Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Miami Herald
December 9, 2006
An extended occupation is helping the United States tame parts of a dangerous Iraqi city, but even the military wonders if the gains can last.
By Will Weissert, Associated Press
RAMADI, Iraq - The soldiers swallow diet pills and slurp can after can of the energy drink Red Bull, fighting to stay awake as they peer from armored Humvees into the predawn darkness. Country music pours from some vehicle's speakers, rap from others.
Every few minutes, an explosion is heard, but it is only U.S. Marines blowing down doors as they storm from house to house, searching for sniper rifles, bomb-making materials and suspected insurgents.
''Operation Squeeze Play'' is proving easier than expected, considering this 20-block section of southeastern Ramadi -- known as ''Second Officer's District'' because it's home to so many former leaders of Saddam Hussein's army -- was not so long ago a no-go zone for U.S. troops.
'You used to look at a map and it'd be like the Columbus era: `South of here lies dragons,' because nobody ever went there,'' said Capt. Jon Paul Hart, assistant operations officer for the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment. ``All we knew was that it was really bad, really dangerous.''
Ramadi, the capital of the western, overwhelming Sunni Arab province of Anbar, has seen some of the bloodiest street battles of the war. Sunni insurgents remain well-entrenched here and continue to move freely through parts of downtown where Americans often dare not set foot.
At least six U.S. troops were killed in fierce fighting in the province on Wednesday, the military said.
But as the White House faces calls to revisit its Iraq policy, U.S. forces in Ramadi insist their strategy here -- taking ground and holding it -- is proving effective.
''You have to occupy ground and stay there,'' said Capt. Greg Pavlichko. ``You have to live where you're fighting and let the people see you're committed to an area.''
Commanders also say that any progress in Ramadi will evaporate almost overnight if U.S. forces pull out of the city. There is speculation that the United States may scale back its operations here and throughout Anbar to focus on the violence and chaos in Baghdad.
''I think to give up on Anbar would be to give up on Iraq,'' Hart said. ``It would be giving up all that we've worked very hard, sacrificed a lot of lives, to gain.''
U.S. forces have compartmentalized much of south-central Ramadi, guarding key roads with tanks and lookout posts to prevent the planting of roadside bombs. They also have established ''command outposts'' in mansions riddled with bullet holes and government buildings half-leveled by rocket attacks, while opening new police stations throughout the city.
Explosions from roadside bombs still shake Ramadi around the clock and snipers perch on rooftops, loiter near windows and crouch in the back of vehicles waiting to take a shot at Americans. At one U.S. outpost in Ramadi, soldiers don body armor during daylight hours just to step into the backyard, where their makeshift outhouse is located.
The insurgency first made significant gains in Ramadi and elsewhere in Sunni-dominated Anbar after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, and many Sunnis in Ramadi were receptive when al Qaeda in Iraq moved in.
''Al Qaeda in Iraq really made a stand here,'' said Lt. Col. V.J. Tedesco III, commander of the 900-troop task force conducting ''Squeeze Play,'' which includes soldiers, Marines, sailors and pilots and is assigned to central Ramadi.
In between firefights, U.S. forces have worked to convince residents that the insurgents are interested in Anbar for purely selfish reasons.
But the Iraqi army is largely made up of Shiites and Kurds and some of its officers freely acknowledge they don't trust Sunnis. Recruited locally, meanwhile, the police force in Ramadi is Sunni, prompting fears of feuds with the army.
Without U.S. forces, all pretense of government could collapse, said Tedesco, the task force commander.
December 9, 2006
An extended occupation is helping the United States tame parts of a dangerous Iraqi city, but even the military wonders if the gains can last.
By Will Weissert, Associated Press
RAMADI, Iraq - The soldiers swallow diet pills and slurp can after can of the energy drink Red Bull, fighting to stay awake as they peer from armored Humvees into the predawn darkness. Country music pours from some vehicle's speakers, rap from others.
Every few minutes, an explosion is heard, but it is only U.S. Marines blowing down doors as they storm from house to house, searching for sniper rifles, bomb-making materials and suspected insurgents.
''Operation Squeeze Play'' is proving easier than expected, considering this 20-block section of southeastern Ramadi -- known as ''Second Officer's District'' because it's home to so many former leaders of Saddam Hussein's army -- was not so long ago a no-go zone for U.S. troops.
'You used to look at a map and it'd be like the Columbus era: `South of here lies dragons,' because nobody ever went there,'' said Capt. Jon Paul Hart, assistant operations officer for the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment. ``All we knew was that it was really bad, really dangerous.''
Ramadi, the capital of the western, overwhelming Sunni Arab province of Anbar, has seen some of the bloodiest street battles of the war. Sunni insurgents remain well-entrenched here and continue to move freely through parts of downtown where Americans often dare not set foot.
At least six U.S. troops were killed in fierce fighting in the province on Wednesday, the military said.
But as the White House faces calls to revisit its Iraq policy, U.S. forces in Ramadi insist their strategy here -- taking ground and holding it -- is proving effective.
''You have to occupy ground and stay there,'' said Capt. Greg Pavlichko. ``You have to live where you're fighting and let the people see you're committed to an area.''
Commanders also say that any progress in Ramadi will evaporate almost overnight if U.S. forces pull out of the city. There is speculation that the United States may scale back its operations here and throughout Anbar to focus on the violence and chaos in Baghdad.
''I think to give up on Anbar would be to give up on Iraq,'' Hart said. ``It would be giving up all that we've worked very hard, sacrificed a lot of lives, to gain.''
U.S. forces have compartmentalized much of south-central Ramadi, guarding key roads with tanks and lookout posts to prevent the planting of roadside bombs. They also have established ''command outposts'' in mansions riddled with bullet holes and government buildings half-leveled by rocket attacks, while opening new police stations throughout the city.
Explosions from roadside bombs still shake Ramadi around the clock and snipers perch on rooftops, loiter near windows and crouch in the back of vehicles waiting to take a shot at Americans. At one U.S. outpost in Ramadi, soldiers don body armor during daylight hours just to step into the backyard, where their makeshift outhouse is located.
The insurgency first made significant gains in Ramadi and elsewhere in Sunni-dominated Anbar after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, and many Sunnis in Ramadi were receptive when al Qaeda in Iraq moved in.
''Al Qaeda in Iraq really made a stand here,'' said Lt. Col. V.J. Tedesco III, commander of the 900-troop task force conducting ''Squeeze Play,'' which includes soldiers, Marines, sailors and pilots and is assigned to central Ramadi.
In between firefights, U.S. forces have worked to convince residents that the insurgents are interested in Anbar for purely selfish reasons.
But the Iraqi army is largely made up of Shiites and Kurds and some of its officers freely acknowledge they don't trust Sunnis. Recruited locally, meanwhile, the police force in Ramadi is Sunni, prompting fears of feuds with the army.
Without U.S. forces, all pretense of government could collapse, said Tedesco, the task force commander.