U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates shakes hands with a U.S. soldier from the 1st Cavalry Division in Baghdad December 20, 2006. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY REUTERS/DOD photo by Cherie A. Thurlby/Handout
Posted on 12/21/2006 5:45:21 AM PST by TexKat
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. soldiers in Iraq urged their new boss on Thursday to send reinforcements, after their generals told Defense Secretary Robert Gates they were concerned a surge might delay the time when Iraqis take control.
Stung by defeat at mid-term elections last month, President Bush is expected to announce a new strategy in January for the unpopular war, which has so far killed nearly 3,000 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis.
Bush said on Wednesday one option under review was a short- term increase in U.S. troop levels but that he had not yet made up his mind.
Gates, in his first week on the job after replacing Donald Rumsfeld, is consulting widely for advice on the war effort.
He met U.S. commanders and the Iraqi defense minister on Wednesday and is due to meet Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Thursday. He said U.S. commanders had expressed concern that a surge in U.S. forces might delay the time when Iraqis can assume control for security.
On Thursday he had breakfast with ordinary soldiers to sound out their views on troop levels, a timeline for training Iraqis, sectarian leanings in the Iraqi security forces and the "caliber and discipline" of Iraqi soldiers and their military leaders.
"Sir, I think we need to just keep doing what we're doing," Specialist Jason Glenn told Gates.
"I really think we need more troops here. With more presence on the ground, more troops might hold them (the insurgents) off long enough to where we can get the Iraqi army trained up."
No soldier present said U.S. forces should be brought home, and none said current troop levels were adequate, as some commanders have argued.
IRAQI POLICE RECRUITS KILLED
Training and building up Iraqi security forces is a key pillar of U.S. and Iraqi hopes of transferring responsibility to Iraqi authorities and allowing U.S. troops to go home.
Reuters Pictures
Editors Choice: Best pictures from the last 24 hours. View Slideshow
But in a reminder of the challenge, a suicide bomber killed 10 people at a police recruitment center in Baghdad on Thursday, the latest in a long line of attacks on police and the army.
Soldiers told Gates that Iraqi security forces were improving but that many did not show up for work.
They also cited the challenge of training Iraqis who have ties to sectarian militias and who give those groups information about upcoming operations. One soldier said members of the Iraqi army see themselves as Iraqis but that local police identify themselves as Shi'ite or Sunni Arab.
Gates has given little indication of what strategies he will recommend to the president after returning from Iraq, but he echoed comments from Bush this week that America is not winning.
"However you characterize it, it's not good enough," Gates told the soldiers about America's progress in the war.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Bush spoke of setbacks this year but predicted victory and insisted the United States would neither abandon Iraq nor be driven from the region.
"They can't run us out of the Middle East," he said. "They can't intimidate America."
Bush also said the coming year would require "difficult choices and additional sacrifices".
Reuters Pictures
Editors Choice: Best pictures from the last 24 hours. View Slideshow
The U.S. military reported three more deaths on Thursday, two in the restive western province of Anbar and one killed by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad.
(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan in Washington, Mariam Karouny and Ross Colvin in Baghdad)
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates shakes hands with a U.S. soldier from the 1st Cavalry Division in Baghdad December 20, 2006. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY REUTERS/DOD photo by Cherie A. Thurlby/Handout
U.S. soldiers in Iraq urge Gates to send more troops ping!
Quoted by whom? SPC Glenn, Robert Gates or a Reuters editor?
"Sir I think we need to just keep doing what we're doing," Spc. Jason T. Green, with the 101st Military Intelligence Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division, told Gates during a breakfast session with about 15 U.S. soldiers.
"I really think we need more troops here. With more presence on the ground, more troops might hold them off long enough to where we can get the Iraqi Army trained up."
Troops to Gates: Extra forces would help
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the rest of the Bush administration may be undecided on whether to send more troops to Iraq, but several soldiers he met with at Camp Victory here on Thursday morning here said extra forces would help.
"Sir I think we need to just keep doing what we're doing," Spc. Jason T. Green, with the 101st Military Intelligence Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division, told Gates during a breakfast session with about 15 U.S. soldiers.
"I really think we need more troops here. With more presence on the ground, more troops might hold them off long enough to where we can get the Iraqi Army trained up."
The troops may be somewhat at odds with military commanders, who worry that rushing thousands more Americans to the battlefront could prompt Iraqis to slow their effort to take control of their country.
Those concerns are "clearly a consideration" in mapping out future strategy, Gates said.
Just days into his new job as defense chief, Gates planned meetings in Baghdad with Iraqi government officials Thursday, after a day of talks with his military commanders on Wednesday.
His hour-long question-and-answer session with troops over scrambled eggs Thursday was largely spent gathering insights from those closest to the action.
When he asked them whether adding forces would help, he got a roomful of nods.
"More troops would help us integrate the Iraq Army into patrols more," said Pfc. Cassandra Wallace, from the 10th Mountain Division.
The soldiers also told him they think the Iraqi Army is getting better, but that it should be bigger and that many of the Iraqis are still not showing up for duty.
Gates, who later helicoptered to Balad Air Base west of Baghdad for a special operations briefing, did not tip his hand much to the soldiers, who were from the 1st Cavalry Division, the 1st Infantry Division and the 10th Mountain Division.
But he said U.S. logistics and support troops are likely to be in Iraq for a lot longer than the combat forces — as efforts continue to stabilize the country. And saying Iran and Syria are playing a very negative role in the violence in Iraq, he emphasized that "figuring out the regional context is very important."
"We need to make damned sure that the neighbors understand that we're going to be here for a long time — here being the Persian Gulf," said Gates.
The new defense chief is visiting Iraq with a high-level entourage to assess options for calming violence in the country as President Bush considers sending thousands more troops. Bush is expected to unveil his new policy next month.
"Secretary Gates is going to be an important voice in the Iraq strategy review that's under way," Bush told reporters at a White House news conference Wednesday.
After meeting with top U.S. generals at Camp Victory, Gates said Wednesday that he had only begun to determine how to reshape U.S. war policy. "We discussed the possibility of a surge and the potential for what it might accomplish," he told reporters.
Top U.S. commanders also have worried that even a short-term troop increase might bring only a temporary respite to the violence — or none at all — while creating shortages of fresh troops for future missions.
One option would add five or more additional combat brigades, or roughly 20,000 troops, to the 140,000 already there.
Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq and one of several generals who met with Gates, said he supports boosting troop levels only when there is a specific purpose for their deployment.
"I'm not necessarily opposed to the idea, but what I want to see happen is when, if we do bring more American troops here, they help us progress to our strategic objectives," Casey told reporters during a news conference with Gates and military leaders.
Gen. John Abizaid, top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said the military is "looking at every possible thing that might influence the situation to make Baghdad in particular more secure."
In addition to a possible short-term troop increase aimed at bringing violence in Baghdad and Anbar province under control, Bush is considering removing U.S. combat forces and accelerating the training and equipping of Iraqi security forces. Military leaders are also considering an increase in the number of American advisers for Iraqi security forces.
Echoing Casey and other commanders, Bush said he would only agree to a temporary troop surge if an achievable mission could be defined.
Nah, we'll have none of that! :)
"President Bush is expected to announce a new strategy in January for the unpopular war"
Thanks to you, Reuters (and the rest of the anti-American MSM)
In this image released by the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, 6th right, standing, and U.S. Marine Gen. and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace, 4th left, standing, take a group photo with soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division at Camp Victory, Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2006. Gates, in an unannounced trip to the battlefront, discussed a possible infusion of more U.S. troops into Iraq with American commanders, but said no decisions have been made. (AP Photo/Department of Defense, Cherie A. Thurlby)
So why is the opinion of a SCP4 matter so much to a reporter? I'll listen to the theater commander's opinions and very few outside of that one man.
Another opinion from the calculated pack of barking dogs follwing in the wake of Hate America tirades staged by our "allies":Reuters.
You uttered your scripted comment as rehearsed.
"Thanks to you, Reuters (and the rest of the anti-American MSM)"...and the pack of "patriotic barking dogs" like little rosie.
Job well done
Funny, because I've watched both shawn hannity and Bill oreilly intyerview soldiers and ocmmanders and on both shows the soldiers were emphatic that no increases were needed yet. http://sacredscoop.com
Reuters "LIES" as usual!!
There have been 2385 KIA's and that is much closer to 2000 than 3000!!
No one gives a damn about reporting the truth about this WAR, not FNC, not CBS, NBC etc. They all just short cut the truth to exploit the BIGGEST number possible!!
.....and that's not only why the media likes to talk to lower-ranking enlisted men, but also why we always had a standing order to never talk to reporters......that's the job of the media liason.
We Americans who understand this too well, are about the business of LIMITING goverment(s). Our system, is to limit gov't to doing only what is enumerated on a list. Violators prefer to not be re-elected, instead of tarred and feathered - but *that* has been arranged.
So-called "experts" err when they say we are promoting "democracy," when what we wish to promote is democratic-republicanism, as a lawful system for limiting government and government agents of all types.
Our top people should be talking about that, and these words should be heard widely wherever we go.
Instead, it is our troops, God Bless 'em, who talk this way --- because they know what we are about ... despite the wordity of the talking heads!
By osmosis, our kids' upbringing rubs off on our new-found friends. To win, we need more of such kids in the field, not only for that, but to subdue the Islamic gang bangers long enough, so that these concepts of LIMITING government(s) get a chance to sink in well enough for our new-found friends to rise up and institute democratic-republicanism.
There is the plan, and most of the average run-of-the mill conservative kids in uniform know it, though they may not express it so, while in deeds and good nature, they do well enough.
Most of our "leaders" cannot bear to admit to this, because it means a diminished role for their diplo-babble cum Paul Nitze school of internationalism/globalism. For them, there are business deals that must be agreed to, before peace and freedom will be allowed. They want their business interests to rise FIRST from the ashes.
The idea that first there will be peace and liberty and a democratic-republic, with which deals will have to be made, is "troubling," as they say --- because it means competition.
Because it means an actual fair playing field, whereas now, in the chaos, there is, as they also say, "opportunity."
So our kids in the field, are left with wrestling on the problem of continuing the fight for the right reasons, for us, while unfortunately, also for the "most high" and mightily illustrious seniors' portfolios - investment, dialog, and otherwise.
Terrorism is a way of life over there, because terrorism is the oldest of economic means, intended to force the trade route to be where the controller of the terrorists' purse, wishes. There is competition between the controllers.
That is why there is "unrest" in the Middle East.
Competition over the trade routes of whatever goods matter --- in most cases, that means oil and gas.
Coming up on the horizon, it will be labor, because:
Oil is to Arabs as labor is to Red China.
We face a growth of terrorism that is intended by the controllers of state labor pools, to bring demand to their industries.
When the axis of terrorism is communists and fascist Islamics, it is no small matter for an army of one.
You are correct, and thank you and yours.
"However you characterize it, it's not good enough"...
This is what Gates told our TROOPS!
Hmmmmm... I am not sure I would be really excited about having the new guy come up to me, and tell me that what I have been doing..and my buddies have died doing, "isn't good enough"...
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