U.S. Slowly Returns Anbar To Iraq

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
February 24, 2008 By Robert W. Gee, Cox Washington Bureau
Camp Blue Diamond, Iraq--The mess hall is boarded up. The barbershop is gone. So is the Internet cafe and the laundry. The metal trailers that once were home to more than 1,000 U.S. troops have been hauled away.
The dismantling of this U.S. military base on the outskirts of Ramadi, once among the most dangerous cities in Iraq and now one of its safest, is an emblem of the drawdown of U.S. forces under way in Anbar province, and elsewhere in Iraq, after last year's troop surge.
U.S. officials will hand over Blue Diamond, a former Saddam Hussein vacation retreat on the banks of the Euphrates River, on March 1 to the governor of Anbar. It is the third U.S. base to close in Ramadi since October. There is one left.
The number of U.S. combat battalions operating in Ramadi, the provincial capital of 400,000, has diminished to two from five in less than a year. The Army combat brigade that has been based here since January 2007 is scheduled to start leaving in a month and will not be replaced. At the same time, violence has become so rare in the city that some Americans have started to venture outside compounds without body armor.
"We're not going to leave this area less secure than it was," said Col. John Charlton, commander of 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, "because the Iraqis can do it now."
The U.S. military is scheduled to transfer the province to Iraqi security control by May, meaning U.S. forces will play a secondary or advisory role. Nine of Iraq's 18 provinces--all in the relatively peaceful Shiite south or Kurdish north--are now under Iraqi control.
The U.S. focus in Anbar, a Sunni province once the nexus of the insurgency, has shifted to police training, reconstruction and economic development.
As U.S. soldiers and Marines adapt to new roles as law enforcement mentors and civic organizers, they are racing to empower Iraqi security forces--and confronting obstacles.
In years past, U.S. forces in other regions ceded operational control to Iraqi police and Army, only to watch insurgents creep back. This time is different, commanders say.
"I'm very high on these guys," Lt. Col. Jay Bargeron, commander of 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, said of the police. "These guys are patriots. Many of them stood up and joined the fight against al-Qaida [in Iraq] 14 months ago. They believe in Ramadi. They're loyal to Ramadi."
Marines operate jointly with Iraqis in all Ramadi police stations, providing force protection, mentoring and logistical support.
Progress has been uneven, according to Marines who work with Iraqis every day.
Police sometimes do not show up for assigned guard duty, or sleep while on guard, Marines said. Recently, Marines found several Iraqi policemen drunk, with an empty bottle of whiskey, on a bridge. One was indiscriminately firing his pistol.
A Navy corpsman said he has treated Iraqis for accidental self-inflicted or friendly-fire gunshot wounds.
Marines said they repeatedly remind their Iraqi proteges not to wear earphones or talk on their mobile phones while on patrol.
"They don't have to work as hard because we can do it for them. We kind of have to," said Lance Cpl. Kyle Heston, 25, of Sammamish, Wash. "It's going to be a real culture shock when we do leave."
Iraqi police, for their part, complain that they are too few.
"[Americans] say it's enough, but it's not enough," Col. Hatim Hamid, a precinct commander, said.
The police force was built virtually from scratch a year ago. They now number roughly 1,200, the vast majority with no prior law enforcement or military experience.
Unemployed men have been attracted by the relatively high salaries of $600 to $700 a month--significantly more than a teacher's salary, U.S. officials say.
Americans are working to cull from the payroll an estimated 450 police who have quit or are too young or too old to serve.
Meanwhile, 300 policemen are working, but not getting paid.
Even skeptics among Marine and Army ranks say police are more capable than they once were. All have completed a basic four-day training run by teams of U.S. soldiers and interpreters, and some have attended specialized courses of one to three weeks on intelligence gathering, logistics, administration and detainee handling.
In an early test, Ramadi police earlier this year thwarted one suicide bombing and two planned car bombings, Charlton said.
Police officers stress that they are ready to work on their own, but they privately tell their U.S. advisers they're worried al-Qaida will launch a fresh offensive once Marines start pulling out of the police stations this summer.
"They'll be challenged, but I think they can hold their ground," Maj. G.A. Pivik, executive officer of the Army's 3rd Battalion, 69th Armored Regiment, said of the Iraqi security forces.
 
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