Posted on 02/04/2005 12:42:42 PM PST by TexKat
U.S. Army 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment soldiers search for an insurgent sniper after taking fire on their patrol in Mosul, Iraq Friday, Feb. 4, 2005. There were no casualties. (AP Photo/Jim MacMillan)
"Our ticket out of here is not going to be written through constant combat operations — we'd be here forever doing that. Our ticket out of here is the Iraqi security forces and (providing) essential services," Brig. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, deputy commander of the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division told The Associated Press.
The 1st Cavalry is wrapping up its deployment to Iraq, preparing to hand control of the Baghdad region to the 3rd Infantry Division, from Fort Stewart, Ga. Providing security for the Iraqi elections held Sunday was the cavalry's last major mission before returning to Fort Hood, Texas.
Hammond said the vote had increased Iraqis' faith in their security forces. "Right now we have a kick coming out of this election," he said. "We have a good feel, people are saying: `Maybe our police and army are OK after all.'"
To improve the training, a greater number of the 3rd Infantry troops will "embed" with the Iraqi security forces, a technique that has trainers living alongside the Iraqis.
"We've learned that in order to be successful in training Iraqi soldiers, it must begin with the embedding process," Hammond said. "You can't succeed in training these guys by standing off at a distance and watching them fire and maneuver."
"You succeed by taking some of your best and brightest people and embedding them with a company and they're going to live and be a part of (the Iraqis') lives for an entire 12-month period," he added.
A key part of the U.S. strategy to fight the insurgents has been giving more authority to Iraqi forces.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told U.S. lawmakers Thursday that only about a third of Iraq's 136,000 trained security forces have enough training to engage in combat with insurgents across the country.
"About 40,000 can go anywhere in the country and take on any threat," he said. "That does not mean the rest of them are not useful, because in many parts of the country all you need are police on duty."
In Baghdad, the 1st Cavalry is in the process of setting up a second brigade headquarters. About 540 soldiers are permanently assigned to the Iraqi National Guard forces as trainers, living with the Iraqi troops full time in the Baghdad area.
"People have to understand that creating a security force with the capabilities to protect the people and support a democratic government takes time," Hammond said.
He said the Iraqi forces have already dramatically improved since April 2004, when thousands of Iraqi troops deserted rather than fight the insurgents.
"You did not see that this time, you saw just the opposite," Hammond said of the election security operation.
In the 30 days before the election, the division conducted more than 270 combat operations, detained 833 suspected insurgents and captured more than 100 weapons caches. The weeks ahead, though, will likely see a return to violence, he said.
But Hammond insisted that providing uninterrupted electricity, clean water and other essential services is as important as training Iraqi troops. U.S. authorities have never been able to supply those services with regularity since the city fell to American soldiers and Marines in April 2003.
"If we continue to make the investment in reconstruction, and we do it right, this place is going to succeed in a big way," Hammond said. "Those soothsayers who run around and say, `All you've got to do is conduct combat operations, and put together Iraqi security forces and bop some heads?' No, it's all about essential services."
Hammond said that while power generation is at its highest level ever, the distribution network needs a lot more work. He said they've been successful in bringing clean water to some areas, but that more work a the neighborhood level was needed.
"People don't see this because it happens behind the scenes," he said.
Hammond said he wept a little the night of the election and feels proud of what the division accomplished, but he was realistic about the work ahead.
"This (insurgency) is not done, for anyone to declare victory over the insurgency is showing ignorance," he said.
Insurgents must have the support of the population. Many times the support from the population is based on fear. That was often the case in Nam. The locals would not turn Charlie in, becuase they were afraid of Charlie.
If they worked with Charlie and supplied him with food and shelter, Charlie would not kill them and neither would we. If they worked with our side, then Charlie would kill them.
Once Iraqis take over their own security, they may find it easier to take out insurgents and those that help them. Insurgency ends when it is far more dangerous to help the insurgents than it is to turn them in.
One thing that really ticks me off occured last evening. I caught Richard Perle with Wolfie the Blitzer on CNN last night. Perle was saing our big mistake was not turning the security of Iraq over to Iraqis as soon as the war was over.
I can't imagine anything that would have been better for Saddam. The only Iraqi Security forces available were Saddams Army and Saddams cops. They would have given us stablitiy all right. Perle would have had us put the insurgents in charge of Iraqi security.
It would have been as peaceful as it was before the war. We would have left and Saddam would now be back in power. That is what Saddam figured we would do.
Perle has to be dumber than a sack or rocks or he is an enemy of the American People. The third possibility is he has become a Democrat.
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