Perspective - Marines headed for 'most dangerous' region in Iraq

By: DARRIN MORTENSON - Staff Writer | Thursday, February 12, 2004 10:22 AM PST ∞

Lance Cpl. Greg Odell role plays the part of an injured armed Iraqi insurgent after Marines shot at him with blanks as they and other Marines of the I Marine Expeditionary Force conduct Stability and Support training in preparation of deployment to Iraq at a vacant military housing complex near March Air Reserve Base in Riverside
Hayne Palmour
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CAMP PENDLETON ---- Local Marine officials are assembling the final pieces of their plans to send about 25,000 Marines to replace Army units in Al Anbar province ---- the hub of some of the fiercest anti-American resistance in Iraq.

The province is peppered with tens of thousands of former regime loyalists who have a serious grudge against the American occupiers.

Unemployment is high and the population is young, leaving a huge pool from which the insurgents draw new recruits and hire trigger-men for attacks.

Like the Army soldiers there now, the Marines could face car bombs, roadside mines and rocket attacks ---- a more random and, some say, more dangerous, threat than they faced during the invasion last spring.

Their only hope, their leaders say, is to improve economic and security conditions faster than the guerrillas can sabotage progress and convince locals to join the fight.

The Marines will have to learn to be beat cops, social workers, civil planners and neighbors as they fight the guerrillas for hearts and minds.

Troops are on their way

Small advanced parties from the Marine units scheduled to deploy, mostly from Camp Pendleton, Miramar and Twentynine Palms, already have left for Kuwait and military airfields in Iraq.

The bulk of the troops will leave on military and commercial flights during the next few weeks and should continue arriving through March, officials say.

Their destination is the Wyoming-size desert province of Al Anbar west of Baghdad that includes the flashpoint towns of Al Fallujah and Ar Ramadi, where at least 11 U.S. soldiers have been killed in the past two weeks.

While the Army has reported some progress and improved relations with the people of the region, there has been increased violence after a brief lull following the capture of Saddam Hussein in December.

Marine officials say they plan to make it clear that they are different from the Army, which made some costly blunders in the beginning of their tenure in Al Anbar that some say soured relations with locals.

Officials say the troops will be most vulnerable to attack during the transition, when tens of thousands of troops will be traveling the roads in convoys and flying in helicopters.

Once they get settled, the troops face a seven-month mission in what Maj. Gen. James Amos calls the most dangerous part of the country, where roadside bombs, mortar attacks and ambushes continue to challenge claims that the U.S. forces have control.

"It's a dangerous mission," said Maj. Michael Wylie, executive officer of 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, one of the Marine infantry battalions scheduled to deploy to Iraq. "There's just no way around that."

Al Anbar a bastion of old ways

The mostly desert province of Al Anbar extends from Baghdad to the borders of Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia and makes up the western corner of the "Sunni triangle," where support for the former Ba'ath regime is strongest.

It is a bastion of the Sunni sect of Islam. Iraq is about 65 percent Shiite and some 17 percent Sunni, but at least 80 percent of the more than 1.5 million residents of Al Anbar are Sunni.

Peter Sluglett, professor of Middle Eastern history at the University of Utah and author of "Iraq Since 1958: From Revolution to Dictatorship," said Al Anbar's population is very traditional, strongly Arab and was the hub of revival of Arab tribalism that was encouraged by Saddam Hussein in the 1990s.

"It's a region of tribal ways, tribal strength and tribal sentiment," Sluglett said in a recent telephone interview. "If you are going to see any nomads left in Iraq, this is where they will be."

Sluglett said Saddam Hussein drew many of his trusted officers and soldiers for the Republican Guard and security services from the Dulaim tribal group which dominates the region and is concentrated in the town of Ar Ramadi, the provincial capital. The Dulaim include 82 subtribes that can be further divided into thousands of clans, military officials say.

Army officials estimate that as many as 43,000 former Ba'ath Party officials in the province lost their jobs due to the U.S. administration's policy of de-Ba'athification, which has been in force since May.

Unemployed and angry, former Ba'athists and members of the Iraqi Army and secret police agencies, which were disbanded after the U.S.-led invasion, have gathered frequently to protest in Ar Ramadi and Al Fallujah.

Sluglett said the insurgents probably include a mix of some of these former soldiers and unemployed youth who are attacking U.S. troops out of clan loyalty and patriotism or for money offered by guerrilla cadre.

He said ordinary residents may be involved in or supporting the attacks because they object to foreign occupation and fear what would happen to them if the majority Shiites gain power in Iraq's new government. Since at least the 1900s the minority Sunnis have held sway in Iraq, a dominance bestowed by colonial rulers including the Ottoman Turks and the British Empire ---- a strategy of divide and conquer.

"It's like after apartheid (in South Africa)," Sluglett said. "Everyone (in the white minority) was scared of what would happen when the blacks would be in charge."

Noting Iraq's history of colonization by Great Britain, Sluglett said he can understand the popular angst at the occupation. But he said the insurgency can't win, and can only harass and irritate the American forces, not drive them out.

Region has violent history

Judging by the Army's recent experience, perhaps the Marines' biggest challenge will be the conservative Sunni city of Al Fallujah, a densely populated center of around 250,000 people about 30 miles west of Baghdad, along the Euphrates River between the capital and Ar Ramadi.

Considered a bedroom community of the capital, Al Fallujah is home to many former members of the Iraqi army and the Ba'ath Party.

Recent events illustrate the unrest there:

April 28 ---- Soldiers fire on protesters in Al Fallujah, killing at least 18 people and wounding as many as 80.

The incident, known in some human rights circles as the "Fallujah Massacre," ignited weeks of rioting and fueled a growing anti-American resistance movement. Some count its aftermath as the beginning of the resistance movement in Al Fallujah.

Army general touts progress

The Army's 82nd Airborne Division has been responsible for the region since September and has its headquarters in a former presidential palace outside Ar Ramadi. The Army force there, "Task Force All-American," includes elements of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, of Fort Carson, Colo., and the 1st Infantry Division.

Just before the string of attacks that has killed 11 soldiers since Jan. 24, the Army general in charge of the province said the region was becoming safer.

Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack said he has turned over much of the local security to newly trained Iraqi soldiers and police officers, most of whom were trained at a security college operated by U.S. troops.

He said more than 6,500 police and 1,300 members of the new Iraqi Civil Defense Corps maintain order in the towns and 528 Iraqi border police enforce the borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Unemployment has dropped from more than 60 percent when the division took over in September to 30 percent in December, Swannack said. He said soldiers helped create at least 16,000 jobs and reopen 42 of 67 factories to run at least at partial capacity.

"We're on a glide path toward success as attacks against Task Force All American forces have decreased almost 60 percent over the past month," he said in a rare briefing on Jan. 6 in Baghdad. "We have turned the corner and now we can accelerate down the straightaway."

Swannack said that attacks against his troops have subsided from 15-19 attacks per day in October to about five attacks per day. There are four or six guerrilla cells that operate in each of the main cities, he said.

Recent reports from the region indicate that the guerrillas remain strong in Al Anbar and force the U.S. forces to travel in large groups and camp outside the cities at night.

"I won't defeat all the enemy in my time. That's very clear," Lt. Col. Drinkwine, commander of the Army unit responsible for Al Fallujah, recently told the Los Angeles Times. "I don't have the threat of a tank battalion rising out of the dust and coming after me. But I've got mortars, I've got rockets, and I've got small elements that are trying to chip away at our will."

Reports say U.S. soldiers routinely draw enemy fire if they remain stationary for more than one hour.

Marines plan soft touch

Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee on Jan. 28, Marine Commandant Gen. Michael Hagee said the Marines of I Marine Expeditionary Force were ready to start replacing the Army in Al Anbar.

"The 1st MEF is already working closely with U.S. Army forces in Iraq," Hagee said.

Other Marine officials have said that small transition teams ---- mostly intelligence officers and members of the command staff from the deploying units ---- have been in the Iraqi towns learning the lay of the land alongside the experienced Army soldiers.

Along with a brigade from the Army's 1st Infantry Division, which will stay until the transfer is complete, these advanced Marine units will help the main Marine forces get established during the rotation, officials say.

Maj. Gen. James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, which includes the infantry, reconnaissance and artillery battalions that will be most active on the streets, says he plans to win over Al Anbar by increasing contact between his troops and the Iraqis.

He and other leaders have hinted that they would match Marine platoons with Iraqi civil defense and police units and assign them to live in villages and urban neighborhoods to act as beat cops.

Many of the Marines about to deploy have received a few weeks of Arabic language training and have practiced conducting house searches in ways meant to minimize their impact on the residents.

The troops have been taught to think first, and fire only when they are sure that their target is a guerrilla and a threat. Officials have also promised not to fire artillery

Mattis' simple directive to the troops has been, "Do no harm."

Sluglett, while warning that a crash course in language and culture would not be enough to heal wounds and pacify the population, said the Marines' plans for Al Anbar could be a step in the right direction.

He said the Iraqi people have long lived in fear and mistrust and might open up to a more friendly force.

"Hey, some of it just might work," Sluglett said of Marines' plans to use a "velvet glove" approach in Al Anbar. "If you can create trust ---- if you can have these guys acting as intermediaries between the disaffected elements and the people ---- then perhaps this isn't such a bad idea. But we'll have to wait and see, won't we?"

Contact staff writer Darrin Mortenson at (760) 740-5442 or dmortenson@nctimes.com.