FORWARD OPERATING BASE DUKE —— As the day of Iraq's crucial parliamentary election nears and the specter of election-day violence grows, Marines at this base just outside the Iraqi city of Najaf are redoubling efforts to train and equip Iraqi security forces to defend people at the polls.

Marines here have been rushing to distribute a long-awaited shipment of gear and weapons over the weekend for members of the four main Iraqi security forces stationed in concentric defensive layers around and inside the polling places.

The Marines also took a force of 120 specially trained Iraqis through a live fire drill Saturday, teaching them how to kill terrorists at close range with their sub-machine guns.

It's all part of an effort to make the Iraqis stand on their own come election day, they say, because the cordon around the polls won't include Marines.

The American troops will be out in force in the city, but will stay far away from the polling sites. Their presence will be a deterrence to violence and their numbers could serve as a mobile reaction force if something goes wrong.

The rest, they say, will be up to the Iraqis.

"I think we're going to be fine here," said Col. Anthony Haslam, the commander of the Marine expeditionary unit with responsibility for Najaf and nearby Karbala. "Sure, having said that, it can all blow up in my face. But we'll be good. I think (the Iraqis) will be able to pull it off themselves."

Elections as proving grounds

Marine commanders say that besides the importance of actually protecting voters, the level of training, coordination and scale of the mobilization is the first true test for much of the new Iraqi security forces.

"We've got a big mission," Haslam said.

Actually, the scale of the event and short time to prepare places any meaningful security in the realm of theory. In Najaf alone, there will be about 240 polling places in the city, Haslam said.

The call to arms for election day includes all four of the local forces, including most of the more than 4,500 Iraqi police, some 4,500 Iraqi Army soldiers, 1,800 border patrol officers and 1,800 guards for infrastructure and government buildings.

In addition to the security forces and voters, more than 7,000 volunteer election workers will assist the 450,000 registered voters, military officials said.

Girding for attacks

All over the city, local forces are hoping for the best, and preparing for the worst.

At the polling places in the city —— mostly at schools where U.S. Marine and Army engineers have already positioned waist-high blocks of concrete to stop suicide car bombers —- local police already guard the buildings 24 hours a day.

In the days just before the vote, the local Iraqi army garrison —— the 900-man 405th battalion —— will leave its temporary base at the university camps to take up positions at check points and roadblocks in the outer layer.

Within that first heavy ring manned by soldiers, a mixed force of Iraqi police, facilities security forces and border patrol officers will man positions at entrances and rooftops, and inside the polling centers themselves, according to Marines working to equip and arm them.

Staff Sgt. Ben Lloyd, 34, of Escondido, said the various Iraqi services are joining forces for the election.

"Right now, everybody's doing a little bit of everything," he said, watching over the recent distribution of pistols to a group of border patrol agents at Camp Duke, about 20 miles northwest of Najaf. "They're all helping out."

Misfits or militia?

Braving a freezing rain that lashed the region all day Saturday, about 120 men from a special Iraqi fast reaction unit practiced attacking terrorists at short range.

"Two to the chest and one to the head!" Marine Staff Sgt. Michael Kolek yelled to the Iraqis, as they gripped their AK-47 assault weapons with shivering hands at a makeshift range at the edge of the Marines' main base Saturday.

The fact that they even showed up impressed the Marine leaders here. That they practiced with such gusto and determination —— despite their obvious discomfort —— impressed them even more.

The Iraqis were learning more than marksmanship and aggressive combat tactics. They seemed to be gaining some of the basic discipline that has been so lacking among most of the new Iraqi troops —— something Kolek knows all too well.

Earlier in the week, when he was issuing handguns to newly minted border patrol officers, Kolek caught several of the recruits stealing handcuffs from a container while waiting in line.

He threw down the paperwork for a man about to receive his new 9 mm pistol and charged at the other men standing around.

"Stop! You! Let's go! Let's go! All of you over here!" Kolek yelled like a school principal trying to find out which kid started a fight or threw a wad of paper.

Kolek, who looks a lot like actor Michael J. Fox with a little more meat on his bones, forced apart the handful of officers with new pistols from the others.

"OK! Do you like your pistols?" he asked them, and they nodded in agreement.

"Well they're not getting theirs," he said as he pointed behind him to the other group of have-nots.

"I'm getting every piece of equipment back that they stole, or I'm taking your pistols," he said.

One, and then another, and another of the far group started bringing small cases of handcuffs up to Kolek.

"You don't steal from coalition forces," he said, lecturing now. "We are here to help. I would have given you hundreds of those things if you just would have asked.

"Now get in your cars and get the f—— out of here. You had fair warning. You aren't getting any pistols. There is no discussion. End of story."

More than straw men

While some military officials conceded that the Iraqi force is little more than a facade in most cases, a facade is a good start, they say.

For example, some of the police drive around in Toyota trucks with outdated anti-aircraft guns mounted on the back, or position rusty heavy-caliber machine guns at intersections.

Commanders say that even though the machine guns probably won't fire and there is no ammunition available for the anti-aircraft pieces or planes to shoot at, just the sight of such firepower in the hands of the legitimate authorities makes local residents feel safer —— or keeps them in line.

And while some of the recruits may still look like Keystone Kops, and others have more excuses than authority, Marine commanders here point to recent evidence that the local forces are not all just scarecrows.

On Dec. 19, when car bombs detonated in both Najaf and Karbala, local police detonated at least one of the bombs before it reached its target and handled security during the chaos that ensued.

"They didn't really even need us," said Marine spokeswoman Capt. Carrie Batson. "We sent a team down there, but the Iraqis had it pretty much under control. We just let them know we were there if they needed us."

Residents still worried

Even with a squad of heavily armed police and heavy concrete barriers mounted at the polling station near his home, the prospect of a suicide attack on his block keeps Najaf resident Abbas Hamid Abdul Rezea up at night.

It should: the polling place is just steps from the front door of his home, where he lives with his wife and 10 children.

"We are every day so scared," Rezea said holding his arms up in question as the Marine combat engineers recently lowered a concrete block in front of the school across the street from his home.

"Every day I watch when a car pulls up in street," Rezea said, putting his hands on his head. "Every day, I'm so scared."

For the most part, however, residents have said they feel safe enough to vote and that nothing could keep them from the polls.

The new Iraqi police say they, too, are ready, and usually only ask for more men and more guns.

And for the most part, they'll continue to get them, said Staff Sgt. Lloyd, who helped issue hundreds of AK-47s, pistols, body armor vests, radios and at least 30 new squad cars in recent days.

"They're finally seeing all the things they asked for," he said. "They're getting all the little things they need to do their jobs. There's a lot of fear of terrorism. But they want this to happen. They want the election to happen."

Contact staff writer Darrin Mortenson at dmortenson@nctimes.com.