thedrifter
12-16-06, 07:59 AM
December 14, 2006
Experts want to double Marine presence in Iraq
By Matthew Cox
Staff writer
Scholars and military experts today publicly called for a new strategy that would put thousands more ground troops in Iraq and extend current deployments there.
The American Enterprise Institute unveiled “Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success,” a study that recommends the Bush Administration double the number of Marine Corps combat units fighting in the Anbar province over the next year and surge 20,000 additional soldiers into Baghdad and in an effort to stamp out insurgent violence long enough for Iraqis to take control of their own country.
The key to quelling insurgent violence in Iraq, Keane and other authors of the report say, is to first clear enemy forces out of Baghdad, but then more importantly, secure and hold on to those cleared areas.
“You have to accept the fact that the basic mission is to protect and support the people; the basic mission is not to kill insurgents,” said Keane, former Army vice chief of staff, when presenting the report in Washington, D.C.
“We have tried operations in Baghdad twice and we have not succeeded,” he said, because “we never had enough forces to do what we are suggesting …. We ran the insurgents out, but they were able to come back in over time — intimidate and terrorize and corrupt the economic packages that were going in there.”
In addition to Baghdad, the administration needs to beef up forces in the Anbar to disrupt and destroy insurgent planning and logistic operations, report participants say.
To accomplish this, the study calls for the following:
• Deploy two additional Marine regimental combat teams to the Anbar, doubling the Marine ground element in western Iraq.
• Accelerate the deployment schedules of U.S. ground combat units currently preparing for Iraq tours next years.
• Deploy four additional U.S. Army combat brigades into Baghdad to reinforce the five brigades currently operating in the city.
• Extend current deployments of Army brigades from 12 months to 15 months and extend Marine deployments from seven months to 12 months.
The report also recommends that Bush request a permanent increase in Army and Marine active duty ground forces by “at least 30,000 per year for the next two years.” In addition, the report states that the Army needs increased access to National Guard and Reserve units, which currently only can be deployed once every five years.
“The purpose is not to use just exactly the right amount of force as [outgoing Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld tried to do over the years,” AEI scholar and report director Frederick Kagen said. “The purpose is to go in with enough force that you can be confident that even if things don’t break your way, you can make it work out.”
The report also recommends a robust economic reconstruction effort to quickly follow clearing and holding operations in Baghdad and Anbar.
“The basic issue is it’s not the forces that isolate the terrorists; it’s the people themselves,” Keane said. “What gets them to isolate them is one, you are protecting them for the first time; two, you are providing basic services to them; and three you are beginning to enhance the quality of their life experience through humanitarian and economic assistance. … If the economic package isn’t there, we don’t succeed either.”
The participants of the report, however, were very clear that these first steps toward victory will not be easy.
“We think it will be a bloody fight in the beginning of the year,” Kagel said, adding the administration has few alternatives for success in Iraq. “We think this is a decisive moment in the fight for Baghdad.”
Ellie
Experts want to double Marine presence in Iraq
By Matthew Cox
Staff writer
Scholars and military experts today publicly called for a new strategy that would put thousands more ground troops in Iraq and extend current deployments there.
The American Enterprise Institute unveiled “Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success,” a study that recommends the Bush Administration double the number of Marine Corps combat units fighting in the Anbar province over the next year and surge 20,000 additional soldiers into Baghdad and in an effort to stamp out insurgent violence long enough for Iraqis to take control of their own country.
The key to quelling insurgent violence in Iraq, Keane and other authors of the report say, is to first clear enemy forces out of Baghdad, but then more importantly, secure and hold on to those cleared areas.
“You have to accept the fact that the basic mission is to protect and support the people; the basic mission is not to kill insurgents,” said Keane, former Army vice chief of staff, when presenting the report in Washington, D.C.
“We have tried operations in Baghdad twice and we have not succeeded,” he said, because “we never had enough forces to do what we are suggesting …. We ran the insurgents out, but they were able to come back in over time — intimidate and terrorize and corrupt the economic packages that were going in there.”
In addition to Baghdad, the administration needs to beef up forces in the Anbar to disrupt and destroy insurgent planning and logistic operations, report participants say.
To accomplish this, the study calls for the following:
• Deploy two additional Marine regimental combat teams to the Anbar, doubling the Marine ground element in western Iraq.
• Accelerate the deployment schedules of U.S. ground combat units currently preparing for Iraq tours next years.
• Deploy four additional U.S. Army combat brigades into Baghdad to reinforce the five brigades currently operating in the city.
• Extend current deployments of Army brigades from 12 months to 15 months and extend Marine deployments from seven months to 12 months.
The report also recommends that Bush request a permanent increase in Army and Marine active duty ground forces by “at least 30,000 per year for the next two years.” In addition, the report states that the Army needs increased access to National Guard and Reserve units, which currently only can be deployed once every five years.
“The purpose is not to use just exactly the right amount of force as [outgoing Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld tried to do over the years,” AEI scholar and report director Frederick Kagen said. “The purpose is to go in with enough force that you can be confident that even if things don’t break your way, you can make it work out.”
The report also recommends a robust economic reconstruction effort to quickly follow clearing and holding operations in Baghdad and Anbar.
“The basic issue is it’s not the forces that isolate the terrorists; it’s the people themselves,” Keane said. “What gets them to isolate them is one, you are protecting them for the first time; two, you are providing basic services to them; and three you are beginning to enhance the quality of their life experience through humanitarian and economic assistance. … If the economic package isn’t there, we don’t succeed either.”
The participants of the report, however, were very clear that these first steps toward victory will not be easy.
“We think it will be a bloody fight in the beginning of the year,” Kagel said, adding the administration has few alternatives for success in Iraq. “We think this is a decisive moment in the fight for Baghdad.”
Ellie