurgency at a time when U.S. and Iraqi security forces are stretched thin, amid warnings of possible large-scale attacks to sabotage the transfer of power.

"By God, and by God again, all of us would rather die than let them back into the city," the militant, a 26-year-old cleric who gave only his first name, Abdel-Azeem, said of the American Marines stationed near the gates of Fallujah.

"If we run out of ammunition, we will fight them with knifes," he said.

On Saturday, Abdel-Azeem and a handful of other mujahedeen — or holy Muslim warriors, the phrase Fallujah fighters prefer — mused to a reporter on the occupation, Iraq's future and whether Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is truly behind a series of horrific bombings as the Americans claim — or whether he exists at all.

Thin and bespectacled, Abdel-Azeem was in black pants and top over which he wore a green military-type belt. Others wore similar attire. One, a 24-year-old seminary student who gave only his first name Baha'a, wore a white turban. Everyone carried an assault rifle.

They stopped and thoroughly searched the car that brought the reporter to their spot, a few yards away from a house destroyed Friday in a U.S. airstrike. The military said the strike hit a hideout of al-Zarqawi.

The fighters later apologized for the search and offered the reporter and his companion ice water served in metal cups from a clay pot kept in the shade.

Speaking with zeal as intense as the midday heat — 110 degrees — they cited their faith as the main motivator for fighting the Americans and dismissed claims by the U.S. military that al-Zarqawi or members of his group are in Fallujah.

They vowed to fight the Americans and sharply criticized the new interim Iraqi government, calling it an "American creation."

"Who appointed the government? The Americans, right? We hate the Americans, so you can imagine how we feel about those appointed by America," said Waiel Sarhan, a 24-year-old barber-turned-fighter, in a separate interview that began over a meal of kebab, rice and cooked vegetables in a busy Fallujah restaurant and continued in a private home.

A U.S. military presence in Fallujah, a conservative city of some 250,000 people, is often cited by the fighters as the main reason behind the insurgency. In the 14 months since U.S. forces first moved into the city, the only periods of calm came when the Americans stopped patrolling Fallujah.

"We are happy and safe so long as the Americans stay out of Fallujah," said Sheik Mohammed al-Rawi, a 25-year-old Muslim cleric who teaches at an Islamic school in central Fallujah.

U.S. Marines besieged Fallujah for three weeks in April in a bloody operation that ended with an agreement handing security to a new "Fallujah Brigade" made up largely of local residents and commanded by officers of Saddam Hussein's former army.

At the time, American military officials hailed formation of the brigade as a great success — "an Iraqi solution to Iraqi problems."

But from the American perspective, the experiment has been a disaster. Islamic militants have since asserted their influence in Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad.

Some were active in defending the city against the Marines and have profited by a perception in the city and elsewhere in Iraq that the mujahedeen defeated a superpower.

On Saturday, Abdel-Azeem and his comrades warmly waved to Fallujah Brigade patrols that drove past. The area's mukhtar, or mayor, later took the reporter on a tour of the destroyed house that the Americans said was an al-Zarqawi safehouse.

The U.S. military said Saturday that 15 people were killed in Friday's airstrike, but the area's mayor, Hussein Ali, said the house was empty. Its owner, Youssef Kanash, his wife and seven children vacated the house the previous day to move into a safer part of the city, said Ali.

"If this animal is a member of the al-Zarqawi group, then I congratulate the Americans on their victory," said Ali, pointing at the Kanash family pet, a black rabbit lying dead in the front yard.

"Does al-Zarqawi really exist? Or do they just use the name to bomb our homes?" asked Baha'a, the turbaned fighter.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-woiraq0626,0,5220149.story?coll=ny-homepage-big-pix


Ellie