Care packages bring America's best wishes to deployed Marines

[thedrifter]

Care packages bring America's best wishes to deployed Marines <br />
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division <br />
Story Identification #: 200471253955 <br />
Story by Sgt. Jose L. Garcia <br />
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CAMP AL ASAD, Iraq(July...

[thedrifter]

3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment gets a send-off from Division commander
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 200471253150
Story by Cpl. Macario P. Mora Jr.



CAMP AL ASAD, Iraq(July 9, 2004) -- Marines from 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment got a star-studded send off before they completed their deployment to Iraq.

The 1st Marine Division's Commander, Maj. Gen. James N. Mattis, bade farewell to the battalion's Marines July 9. The Marines closed a chapter of their history, which included patrolling operations throughout western Al Anbar Province and actions in Fallujah in April.

The battalion gathered in a large hangar to listen to their commanding general as he spoke of their accomplishments - this year and last - while paying his last respects to four of the battalion's Marines killed in action.

"Cocky young men like you are the reason we're able to keep this experiment we call America going," Mattis said. "Those freedoms we have will be taken away if we do not fight for them. You are the most radical people on earth, coming half way around the world to fight for what you believe in. We will fight forever if we have to, as long as men like you keep coming."

Mattis explained to the Marines the full measure of support the United States has for deployed Marines.

"The spirit of 3/4 is what defines you," he said. "You have the one hundred percent support of your congressmen. At a very young age, you have committed to something far bigger than yourselves.

"You stood and fought when many in our world didn't believe America had it in her," Mattis continued. "The more we fight here, the better. We haven't had a single attack on American soil since 9-11. It's been an honor to fight with you 3/4. I salute you."

Marines were pleased with the send-off their senior ranking officer gave them.

"It's great having him visit," said 1st Lt. Lewis M. Langella, platoon commander with Company I from Cathedral, Calif. "Sometimes it's better for them to hear it from the top. They always listen to us, but it gets old saying, 'because the CG said so.'"

Still, Marines had a hard time concealing the smiles. This is the second tour for the battalion in Iraq in as many years. Many of the Marines were combat veterans before deploying earlier this year and hear a similar speech the last time they returned to the United States.

"This is the second time," Langella said. "It doesn't get old though. The Marines are very excited about going home."


http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/20047125351/$file/sendoff1lr.jpg

Maj. Gen. James N. Mattis bids farewell to the Marines of 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment July 9, at Camp Al Asad. The battalion operated in the western deserts of Al Anbar Province and fought in Fallujah.
(USMC photo by Cpl. Macario P. Mora Jr.) Photo by: Cpl. Macario P. Mora Jr.

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/FA25F713E9FCC4E285256ECF00345A91?opendocument


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Insurgent ambushes kill three U.S. soldiers; Philippines refuses to meet kidnappers' demands

By: RAVI NESSMAN - Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Insurgents ambushed two U.S. military patrols north of Baghdad on Sunday, separate attacks that killed three U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi civilian.

Also, the Philippines government rejected an insurgent group's ultimatum to pull its small peacekeeping force out of Iraq. The group has threatened to kill a Filipino man it is holding hostage.

A roadside bomb attack on a U.S. patrol in the city of Samarra, a hotbed of violence 60 miles north of Baghdad, killed two soldiers Sunday afternoon and wounded three others, the military said.


An earlier attack on a U.S. convoy in Beiji, 90 miles south of the northern city of Mosul, began Sunday morning when a roadside bomb exploded. An enemy vehicle then raced toward the convoy, firing at the soldiers, who shot back and killed the driver, the military said.

A soldier and a civilian traveling behind the patrol were killed. A second soldier was injured and evacuated. Thick black smoke poured over the area from an oil tanker set alight in the attack.

The deaths came a day after four U.S. Marines were killed in a vehicle accident near Camp Fallujah in western Iraq. More than 875 service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq.

Militants from a group calling itself "The Islamic Army of Iraq -- Khaled bin Al-Waleed Brigade" initially gave the Philippines until Sunday night to agree to withdraw its 51-member peacekeeping force by July 20 -- a month ahead of schedule. The group threatened to kill truck driver Angelo dela Cruz if the Philippines did not comply.

The group extended the deadline by two days, until Tuesday, a Philippines government officials said early Monday.

"There are good signals that the extension of the deadline has been given (for) another 48 hours," Labor Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas told ABS-CBN TV from Dubai, where she was accompanying dela Cruz's wife and brother en route to Baghdad.

The extension came hours after the government in Manilla rejected the militants' ultimatum.

"In line with our commitment to the free people of Iraq, we reiterate our plan to return our humanitarian contingent as scheduled on Aug. 20, 2004," Foreign Secretary Delia Albert told reporters after an emergency cabinet meeting late Sunday.

Dela Cruz's wife and brother were heading to Baghdad, Albert said, and the government remained hopeful he would be released.

Philippine negotiators were working through mediators Sunday to try to free dela Cruz, a diplomat in Baghdad with knowledge of the situation said.

In a video purportedly from the militants broadcast Sunday on the Arab television station Al-Arabiya, a masked man holding a sword said that if the Philippines complies, dela Cruz will no longer be a hostage but will be held as a protected prisoner of war. After Filipino troops leave, he would be released, the man said.

A deadline for two other hostages -- Bulgarian truck drivers held by a separate group demanding the release of all Iraqi detainees -- expired Saturday morning. Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Pasi said Sunday he had unconfirmed information the two were alive.

At a news conference in Bulgaria, Pasi appealed to the hostage takers, saying Islam calls for "mercy for the poor, the hungry and the sick." He said one hostage, Georgi Lazov, had diabetes, while the other, Ivaylo Kepov, had suffered a stroke.

The group holding the Bulgarians, the Tawhid and Jihad movement linked to Jordanian terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, also claimed responsibility Sunday for an attack Thursday on a military headquarters in the city of Samarra that killed five U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi National Guardsman.

To prevent the infiltration of foreign fighters, Syria and Iraq agreed to set up a special force to patrol their 360-mile shared border, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said Sunday in Damascus, Syria, after meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

In other developments, Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie, said Sunday the country would never again threaten its neighbors and would honor the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as well as international agreements banning the use of chemical and biological weapons.

"Iraq officially declares it will be a country free of any weapons of mass destruction," al-Rubaie told reporters during a news conference. "Iraq will never again resort to threatening its neighbors, as Saddam did."

Saddam's alleged possession of such weapons was one of President Bush's declared reasons for invading Iraq last year. The hunt for weapons of mass destruction has proved largely unsuccessful.

Demonstrators, some supporting Saddam's ousted regime, others opposed to it, took to the streets of Iraq on Sunday.

In Baqouba north of Baghdad, about 100 people marched through the shopping district, chanting pro-Saddam slogans, waving rifles and carrying posters of the former leader. Meanwhile, demonstrators in Baghdad held a mock trial and execution of Saddam, hoisting an effigy from a hangman's noose setting it on fire.

Also Sunday, Islamic militants in Baghdad opened fire on a downtown shop selling alcohol, destroying the merchandise and kidnapping an employee, witnesses said.

"They came in two cars and shouted "God is Great," as they opened fire," said Rafid Fadil, a witness.


http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/07/12/military/20_37_487_11_04.txt


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Decreed out of existence, Iraq's old army may come back

By: CHARLES J. HANLEY - Associated Press

Iraq's new leader wants to call some of its old army back to duty to help restore peace in his war-torn land. Disbanding that defeated force 13 months ago was a mistake made in Washington, says a U.S. Army colonel who held a pivotal role in Baghdad at the time.

"It was because ideology ruled where reality should have," Col. Paul F. Hughes, then strategic policy director for the U.S. occupation authority, said of last year's decision.

Other key players said the order came not from then-Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer, as believed, but from top-level civilian officials at the Pentagon, and that it was done without consulting U.S. military chiefs.


With no Iraqi security forces on hand, the U.S. military was left almost alone to confront an Iraqi insurgency and crime wave that built through 2003 ---- fed in part by armed soldiers of the disbanded army.

"Anyone who ever worked in any country after a losing war knows you have to do something with the old soldiers," Hughes told The Associated Press. "Otherwise, they're out of work and they will do what people do who know how to use guns."

Iyad Allawi, Iraq's interim prime minister, says he hopes to reconstitute three or four divisions of the old army ---- up to 40,000 troops, about 10 percent of the huge force maintained under the ousted Baathist government of Saddam Hussein.

Allawi first spoke out against the U.S. decision last October, as a member of Iraq's governing council. By May, before taking over as interim prime minister, he told The Los Angeles Times, "We need an army, full stop."

His approval last week of legislation permitting martial law and military governors makes an army recall "imperative," said Ray Salvatore Jennings, an expert in postwar transitions with the government-financed U.S. Institute of Peace.

"If the army had not been fully dissolved, we would be starting from a far more advantageous position," Jennings said in Baghdad.

Last August, the U.S. command in Iraq began training a "New Iraqi Army" of light infantry, but the slow-paced program has produced only an estimated 7,000 troops, far short of the 40,000-member military the Americans once projected for October 2004.

Meanwhile, the first trained battalion fell apart when more than one-third of the men deserted, and the 2nd Battalion refused to fight alongside U.S. Marines against insurgents in the city of Fallujah this April.

The U.S. command says other newly organized security forces, including police and a lightly armed national guard, are more than 200,000 strong. But they are short on equipment and training.

"They were not intended to fight a pitched battle against well-armed insurgents," the U.S. General Accounting Office notes in a new assessment of postwar Iraq, where 138,000 U.S. troops bear the brunt of the fighting.

Jay Garner, the retired Army general who was the first U.S. administrator in Baghdad, went to Iraq in April 2003 planning to use the old army in a rebuilding role, keeping troops organized and paid.

In the face of the U.S.-British invasion, that army had disintegrated, its men gone home, often with weapons. But Hughes, now at the National Defense University in Washington, said he and others in Baghdad in those early weeks nonetheless coordinated with a committee of Iraqi generals and kept track of units.

"I had more than 100,000 names that this committee had pulled together," he said. Then the May 23, 2003, decree came down dissolving the army, signed by the newly arrived Bremer.

"Neither Jay nor I was consulted on that," Hughes said.

Bremer's senior security adviser, Walter B. Slocombe, told AP it was not his boss's decision.

"It was approved specifically at very high levels at the Department of Defense," said Slocombe, now back in private law practice in Washington. Hughes said it was driven by "ideology," a belief "that everything connected with power structures of Iraq was bad."

Neither would discuss which civilian Pentagon officials made the decision. Gen. Peter Pace, the Pentagon's No. 2 officer, said last February the top U.S. military men, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were not consulted.

Slocombe, who still defends last year's decision, said recalling Iraqi units risks setting the stage for collisions between U.S. and Iraqi troops.

He cited Fallujah, from which the Marines withdrew this spring, to cede control to ex-officers in an ad-hoc Iraqi "brigade." Anti-American insurgents now operate relatively freely from within the city.

One Fallujah may be necessary to "isolate the infection," he said. "But that's different from saying you want one, two, how many Fallujahs all over the country.

"You get situations where (Iraqi security forces) end up on the wrong side," Slocombe said.

Jennings, whose Institute of Peace is helping in Iraq's political transition, sees another potential outcome: U.S. military withdrawal.

"Allawi knows that the more quickly he can create and rely on Iraqi security forces, the faster he can insist the U.S. downsize and depart," he said.

Whether the U.S. command will welcome or oppose an Iraqi army recall remains to be seen. It could prove a test of Iraq's new limited sovereignty.

A spokesman, Army Lt. Col. Joseph Yoswa, said Friday the Pentagon would have no comment on Allawi's plan, nor on the year-ago decision-making.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/07/12/military/21_54_447_11_04.txt


Ellie

[thedrifter]

1/2 prepares vehicles for journey to Iraq
Submitted by: 24th MEU
Story Identification #: 2004711143652
Story by Lance Cpl. Sarah A. Beavers



KUWAIT(July 11, 2004) -- With the blazing sun overhead and temperatures in the triple digits, Marines with the 24 Marine Expeditionary Unit are working through the searing heat to ensure that equipment and vehicles are ready to cross the line of departure into Iraq.

For the Marines of 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, the Ground Combat Element of the 24th MEU, the scorching temperatures act merely as an inconvenience as they addressed maintenance issues on their vehicles and began preparing them for the journey north.

"We're preparing our vehicles for movement [into Iraq]," said 1st Lt. Shayne Yenzor, 28, a Columbia, Mo., native and motor transportation officer with Headquarters and Service Company, 1/2. "We want to mitigate maintenance issues now to reduce the hazards of driving in the convoys."

With that in mind, the Marines are performing maintenance checks on every vehicle in the motor pool, even the most combat ready vehicle must be examined to specifications that reduce the likelihood of it breaking down.

"The vehicles in the motor pool will undergo a limited technical inspection (LTI)," said Yenzor. "This will ensure that the tires have the appropriate amount of air pressure, fluid and oil has been checked and the steering and joints are lubricated properly."

Even though these Marines are putting up with almost intolerable conditions, the hard work of the motor transport Marines will ensure the vehicles from 1/2 will be ready for the journey ahead.

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/2004711144058/$file/040710-M-1250B-002lores.jpg

Cpl. Kevin Cannon, 22, a Philadelphia native with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit makes final adjustments to the air intake on a humvee in preparation for vehicle convoy operations.
Cannon is a motor transportation mechanic with 1st Battalion 2nd Marines, the Ground Combat Element for the 24th MEU.
The MEU has arrived in Kuwait to begin acclimatization and further training before departing for their destination in Iraq.
Photo by: Lance Cpl. Sarah A. Beavers

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/B2AAEC8AADD5ACC585256ECE00664092?opendocument


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Soldiers earn right to Division's Blue Diamond
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 200471255928
Story by Cpl. Paula M. Ritzgerald



CAMP BLUE DIAMOND, Iraq(July 9, 2004) -- Soldiers with Company A, 9th Psychological Operations Battalion (Airborne) received 1st Marine Division patches during a ceremony held here July 9.

Brig. Gen. John F. Kelly, assistant division commander, was on hand to congratulate each of the 25 soldiers.

According to Army regulations, soldiers who serve in a combat environment for at least 30 days are authorized to wear the insignia of the unit they support. The patch is worn on the right shoulder. Officially the patches are called "shoulder sleeve insignia indicating former wartime service," but they're more commonly known as combat patches.

"Since last year during the war, every Army unit that has been assigned to the 1st Marine Division has asked if I would support their wearing our patch," the general explained.

Kelly said the patch is important to the soldiers because it signifies that they've been to war.

"In the Army, soldiers wear a lot of different patches for the schools they've been to and the things they've done," he added. "They wear the patch of the unit they are assigned to on the left arm. It's unique if they have a unit patch on the right arm."

That's why Army Maj. Hugh R. Sutherland, Company A commander, asked the general for patches for his soldiers.

"It's an Army tradition," explained Sutherland. "When you've been to combat, you wear that insignia for the rest of your career. It lets people know that you've seen the horrors of
combat."

The Huntsville, Ala., soldier said when he first arrived to Iraq, he thought his unit would be supporting the Army's 4th Infantry Division. After he learned he'd be working with the 1st Marine Division, he was not upset.

"My father was with 4th Infantry Division, so I thought it would be nice to wear the same patch, but my grandfather fought with 1st Marine Division during World War II in Guadalcanal as a Navy corpsman," he said. "Now I get to wear the same patch he wore."

Since arriving here in February, Company A has supported the "Blue Diamond" division's security and stabilization mission here.

According to Army Spc. Wilfredo Sotomayor, the goal of the unit is to work hand-in-hand with the Marines to "win over the general mood of the Iraqi people."

"I've worked with the Air Force in the past, but I never thought I'd be working with Marines," Sotomayor added. "It's been a really good learning experience."

Sotomayor, of Brooklyn, N.Y., said he's enjoyed working with his Marine counterparts and was happy to receive a 1st Marine Division patch.

"It's very cool that we actually got the patches here. It would be difficult to have them made back in the United States," he said. "This will identify us as having worked with the 1st Marine Division in a hostile environment."

Kelly said he is pleased that the soldiers want to wear the division's patch.

"It's an honor for us as well," the general said. "It's really nice that they want to wear our patch. It means they are proud to serve with Marines."


http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/20047126339/$file/patch1lr.jpg

Army Spc. Wilfredo Sotomayor, member of Company A, 9th Psychological Operations Battalion (Airborne), displays his 1st Marine Division patch. According to the Company A Commander Maj. Hugh R. Sutherland, the patch signifies that his unit fought in a combat environment with the 1st Marine Division. A patch distribution ceremony was held at Camp Blue Diamond July 9 to recognize the soldiers' contribution to the division's security and stabilization mission in Iraq.
(USMC photo by Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald) Photo by: Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/500A2DD0C425AE9685256ECF0036E22E?opendocument


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Bravo Battery adjusts to firing in desert: Photo Essay
Submitted by: 24th MEU
Story Identification #: 200471112279
Story by Lance Cpl. John D. Cranford



KUWAIT(July 10, 2004) -- Artillerymen from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit recently had their first opportunity to shoot in the desert since departing Camp Lejeune a few weeks ago.

The Marines from Bravo Battery attached to 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, the Ground Combat Element for the 24th MEU moved out from the Base Camp where the MEU is staying to a training area where they conducted a live-fire shoot.

This shoot allowed the Marines to adjust to firing in a desert environment, different from the environment they are used to in the pine forests of Camp Lejeune.

The MEU has arrived in Kuwait to begin acclimatization and further training before departing for their destination in Iraq.

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/2004711124954/$file/040710-M-9298C-005lores.jpg

Marines with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit send a 155mm round hurling towards the impact area during a live-fire shoot in Kuwait.
The Marines are from Bravo Battery attached to 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, the Ground Combat Element for the 24th MEU.
The MEU has arrived in Kuwait to begin acclimatization and further training before departing for their destination in Iraq
Photo by: Lance Cpl. John D. Cranford

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/2004711132828/$file/040710-M-9298C-003lores.jpg

Marines with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit send a 155mm round down range during a live-fire shoot in Kuwait.
The Marines are from Bravo Battery attached to 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, the Ground Combat Element for the 24th MEU.
The MEU has arrived in Kuwait to begin acclimatization and further training before departing for their destination in Iraq.
Photo by: Lance Cpl. John D. Cranford


http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/200471113402/$file/040710-M-9298C-004lores.jpg

Marines with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit fire an M-198 155mm Howitzer during a live-fire shoot in Kuwait.
The Marines are from Bravo Battery attached to 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, the Ground Combat Element for the 24th MEU.
The MEU has arrived in Kuwait to begin acclimatization and further training before departing for their destination in Iraq.
Photo by: Lance Cpl. John D. Cranford

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/C18E03036CF1302F85256ECE005A608A?opendocument

Ellie

[thedrifter]

New enthusiasm among counterparts <br />
July 12,2004 <br />
CHRIS TOMLINSON <br />
ASSOCIATED PRESS <br />
<br />
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Not much has changed for U.S. troops since the handover of power to an Iraqi government....

[thedrifter]

Call-ups retraining to replace casualties in Iraq <br />
Submitted by: MCB Camp Pendleton <br />
Story Identification #: 200473161534 <br />
Story by Cpl. Luis R. Agostini <br />
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MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON,...

[thedrifter]

Iraqi interim president threatens insurgents with 'very sharp sword'




By Jamie Tarabay
ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:54 a.m. July 12, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi interim President Ghazi al-Yawer threatened Monday to use a "very sharp sword" to fight insurgents and anyone else threatening the security of the country.

"Terrorism isn't just killing and blowing up bombs, whoever threatens the ordinary life of the people is a terrorist," al-Yawer told reporters during a meeting with Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan and National Guard Brig. Gen. Muther al-Rashardi.

The country has been wracked by violence since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime nearly 15 months ago. Foreign and local insurgents have launched numerous attacks on Iraqi civilian targets and against U.S. forces in attempts to thwart the country's postwar reconstruction, killing U.S. troops and hundreds of Iraqi civilians.

"We have a very sharp sword ready for anyone who threatens the security of this country," al-Yawer said.

"We want to tell anyone who wants to threaten the security of this country: 'Enough,' I say, 'Enough. Stop.'"

Al-Yawer said the roughly 160,000 coalition forces led by the United States were required to stay in the country because of the danger posed by the insurgents, but violent groups should not use this as an excuse to continue attacks.

"Those who claim they are resisting the occupation, the occupation is over now," he said.

Security officials also sought to reassure Iraqis they were trying to restore order.

Al-Rashardi said the national guard has divided the capital, Baghdad, into eight sections to make it easier to control and ensure security there.

"We have very big plans to follow this up," Shaalan said. "We are ready to sacrifice ourselves for our people."

Al-Yawer, a prominent Sunni whose position is largely ceremonial, said the government planned to announce an amnesty soon for some of the insurgents in the coming days.

When the amnesty expired, however, he would work for the death penalty to be reintroduced here.

Capital punishment was suspended during the U.S. occupation. Under the previous regime of Saddam Hussein, some 114 offenses could garner the death penalty. Al-Yawer said the death penalty would be restricted to serious crimes, such as murder and rape, under the new government.


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20040712-0354-iraq-insurgents.html


Ellie

[thedrifter]

A Tough Guy Tries to Tame Iraq
By DEXTER FILKINS

Published: July 11, 2004


BAGHDAD, Iraq — Throughout this war-ravaged land, where facts are hard to come by, rumor and innuendo can often serve as the most reliable measure of the Iraqi mood. Consider the lurid tale about Iyad Allawi, the new Iraqi prime minister, that made the rounds in the Iraqi capital last week.

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Late one night before taking power, the story went, Mr. Allawi was not to be found cramming for his new job but instead was in the innards of a Baghdad prison, overseeing the interrogation of a cabal of Lebanese terrorists. No one was talking.

"Bring me an ax," the prime minister is said to have announced. With that, the story went, Mr. Allawi lopped off the hand of one the Lebanese men, and the group quickly spilled everything they knew.

The tale passed from ear to ear, much like the rumors blaming the Americans for the many explosions that mar the capital. But in this case, the remarkable thing was that the story about Mr. Allawi was not greeted with expressions of horror or malice, but with nods and smiles.

After months of terror and anarchy here, many Iraqis are only too happy to believe that their new prime minister is a tough guy who is on their side.

Mr. Allawi's hard-nosed reputation, even the unearned parts, is indicative of the unusual ways in which the country's interim government, which took over on June 28, appears to be acquiring a measure of legitimacy among the Iraqi people.

Unelected, headed by an exile and chosen largely by diplomats from the United States and the United Nations, the new Iraqi government nonetheless appears to be enjoying something of a honeymoon, even as Mr. Allawi has quickly embarked on a series of sweeping and potentially draconian measures aimed at quelling the guerrilla insurgency.

Yet Mr. Allawi also faces a conundrum in the coming months: as he tries to assert Iraqi control and bring a degree of order to this country, thereby gaining the gratitude of many Iraqis, he will risk alienating the very group, the country's Sunni Arab minority, from which an overwhelming majority of the violence here has been generated.

Among Iraq's three major groups, it is the Sunni Arabs who are still most broadly resisting the American-sponsored framework that is designed to lead the country toward democratic rule next year. Iraq's Shiites, the country's largest group, are hungry for elections that promise them their first real shot at political power. The Kurds, America's closest friends, seem to be planning to hunker down and watch events from their stronghold in the north.

Without the support of the Sunni Arabs, a minority that has dominated the country for five centuries, it seems unlikely that Mr. Allawi will make much headway in bringing a measure of stability in time to hand over power to a democratically elected government next year.

Indeed, without some success in winning over the towns and villages of the Sunni Triangle, the area north and west of Baghdad where the insurgency is still churning, it is conceivable that the nationwide elections scheduled to be held by January might have to be postponed or even forgone in significant parts of the country.

In some ways, Mr. Allawi seems to be the perfect man, under the circumstances, to bring this fractious country together. As a Shiite, he is a member of the country's largest group, and although he is thought to be a largely secular man, his ascension to the post of prime minister was not opposed by Iraq's most powerful religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Mr. Allawi is known for his decade of work in trying to topple Mr. Hussein, but he is a former Baathist himself, with suggestions among those who regard him with suspicion that he once engaged in thuggish work on the party's behalf. That tough-guy past, even his former association with the Central Intelligence Agency, seems to warm the hearts of many Iraqis who miss Mr. Hussein's iron-fisted ways.

"That Allawi worked for the C.I.A. may be a problem for Americans," an Iraqi journalist said in conversation recently, "but it is not a problem for Iraqis."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/weekinreview/11filk.html?pagewanted=1


Ellie

[thedrifter]

If Ramadi falls, 'province goes to hell'
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
RAMADI, Iraq — This may be the most dangerous city in Iraq.

Though battles in places such as Fallujah and Najaf have gotten far more attention, the Marine battalion in this provincial capital has encountered the most deadly combat fighting and logged the highest number of casualties of any U.S. battalion since the war in Iraq began.

In the past four months of fighting, the 2nd Battalion of the 4th Marine Regiment — nicknamed "The Magnificent Bastards" — has had 31 killed and 175 wounded, roughly 20% of its 1,000-man fighting strength.

Among the latest to die was Sgt. Kenneth Conde, 23, of Orlando. Conde had been wounded in fighting in April and recommended for a Silver Star. He was killed July 1. In an interview a few weeks before his death, Conde described the rebels Marines fight in Ramadi. "They were young just like me. Fighting for something different, something I don't understand, something they believe in," he said. "And that's the worst kind of enemy."

Little attention has been focused on Ramadi, despite its lethality to American troops. Instead, the focus has been on places such as Fallujah, 30 miles to the east, where Marines began and then halted an invasion of the city after insurgents murdered and mutilated four civilian contractors March 31.

But the importance of the fighting in this capital of Anbar province is not lost on the Marine high command. On a visit last month to Combat Outpost, an edgy exposed Marine base under frequent attack, the head of the 1st Marine Division, Maj. Gen. James Mattis, delivered a terse message to a chow hall full of men: "Ramadi must hold."

Security in Iraq, especially now that the U.S.-led coalition has handed sovereignty to Iraqis, is essential to creating a stable democracy. Militants are desperate to disrupt those efforts. Anbar province is the heart of the Sunni Arab culture that provided Saddam Hussein his power base. Ramadi, its capital, is home to the cream of Saddam's former military.

Marines say they feel certain that in the days and weeks ahead, rebels will try to disrupt the nascent provincial democracy in this region.

In his mess hall remarks, Mattis told Marines, "If we don't hold the government center, if we don't hold the provincial capital, the rest of the province goes to hell in a handbasket."

Strategic area

Anbar is geographically Iraq's largest province and among its most strategic. The province contains a crucial trade route to Jordan and Syria.

With a population of 500,000, roughly equal to Oklahoma City, Ramadi spans a stretch of the Euphrates River. The provincial capital was a stronghold of the ruling Baath Party under Saddam. Its chief export was military expertise.

Neighborhoods are filled with retired or former members of the Republican Guard and intelligence services. Marines say unemployment is about 60%. Paul Bremer, head of the U.S.-led civilian administration, disbanded the Iraqi army and until recently refused to assimilate members of Saddam's regime into the reconstituted Iraqi security services.

"They know how to fight and are doing so," says Lt. Col. Paul Kennedy, the battalion commander.

Weapon stockpiles are hidden everywhere. In an ambush April 6, rebels produced a heavy machine gun, similar to a .50-caliber, that shredded a Humvee and the Marines in it.

Combat Outpost, one of five Marine bases in and around Ramadi, is located deep inside the city. It is the most exposed Marine position here and arguably the most dangerous U.S. military camp in Iraq. Almost daily, rocket and mortar attacks hit the base or the observation posts that overlook a major highway and supply route bisecting Ramadi.

Face to face with the enemy

Kennedy says he is certain that during get-acquainted meetings with local city elders, he has sat down with men who are really the enemy, some of them former Iraqi intelligence officials. "They're smart guys," says Kennedy, 41, of Bloomfield, Conn. "You talk to these guys, and the light is on. You know that he knows that you know — that kind of thing."

Kennedy says veteran Iraqi officers are recruiting young local men and instructing them on attack procedures against U.S. forces. Two captured fighters said a former military officer drilled them about one assault plan using a so-called "sand table," a platform with miniature dirt terrain that replicated the ambush site.

"That's a pretty slick technique," Kennedy says.

In fighting here, the insurgents have plotted Marine troop movements, carefully laid ambushes, built increasingly lethal roadside bombs and demonstrated accurate sniper and rocket-propelled-grenade fire. "I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said I wasn't impressed," says Capt. Kelly Royer, 36, of Orangeville, Calif., commander of Echo Company, which has lost 18 men, more than any other battalion company.

In street fighting, rebels have flanked Marine positions, stood and fought to the death in some instances, or made controlled, text-book withdrawals. In one street battle in April, at least five Marines — including a platoon commander, 2nd Lt. John Wroblewski, 25, of Oak Ridge, N.J. — were killed or badly wounded by single shots to the head.

In Ramadi, Marines have encountered even more skilled and deadly resistance than in Fallujah.

The hand-over of Fallujah to local forces in May ended major combat there and left the city largely under the control of Iraqi insurgents. And although kidnappings and killings in and around Fallujah have made it the symbol of rebellion, it is Ramadi where the resistance has been less reported but far more deadly to American troops.

Seven Marines were wounded in the roadside bomb explosion that killed Conde. On June 21, four Marines died defending an observation post in the city.

On June 24, four days before the transfer of sovereignty, Marines foiled an assault on the governor's mansion. They killed nine insurgents. Two Ramadi police stations also were attacked that day. At one, the local Iraqi officers abandoned the building without a fight. Rebels detonated explosives and destroyed the structure.

The death and destruction has made for an increasingly bitter struggle between Marines and rebel fighters.

"We will be attacked in Ramadi," says Marine Capt. Rob Weiler, Conde's company commander. "We just hope we have the opportunity to kill a great deal of them."

Marines in Ramadi are concerned that the local police and militia — numbering about 3,500, many of them trained by U.S. contractors in three-week courses — may be unprepared or unwilling to deal with insurgent violence.

The battalion stationed here is serving as backup to Iraqi police and militia. It has a combat lineage dating back to the Tet Offensive in 1968 in Vietnam, where communist fighters captured government centers and won a propaganda victory. The lessons of Tet are not lost on Marine officers here.

"It's almost like they (the rebels) read a book on how, during Vietnam, public opinion contributed to us pulling out of Vietnam. They probably figured they'd do the same thing here," Kennedy says.

As Marines in Ramadi prepare to help Iraqi forces defend the city against expected attacks, the war in Ramadi has become one of wills.

"It's almost like who can hold their breath longer," Kennedy says.

'Keep each other alive'

The Marines have killed an estimated 300 insurgents. The resistance went underground in May and June. Its tactics became more clandestine but no less deadly: roadside bombs, mortars and rocket-propelled-grenade fire and snipers.

"All we want is to keep each other alive and go home," says Echo Company's Lance Cpl. Jonathan Kaiser, 20, of Montezuma, Iowa, as he works in 130-degree heat to fill sandbags and harden a mortar-firing position inside Combat Outpost.

The battalion has spent $2 million on community projects, working hard to bring security and a semblance of responsive local government to the city under the Marine mantra, "No better friend, no worse enemy." But the slog is hard, and resistance continues.

"It's extremely difficult to maintain the 'no better friend' part of the deal," Royer says.

The deadline for establishing Iraq sovereignty forced the battalion to move more quickly than it would otherwise in turning over security in Ramadi to Iraqi police and militia.

With the transfer of power, Marines reduced patrols of troubled neighborhoods. There's a sense among some Marines that they have ceded these neighborhoods to insurgents. Some worry that rebels are gathering strength.

"They control the whole tempo of the battlefield," says Echo Company Gunnery Sgt. Bernard Coleman, 37, of Hampton, Va. "If they want to wait a month to attack, they can do that. While all that time, we're just waiting. There's always more people out there who hate us."

In his morale-building speech to the Marines recently, Mattis tried to make sense of a complicated mission and reassure his forces that the battle is winnable.

continued........

[thedrifter]

Victory can be achieved if the Marines support local security forces and shepherd Ramadi through the transition and toward local elections in the months ahead, he said — "if we can get the Iraqis to work with us."

"They don't have to love us," Mattis told the troops. "It will make it harder and harder for insurgents to attack when they see Iraqis take more and more control."

But victory seems distant for many of the Marines in Ramadi. "I've been here quite a while, I'm ready to go," says Echo Company Cpl. Ryan Pape, 22, of San Clemente, Calif.

Like other Marines here, he hopes to return to the USA in September. "But I don't want to leave this place where it's at," he said. "It kind of feels unfinished. And I know if we jet out of here, it's going to eat itself up."

http://images.usatoday.com/news/_photos/2004/07/12/conde-inside.jpg

Sgt. Kenneth Conde died July 1 in fighting in Anbar province.
By Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald, USMC, via The Orlando Sentinel and AP

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-07-11-ramadi-usat_x.htm


Ellie