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thedrifter
03-16-06, 06:14 AM
On patrol with a new army in Fallujah
- John Koopman, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, March 16, 2006

Fallujah, Iraq -- If you want to know how much longer U.S. troops need to remain in Iraq, talk to the X.O.

X.O. is short for executive officer, the No. 2 man in the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Division of Iraq's new military forces.

"Five to seven years," he said in English over cigarettes and sugary tea. "No less. In five to seven years, Iraqi army is OK."

And if America withdraws now?

"Very bad," he said. "Much violence. Many Iraqis dead."

The X.O. doesn't want his name used. In Iraq today, that can get you killed. Insurgents consider the Iraqi army to be a tool of the American military. They'll kill Iraqi soldiers, sometimes torturing them first. And do the same to their families.

The United States is pinning its hopes on units like the 2nd Battalion. If the Iraqi army and police forces can take control of the country from the insurgents, American troops can gradually go home.

The U.S. military has put a huge emphasis on training and working with the Iraqi army and police to develop them into effective security forces. But questions remain: What do they need? How long will it take?

Iraq's Ministry of Defense has fielded 10 divisions that are in various states of readiness. To aid in the process, teams of U.S. advisers are working with the security forces. They are called MiTT -- Military Transition Teams.

In Fallujah, the 2nd Battalion is advised by MiTT team 4, part of the 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment.

The team has 11 members, commanded by Maj. Mike Motley of New Jersey. It is supplemented by a handful of other Marines farmed out from neighboring units that also are patrolling Fallujah.

As the various Iraqi units get better, they take over "battle space" from Americans. The 2nd Battalion owns a large chunk of northwest Fallujah, aided by Motley's crew.

"These guys are good," Motley said in a chat on the rooftop of the Marine compound. "I've seen them go on raids and develop intel (military intelligence). They just about rival American units. They have no fear."

"They're good in their way," said Capt. Michael Butler, the team's operations officer. "They find Iraqi solutions to Iraqi problems. We could leave tomorrow and they would be fine, but logistically they still need us."

The biggest obstacle facing the 2nd Battalion, and indeed the entire Iraqi army, is logistics.

First Lt. Stephen Madgwick, 26, of Garden City, Kan., is the MiTT team supply officer. It irritates him that he can't do more to help build the Iraqis' logistics system, to make sure the soldiers have food and bullets and communications equipment.

"It's a nonsexy job that no one likes, but you have to support yourself if you're going to fight," he said. "There is no good system in place for these guys to get the stuff they need."

Motley said the Iraqi soldiers can develop intelligence better than the Americans because they know the language, dialects, culture and people. They can tell when someone is an outsider or has no business being in a particular place. They develop and coordinate sweeps and raids in the city.

On Wednesday, the battalion conducted what's called a "cordon and search" in a densely populated area north of Fallujah's marketplace, an area known for a lot of insurgent activity.

They left at dawn, the Marines in their heavily armored humvees and the Iraqis in Nissan pickups and lightly armored cargo trucks. The Iraqi soldiers -- jundi in Arabic -- wear desert camouflage uniforms and carry AK-47 assault rifles. This day, almost all of them also wore bandanas or ski masks to hide their identities.

Most jundi appeared to have personal body armor. But they have little else in terms of arms or vehicles. If they require air support, the Americans have to call it in. Likewise for explosive ordnance disposal and for housing detainees.

Other than that, the MiTT team goes along for the ride. They watch the Iraqis and try to nudge gently if they see mistakes being made.

"Sometimes it's just the way you present it," Motley said. "It's like a Jedi Mind Trick, wave your hand and say, 'Don't you mean you want to do it this way?' They pick up on that very fast, and no one loses face."

The day started off uneventfully. It usually does, because the search starts just after dawn, and most of the city is still asleep. It doesn't always finish that way.

This particular sweep covered maybe two dozen city blocks. Teams of Iraqi soldiers knocked on doors and asked to enter. No one seemed to refuse. It's not really an option.

There didn't appear to be any violence or stealing, though allegations of that conduct have been leveled against the soldiers and police throughout Iraq. In any case, there were a lot more soldiers than there were Marines to watch them.

It's always tense in the city. Wednesday was relatively calm, but this is Fallujah, where Marines fought a bloody house-to-house battle for weeks in 2004. Even now, it's not uncommon for a Marine unit to get ambushed. There are almost daily attacks from IEDs -- improvised explosive devices.

The Marines fight back with force as necessary. And with Beanie Babies the rest of the time.

As they go from house to house searching for weapons and insurgents, they hand out the little stuffed animals to the kids, who always want more. Capt. Jim Eagan, 31, of Baltimore, said the toys seem to help put people at ease.

The potential for danger comes at the end, when the jundi and Marines get a little bunched up waiting for transportation out of the area. It's a time when insurgents might come around and drop a grenade or spray the group with gunfire.

On Wednesday, only a couple of gunshots were heard. They were "escalation of force" shots, meaning a car didn't stop until a jundi fired a warning shot.

As the patrol was nearing an end, around noon, someone tossed a hand grenade from somewhere, reportedly over the wall from a girls' school, which is next to the city marketplace. The bomb, which looked like a German-style World War II "potato masher" with a cylindrical head and stick body, landed in the street among the jundi but did not explode.

The soldiers took cover, and the Marines converged on the area. They called the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit and waited.

Meantime, an Iraqi police unit showed up. They said a teacher from the school had called to complain about the Iraqi soldiers.

A conversation between police and soldiers escalated into a shouting match. Police took up defensive positions and drew their weapons. It was a standoff for several tense moments until the American bomb squad showed up, driving their armored humvees right into the middle of the potential melee.

At that point, the two sides drew back, and the soldiers prepared to leave. As the Iraqi soldiers and Marine advisers got into their vehicles, the bomb squad prepared to blow the grenade in place. A concussive blast rocked store windows as the explosives went off.

Later that night, a couple of Iraqis fired shots at the Army compound and yelled that there would be vengeance for what had happened at the school. The incident also prompted inquiries by both the Iraqi command and the Marines.

"It's a good day," Motley said Wednesday evening. "Nobody died."

E-mail John Koopman at jkoopman@sfchronicle.com.

Ellie