thedrifter
06-27-07, 08:07 AM
In new Baghdad plan, U.S. a careful referee
By Jim Michaels - USA Today
Posted : Wednesday Jun 27, 2007 7:04:32 EDT
BAGHDAD — A small group of Iraqi officers came to Capt. Kevin Joyce’s combat outpost one night last week with a warning: Iraqi troops planned to arrest a local Sunni sheik for allegedly promoting violence.
That was unwelcome news for Joyce, whose unit in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Ghazaliyah is on the front lines of the latest U.S. strategy to curb sectarian violence there. The sheik had been cooperating with Americans to stem such violence and “is one of our key links to the Sunni community,” Joyce told Maj. Emad Obaid, an Iraqi intelligence officer.
Obaid was unmoved.
“We can’t wait anymore,” he said. “We’ve got orders.”
The episode illustrated the bind in which U.S. forces find themselves at a time when most members of Iraq’s army here are Shiites and remain suspicious of Sunni leaders. An extra 28,500 American troops and a new strategy to open outposts across Baghdad have helped reduce the violence in many parts of the capital, making many neighborhoods safer. Stores are opening and people are walking at night in some neighborhoods.
But the Iraqi government’s failure to resolve long-simmering ethnic hatreds and make concessions to Sunnis suggest the improved security may remain only as long as U.S. forces are here, keeping a lid on violence.
The goal of the escalation of U.S. forces in Iraq, which was announced in January and completed this month, is to establish security long enough for Iraq’s government to make concessions to win the support of the Sunnis, who form the backbone of the insurgency.
“I think we have created an opportunity for the government of Iraq to establish some policies for reconciliation,” said Lt. Col. James Nickolas, commander of the battalion that established the outposts in Ghazaliyah. “I’m not sure that’s been taken advantage of.”
Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the No. 2 ranking U.S. officer in Iraq, said in an interview that American troops “can provide security here now and defeat al-Qaida,” but “ultimately ... this is going to come down to political and diplomatic progress.”
The Bush administration has called the lack of progress disappointing. Iraq’s government has yet to pass laws to establish local elections, determine the distribution of oil revenue and decide which former Ba’ath Party members can come back into government.
Absent action from the national government, Joyce and other U.S. officers often end up refereeing sectarian fights.
While talking with Obaid, Joyce acknowledged that the Sunni sheik might be linked to some violence. Nonetheless, Joyce tried to persuade Obaid of the need for both sides to talk to reduce violence.
“Sir, I’m not telling you, ‘Don’t detain him,’” Joyce told him. “I’m just looking for an opportunity to talk to both Sunni and Shiite leaders.”
The Iraqi intelligence officer agreed to a compromise: He wouldn’t arrest the sheik until after another round of meetings between the sheik and U.S. officers.
The sheik remains free.
‘Can’t ever let your guard down’
When this combat outpost, named Casino, was established in January, Ghazaliyah was a battleground. Shiite militias had pushed Sunnis from their homes in this predominantly Sunni neighborhood. That drove many Sunnis to al-Qaida, concentrated in southern Ghazaliyah, for protection.
Streets were empty and stores closed. Gunfire crackled around the outpost each day. U.S. forces would find 15 bodies a day in the area, many of them victims of sectarian killings, said Joyce, of Garden City, N.Y.
“Now we have a bad day [when we] find one,” Joyce said.
Casino was among the first such compounds built as part of a new strategy to move U.S. forces off large bases and into the neighborhoods to protect civilians.
Since Casino and a few other outposts were established in January, the U.S. military has been creating them at a furious pace. The American division responsible for Baghdad has set up about 68 outposts in the city of more than 6 million. Another 11 are planned.
The outposts were placed in some of the capital’s most dangerous neighborhoods.
“We deliberately positioned those things out there so they are in the areas that they would make the biggest difference,” said Brig. Gen. John Campbell, deputy commander of the U.S. division in Baghdad.
The outposts have made civilians safer but often have exposed American troops to more danger. In March, Company C, 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment lost four soldiers to a roadside bomb in Baghdad. They were the company’s only fatalities since their deployment began in November 2006.
In April and May, 230 U.S. troops were killed, making it the deadliest two-month period of the war. This month, 76 U.S. troops have been killed.
Cooperating with the U.S. also can be risky for Sunni leaders. On Monday, four U.S.-allied sheiks were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the lobby of a Baghdad hotel.
Overall, Odierno said, the new U.S. strategy has led to more attacks on the American and Iraqi military but fewer assaults on civilians.
Casino is a compound of nine homes surrounded by concrete blast walls. The soldiers moved into homes that had been abandoned when fighting between Sunnis and Shiites intensified last year. They pay rent to the owners.
Joyce’s unit has about 115 soldiers in the compound. Sixty to 80 Iraqi soldiers live in separate quarters in the outpost. Iraqi and U.S. officers staff the command post.
There are no showers. Soldiers use portable outhouses, and one hot meal a day is trucked from a nearby base. U.S. soldiers stay here six days a week and return to the main base once a week to maintain vehicles, do laundry and rest.
The buildings are air-conditioned, but the generator that provides electricity occasionally breaks, leaving troops sweltering in temperatures of more than 100 degrees.
Daily life for soldiers is a cycle of patrols, guard duty, maintenance and a few hours of sleep. Sitting in his Humvee during a patrol one afternoon last week, Spc. Luke McMahan, 22, of Mountain View, Ark., said his day began at 3 a.m.
“We’re going to be up until midnight,” he said. “The best motivator we could get right now is showers.”
“It is brutal,” said 1st Lt. Sam Cartee, 26, of Martinsburg, W.Va., a platoon leader at the outpost. “Here you can’t ever let your guard down.”
Mechanics try to keep enough Humvees working to conduct patrol. Most of the vehicles have been in Iraq for years.
“Most have been hit by numerous” roadside bombs, Cartee said.
‘Kids are not afraid of us anymore’
Civilians are benefiting from the improved security.
On a recent late-night patrol, U.S. troops cruised past a well-lit ice cream parlor where clusters of Iraqis sat at outdoor tables eating and talking.
Across the street, a man fanned the coals on a sidewalk kebab stand, sending a shower of sparks into the still night air. Clusters of men dressed in traditional dishdashas, or robes, strolled on the sidewalks.
The troops are building barricades around neighborhoods so residents have to come through Iraqi army checkpoints before entering. U.S. soldiers also are collecting census data from those in every home. The goal is to keep outsiders from entering the neighborhood.
During a recent patrol, Iraqi and American Humvees rolled down a street in the midday sun. A small group of U.S. soldiers went to each house on the block, getting data from residents inside walled courtyards. On the street, children clustered around soldiers.
Sgt. Sergej Michaud, 24, of Caribou, Maine, handed out cereal and muffins from the back of a Humvee. Children ran to him with outstretched arms.
“If we were doing this [last] February, we’d be getting shot at,” he said. A small boy brought the U.S. soldiers a stack of steaming flatbread made in a backyard oven.
“Kids are not afraid of us anymore,” McMahan said as he took photos of kids clustered outside the driver’s door of his Humvee.
Complaints about Iraqi army
The strategy also seems to have improved the proficiency of Iraqi soldiers, American troops said.
When they first arrived at Casino, U.S. soldiers say their Iraqi counterparts routinely would abandon checkpoints, fearful they couldn’t stand up to attacks from al-Qaida. The addition of more U.S. troops has boosted their confidence.
“Now they feel they’re somewhat secure,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Rhodan, of Beaufort, S.C. “They’re manning them.”
They’re learning from increased exposure to U.S. forces, Campbell said. “The difference is that we’re living with them right now,” he said.
But Sunnis still frequently complain about mistreatment by the Iraqi army, U.S. troops say. Rhodan said he received a report recently that Iraqi soldiers were stealing furniture from a Sunni home.
A couple of months ago, Iraqi soldiers were helping move Shiite families into abandoned homes in Ghazaliyah, Nickolas said. Many homes were abandoned by Sunnis fleeing Shiite militias.
Sunnis in the neighborhood trust Americans over Iraqi soldiers.
“Shiites want the Iraqi army on every street corner, which isn’t going to happen,” Cartee said. “Sunnis want Americans on every corner, which isn’t going to happen.”
American officers are moving reconciliation forward in any way they can. Nickolas wanted to establish a Sunni-dominated police force in Ghazaliyah as a means of giving Sunnis employment and a role in their own security. Iraq’s government would not agree to the proposal, he said.
Instead, Nickolas said he would start a neighborhood watch of several hundred Sunnis, paying them through a security contract set up with local leaders. Some may be former insurgents. Their role will be defensive, he said.
He knows it won’t solve the problem, but it may buy more time.
“I maintain the tenuous relationship ... with Sunnis and Shiites the best I can,” Nickolas said.
Ellie
By Jim Michaels - USA Today
Posted : Wednesday Jun 27, 2007 7:04:32 EDT
BAGHDAD — A small group of Iraqi officers came to Capt. Kevin Joyce’s combat outpost one night last week with a warning: Iraqi troops planned to arrest a local Sunni sheik for allegedly promoting violence.
That was unwelcome news for Joyce, whose unit in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Ghazaliyah is on the front lines of the latest U.S. strategy to curb sectarian violence there. The sheik had been cooperating with Americans to stem such violence and “is one of our key links to the Sunni community,” Joyce told Maj. Emad Obaid, an Iraqi intelligence officer.
Obaid was unmoved.
“We can’t wait anymore,” he said. “We’ve got orders.”
The episode illustrated the bind in which U.S. forces find themselves at a time when most members of Iraq’s army here are Shiites and remain suspicious of Sunni leaders. An extra 28,500 American troops and a new strategy to open outposts across Baghdad have helped reduce the violence in many parts of the capital, making many neighborhoods safer. Stores are opening and people are walking at night in some neighborhoods.
But the Iraqi government’s failure to resolve long-simmering ethnic hatreds and make concessions to Sunnis suggest the improved security may remain only as long as U.S. forces are here, keeping a lid on violence.
The goal of the escalation of U.S. forces in Iraq, which was announced in January and completed this month, is to establish security long enough for Iraq’s government to make concessions to win the support of the Sunnis, who form the backbone of the insurgency.
“I think we have created an opportunity for the government of Iraq to establish some policies for reconciliation,” said Lt. Col. James Nickolas, commander of the battalion that established the outposts in Ghazaliyah. “I’m not sure that’s been taken advantage of.”
Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the No. 2 ranking U.S. officer in Iraq, said in an interview that American troops “can provide security here now and defeat al-Qaida,” but “ultimately ... this is going to come down to political and diplomatic progress.”
The Bush administration has called the lack of progress disappointing. Iraq’s government has yet to pass laws to establish local elections, determine the distribution of oil revenue and decide which former Ba’ath Party members can come back into government.
Absent action from the national government, Joyce and other U.S. officers often end up refereeing sectarian fights.
While talking with Obaid, Joyce acknowledged that the Sunni sheik might be linked to some violence. Nonetheless, Joyce tried to persuade Obaid of the need for both sides to talk to reduce violence.
“Sir, I’m not telling you, ‘Don’t detain him,’” Joyce told him. “I’m just looking for an opportunity to talk to both Sunni and Shiite leaders.”
The Iraqi intelligence officer agreed to a compromise: He wouldn’t arrest the sheik until after another round of meetings between the sheik and U.S. officers.
The sheik remains free.
‘Can’t ever let your guard down’
When this combat outpost, named Casino, was established in January, Ghazaliyah was a battleground. Shiite militias had pushed Sunnis from their homes in this predominantly Sunni neighborhood. That drove many Sunnis to al-Qaida, concentrated in southern Ghazaliyah, for protection.
Streets were empty and stores closed. Gunfire crackled around the outpost each day. U.S. forces would find 15 bodies a day in the area, many of them victims of sectarian killings, said Joyce, of Garden City, N.Y.
“Now we have a bad day [when we] find one,” Joyce said.
Casino was among the first such compounds built as part of a new strategy to move U.S. forces off large bases and into the neighborhoods to protect civilians.
Since Casino and a few other outposts were established in January, the U.S. military has been creating them at a furious pace. The American division responsible for Baghdad has set up about 68 outposts in the city of more than 6 million. Another 11 are planned.
The outposts were placed in some of the capital’s most dangerous neighborhoods.
“We deliberately positioned those things out there so they are in the areas that they would make the biggest difference,” said Brig. Gen. John Campbell, deputy commander of the U.S. division in Baghdad.
The outposts have made civilians safer but often have exposed American troops to more danger. In March, Company C, 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment lost four soldiers to a roadside bomb in Baghdad. They were the company’s only fatalities since their deployment began in November 2006.
In April and May, 230 U.S. troops were killed, making it the deadliest two-month period of the war. This month, 76 U.S. troops have been killed.
Cooperating with the U.S. also can be risky for Sunni leaders. On Monday, four U.S.-allied sheiks were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the lobby of a Baghdad hotel.
Overall, Odierno said, the new U.S. strategy has led to more attacks on the American and Iraqi military but fewer assaults on civilians.
Casino is a compound of nine homes surrounded by concrete blast walls. The soldiers moved into homes that had been abandoned when fighting between Sunnis and Shiites intensified last year. They pay rent to the owners.
Joyce’s unit has about 115 soldiers in the compound. Sixty to 80 Iraqi soldiers live in separate quarters in the outpost. Iraqi and U.S. officers staff the command post.
There are no showers. Soldiers use portable outhouses, and one hot meal a day is trucked from a nearby base. U.S. soldiers stay here six days a week and return to the main base once a week to maintain vehicles, do laundry and rest.
The buildings are air-conditioned, but the generator that provides electricity occasionally breaks, leaving troops sweltering in temperatures of more than 100 degrees.
Daily life for soldiers is a cycle of patrols, guard duty, maintenance and a few hours of sleep. Sitting in his Humvee during a patrol one afternoon last week, Spc. Luke McMahan, 22, of Mountain View, Ark., said his day began at 3 a.m.
“We’re going to be up until midnight,” he said. “The best motivator we could get right now is showers.”
“It is brutal,” said 1st Lt. Sam Cartee, 26, of Martinsburg, W.Va., a platoon leader at the outpost. “Here you can’t ever let your guard down.”
Mechanics try to keep enough Humvees working to conduct patrol. Most of the vehicles have been in Iraq for years.
“Most have been hit by numerous” roadside bombs, Cartee said.
‘Kids are not afraid of us anymore’
Civilians are benefiting from the improved security.
On a recent late-night patrol, U.S. troops cruised past a well-lit ice cream parlor where clusters of Iraqis sat at outdoor tables eating and talking.
Across the street, a man fanned the coals on a sidewalk kebab stand, sending a shower of sparks into the still night air. Clusters of men dressed in traditional dishdashas, or robes, strolled on the sidewalks.
The troops are building barricades around neighborhoods so residents have to come through Iraqi army checkpoints before entering. U.S. soldiers also are collecting census data from those in every home. The goal is to keep outsiders from entering the neighborhood.
During a recent patrol, Iraqi and American Humvees rolled down a street in the midday sun. A small group of U.S. soldiers went to each house on the block, getting data from residents inside walled courtyards. On the street, children clustered around soldiers.
Sgt. Sergej Michaud, 24, of Caribou, Maine, handed out cereal and muffins from the back of a Humvee. Children ran to him with outstretched arms.
“If we were doing this [last] February, we’d be getting shot at,” he said. A small boy brought the U.S. soldiers a stack of steaming flatbread made in a backyard oven.
“Kids are not afraid of us anymore,” McMahan said as he took photos of kids clustered outside the driver’s door of his Humvee.
Complaints about Iraqi army
The strategy also seems to have improved the proficiency of Iraqi soldiers, American troops said.
When they first arrived at Casino, U.S. soldiers say their Iraqi counterparts routinely would abandon checkpoints, fearful they couldn’t stand up to attacks from al-Qaida. The addition of more U.S. troops has boosted their confidence.
“Now they feel they’re somewhat secure,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Rhodan, of Beaufort, S.C. “They’re manning them.”
They’re learning from increased exposure to U.S. forces, Campbell said. “The difference is that we’re living with them right now,” he said.
But Sunnis still frequently complain about mistreatment by the Iraqi army, U.S. troops say. Rhodan said he received a report recently that Iraqi soldiers were stealing furniture from a Sunni home.
A couple of months ago, Iraqi soldiers were helping move Shiite families into abandoned homes in Ghazaliyah, Nickolas said. Many homes were abandoned by Sunnis fleeing Shiite militias.
Sunnis in the neighborhood trust Americans over Iraqi soldiers.
“Shiites want the Iraqi army on every street corner, which isn’t going to happen,” Cartee said. “Sunnis want Americans on every corner, which isn’t going to happen.”
American officers are moving reconciliation forward in any way they can. Nickolas wanted to establish a Sunni-dominated police force in Ghazaliyah as a means of giving Sunnis employment and a role in their own security. Iraq’s government would not agree to the proposal, he said.
Instead, Nickolas said he would start a neighborhood watch of several hundred Sunnis, paying them through a security contract set up with local leaders. Some may be former insurgents. Their role will be defensive, he said.
He knows it won’t solve the problem, but it may buy more time.
“I maintain the tenuous relationship ... with Sunnis and Shiites the best I can,” Nickolas said.
Ellie