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 The Pentagon Early Bird C U R R E N T N E W S E A R L Y B I R DDecember 13, 2007 placeRandomImg() Use of these news articles does not reflect official endorsement. Reproduction for private use or gain is subject to original copyright restrictions. Story numbers indicate order of appearance only. This is the single print version. Use the PRINT command in your browser to print the entire Early Bird as one document. (NOTE: This single file format is a long document and can use 50 or more pages of paper.) GATES TRIP
Yahoo.com December 13, 2007 Gates Heads To Scotland For Talks On Afghan Force By Jim Mannion, Agence France-Presse US Defense Secretary Robert Gates heads to Scotland Wednesday for a meeting on Afghanistan amid growing trans-Atlantic tensions over NATO allies' failure to provide promised troops and equipment to the force there. Gates and defense ministers from countries whose troops are fighting in southern Afghanistan as part of a NATO-led force will meet for two days in Edinburgh to discuss the shortfalls and map a strategy to persuade other allies to do their part. "I'm not ready to let NATO off the hook," Gates told US lawmakers Tuesday, sharply criticizing members of the alliance for failing to live up to commitments made more than a year ago at a summit in Riga. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Gates "has some clear ideas about what's wrong with our Afghan strategy." "Over the next couple of days in Edinburgh he will have a chance to delve more deeply into those ideas with his NATO counterparts," he said. Rising Taliban violence has accentuated US concerns that the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) lacks the troops and capabilities needed to mount a successful counter-insurgency. ISAF is short three infantry battalions, 3,000 trainers for the Afghan police and army and about 20 medium and heavy lift and attack helicopters. Gates said a US helicopter unit that has partly filled the shortfall will not be extended beyond January. Morrell said the US military is already filling another gap in military trainers, and cannot provide more to train Afghan police. "And that's why its urgently needed that they get their trainers over there so we can concentrate on the Afghan army," he said. "US trainers are very much in demand and I don't know that there is the ability for us to take on the mission of our allies as well." Gates said Tuesday the number of troops involved "are not all that big, which, frankly, is one of the sources of frustration to me in terms of our allies not being able to step up to the plate." Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made clear there are limits to what the US military can provide in Afghanistan because its main effort is in Iraq. "The war in Afghanistan is by design and necessity an economy of force operation. There is no getting around it," Mullen said. "In Afghanistan we do what we can. In Iraq we do what we must," he said. Gates acknowledged that rising violence, particularly in southern Iraq, has turned what some allies had expected would be a stabilization and reconstruction mission into a full-blown counter-insurgency campaign. He said NATO should take a step back and reassess what it wants to accomplish in Afghanistan over the next three to five years. "I will be pursuing this in Scotland," he said. "Individual allies have undertaken an assessment of how they see the situation in Afghanistan. We will bring all of those together; NATO will. "And my hope is that we can put together a thoughtful and persuasive approach that takes a longer-term view of where we want to be," he said. US officials say that the Taliban is militarily no match for the NATO forces, but they worry about rising violence, particularly in southern Afghanistan, and eroding support for the government in Kabul. Mullen called it a "classic insurgency" that required a well-coordinated counter-insurgency campaign. ISAF forces operating in the south are from Britain, Canada, Australia, Estonia, Romania, the Netherlands and the United States. Gates said France has agreed to provide a military advisory team in the south, filling a gap opened with the departure of some 200 Dutch troops. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071213567318.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_4153432_AEn PjkQAATglR2FsTw2TGi3%2BXBs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071213aaindex_concat.html&cred=y9VY3JQsGgXmlI j6adGZ1tsZGiQr6xBIvDf7YlFndRcza.wky2eN8Usd42gOnR#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Bloomberg.com December 12, 2007 Gates Wants NATO To Reorganize Afghanistan Mission By Ed Johnson, Bloomberg News U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will push NATO members meeting in Scotland today to provide more troops and equipment and reorganize the mission to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan. Rebel attacks have more than doubled in southern Afghanistan in the past year and NATO's international force is short of three infantry battalions, 20 helicopters and about 3,000 instructors to train the Afghan army and police, the Pentagon says. ``The numbers are not that big, which, frankly, is one of the sources of frustration for me in terms of our allies not being able to step up to the plate and meet these needs,'' Gates told the House Armed Services Committee in Washington this week. ``I am not ready to let NATO off the hook.'' Gates will be joined at the two-day talks in Edinburgh by his counterparts from the U.K., Canada, the Netherlands, non-NATO member Australia, Denmark, Romania and Estonia, whose troops are stationed in southern Afghanistan. The region produces more opium than anywhere else in the world and is the center of an illicit drugs trade that helps fund the Taliban insurgency. North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries must draw up a ``strategic concept'' for how to wage the conflict over the next three to five years, Gates told the committee Dec. 11. ``The Afghanistan mission has exposed real limitation in the way the alliance is organized, operated and equipped,'' Gates said. ``We're in a post-Cold War environment. We have to be ready to operate in distant locations against insurgencies and terrorist networks.'' NATO commands an international force of 41,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is responsible for fighting insurgents and rebuilding infrastructure destroyed by more than 25 years of conflict. The U.S. has the biggest contingent in the country, with 15,000 soldiers under NATO command and about 10,000 taking part in counterterrorism operations. The Afghan army is scheduled to number 70,000 personnel by the end of this year. American, British, Canadian and Dutch soldiers do the bulk of NATO's fighting in Afghanistan and have sustained most casualties. France, Germany and other members have been criticized for imposing caveats on what operations their troops can take part in and keeping them in the relatively calm north. NATO's International Security Assistance Force is ``plagued by shortfalls in capability and capacity, and constrained by a host of caveats that limits its ability,'' said U.S. Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Violence nationwide has risen 27 percent from last year and 60 percent in southern Helmand province, Mullen told the committee this week. Support for the Taliban has tripled in the past three years in the country's southwest, he said. The Taliban's guerrilla war has developed into a ``a classic insurgency'' that requires a ``well coordinated counter- insurgency strategy,'' Mullen said. The U.K., which has about 7,800 soldiers in Afghanistan, is also trying to convince allies, especially in eastern Europe, to provide more funds and equipment for the mission if they can't offer more soldiers. Poland last week promised to send eight helicopters to Afghanistan. ``We are talking to all our partners to address the immediate needs for more training teams for the Afghan security forces, especially the police,'' Prime Minister Gordon Brown told Parliament in London yesterday. The U.K. and U.S. are pushing for a civilian envoy to be appointed for Afghanistan who can coordinate international efforts in the country. ``I'm hopeful this exhaustive search will be completed soon,'' said Gates. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071213567183.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_4153432_AEn PjkQAATglR2FsTw2TGi3%2BXBs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071213aaindex_concat.html&cred=y9VY3JQsGgXmlI j6adGZ1tsZGiQr6xBIvDf7YlFndRcza.wky2eN8Usd42gOnR#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Christian Science Monitor December 13, 2007 Pg. 2 In Europe, Gates To Push For NATO Help In Afghanistan Defense Secretary Robert Gates heads to Scotland Wednesday to ask for more European troops. By Gordon Lubold, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor WASHINGTON -- The deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan is putting new pressure on Defense Secretary Robert Gates to change course. Mr. Gates travels to Europe this week to ask NATO allies again for more troops to help fight what has become a classic insurgency in Afghanistan, saying he doesn't want to let allies off too easy. But Democratic lawmakers, calling Afghanistan "the forgotten war," are now pushing Gates to send more American forces to pick up the slack in the war-torn country, where an increase in suicide bombings and other violence threatens to undo progress made since US troops first invaded in 2001. Gates has continually pushed NATO to send more troops. But as the mission there looks more like combat and less like the peacekeeping operation that many allies had signed up for, Gates has had trouble recruiting more assistance. "It is a continuing effort with our NATO allies to get them to step up to the plate," Gates conceded to House lawmakers on Tuesday. Gates wants more than 3,000 new trainers, three infantry battalions, and dozens of helicopters for the fight. Democratic lawmakers called Gates and his top uniformed adviser, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Capitol Hill Tuesday to raise awareness of the problems that have been mounting in Afghanistan for more than a year. With the focus on Iraq, the Bush administration has taken its eyes off of Afghanistan, Democrats say. Currently about 50,000 coalition forces are in Afghanistan, of which about 25,000 are American troops, mostly from the US Army. About 165,000 US troops are stationed in Iraq. "Afghanistan has been the forgotten war," said Rep. Ike Skelton (D) of Missouri, who leads the House Armed Services Committee. "Opportunities have been squandered, and now we're clearly seeing the effects. We must reprioritize and shift needed resources from Iraq to Afghanistan." Admiral Mullen, who became chairman of the Joint Chiefs in October, told the panel that overall violence in Afghanistan is up 27 percent over one year ago with "a significant increase" in the number of suicide bombings. In Helmand Province in the south, where the Taliban has a strong foothold, violence has risen more than 60 percent, he said. And support for the Taliban in the southwestern part of the country is triple what it was in 2004. The US military, however, was already stretched in Iraq when President Bush called for a 'surge' of American forces in January and more than 30,000 additional troops were sent there. Although security has improved in some areas in Iraq, the military is still mired in the mission, preventing serious discussion about Afghanistan, analysts say. That leaves little room for sending additional US forces there. "In Afghanistan, we do what we can," Mullen said. "In Iraq, we do what we must." Asked by Mr. Skelton to elaborate, Mullen said Iraq is the military's priority given the personnel and equipment resources that are available. "We have resourced Afghanistan to the level that we think we can right now, given that balance," Mullen said. Last week, Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway proposed sending as many as 15,000 marines to Afghanistan to help stabilize security. Analysts and military officials thought the idea had merit. But it was leaked to the press by a likely critic of the plan, and then painted negatively, dooming its prospects, analysts say. Ultimately, Mullen recommended against the plan and Gates ruled it out, at least for now. Gates's reluctance to send more American forces to Afghanistan stems mostly from wanting to negotiate a better deal with NATO allies, though politics plays a role, too, analysts say. "I don't think this administration wants to give the impression that things are worse in Afghanistan and therefore we have to send more troops," says Michele Flournoy, president and cofounder of the Center for a New American Security, a think tank in Washington. Ms. Flournoy says it is better to send forces there now than later – and increase diplomatic and economic reconstruction efforts – otherwise the next administration inherits a bigger problem in Afghanistan. "My concern is there is no such thing as benign neglect when it comes to ongoing operations," she says. For his part, Gates appears to agree. A former director of the CIA in the 1990s, Gates said he believes Afghanistan is a crucial mission and acknowledged that the US already "turned its back" on the country once after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989. Four years later, Al Qaeda mounted the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. "One of the lessons that I think we have is that if we abandon these countries, once we are in there and engaged, there is a very real possibility that we will pay a higher price in the end," Gates said. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071213567199.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_4153432_AEn PjkQAATglR2FsTw2TGi3%2BXBs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071213aaindex_concat.html&cred=y9VY3JQsGgXmlI j6adGZ1tsZGiQr6xBIvDf7YlFndRcza.wky2eN8Usd42gOnR#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times December 13, 2007 Three Blasts Kill At Least 27 In Iraq By Damien Cave and Khalid Al-Ansary BAGHDAD — At least 27 people died and 150 were wounded Wednesday when three car bombs ripped through a southern Iraqi city where the local authorities had recently taken over security responsibility from the British military and rival Shiite groups had been battling for control of oil and power. The triple bombing, in Amara, the capital of Maysan Province, was one of the deadliest attacks in Iraq in months and highlighted both the volatility of the south and the potential risks of turning over security to Iraqi forces in areas where tensions still run high. Iraqi security officials said that the blasts came in quick succession around 10 a.m., collapsing buildings, charring cars and filling hospital hallways with bloody victims who barely knew what hit them. Police reports on the death toll ranged from 27 to 41. “I saw human flesh flying here and there,” said Zahra Muhammad Hussein, 53, who was struck by the bomb’s blast while hailing a taxi. “It was a huge explosion. I lost consciousness and felt that the earth has swallowed me.” Witnesses said the first car bomb exploded in a parking garage on one of the city’s busiest streets. When crowds rushed to help the victims, the second and third bombs — in parked cars nearby — blew up, shattering glass in stores and sending a thick plume of smoke into the air. “I saw the explosion, and it was horrific,” said one witness, Muhammad Abdul-Hussein. “The first car exploded. Then five minutes after that, the second exploded, and as people gathered to help evacuate the casualties, there was a third.” British troops handed control of Maysan Province to Iraqis in April as part of the planned drawdown of foreign troops throughout the southern region. Despite the latest attack and the frequent violence throughout the region, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki announced Wednesday that Iraqi forces, as planned, would take over responsibility for security from British forces in the nearby province of Basra this week. During a visit to Basra, Mr. Maliki said the Amara attack was a “desperate attempt” to distract the public from broader security improvements in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq. He called on Amara residents to suppress the urge for vengeance. Meanwhile, on Wednesday afternoon, Interior Ministry officials said they would fire the local police chief in Amara. It was not clear, however, who was responsible for the car bombs. Typically, Sunni extremist groups are blamed for dramatic car bombs here, but Amara is tightly controlled by Shiites. Sitting in an oil-rich province that borders Iran, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, it is the home of rival Shiite militias — the Mahdi Army, loyal to Moktada al-Sadr, and gunmen aligned with the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, which residents described as the city’s dominant political force. Iran has ties to both groups. Recent clashes between the forces have been concentrated in Basra and Diwaniya, two nearby southern cities, but brutal violence has erupted repeatedly in Amara since at least 2003. British military officials said this year that Iraqi forces would be able to keep a lid on violence, but the attacks on Wednesday suggested a high level of coordination, and a desire to kill as many people as possible. Immediately afterward, the local security forces locked down the city with a vehicle ban, as reports came in that at least one and possibly three other car bombs might be in the area. The police said they arrested a handful of suspects but did not give details on a possible motive. Abdul Karim Mahoon, a prominent local leader and former member of the Amara district council, said the attack might have involved a mix of local militants and foreign expertise. “They are trying to disturb the stability and security of our province,” he said, “because it has been safer than others.” The attacks came after an overall lull in violence in Iraq recently compared with the number of attacks in previous months and years. Violence also surfaced in several other parts of the country on Wednesday, leaving at least 19 people dead and dozens wounded. In Baghdad, a car bomb in a Christian neighborhood near the country’s main tax office killed at least five people and wounded 13, an Interior Ministry official said. The explosion blew out windows in three buildings and caused frantic mothers to race to the scene, wailing, because schoolboys often congregate in nearby shops. Ahmad al-Maliki, 24, a clerk who works in a fruit market, said that he saw a smoldering body on the sidewalk after the blast and an old man lying on the street with his clothes burned off. “The shock threw me to the ground behind a table, and that saved me,” said Mr. Maliki, pieces of glass and splintered wood clinging to his curly hair. Witnesses said the bomb appeared to have been aimed at a police checkpoint. The Baghdad police also found five unidentified bodies throughout the city and reported two shootings and a roadside bomb that, in all, wounded at least four people. To the north in Diyala Province, three unidentified bodies were found in and around Baquba, the provincial capital. A pair of gun battles in the city killed two civilians and wounded five, while the day’s most horrific attack in the province came just before dusk. At around 4:30 p.m., three masked gunmen forced their way into the Saadiya high school for boys, north of Baquba. Witnesses said they opened fire on the school’s headmaster, Khalil Ibraheem al-Khalidi, and a teacher, Khalid Salim; both were killed. Witnesses said that the headmaster and the teacher had been heard criticizing Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia — a homegrown Sunni Arab extremist group that American intelligence agencies have concluded is led by foreigners — and were probably killed for their views. Farther north in Kirkuk, where Kurds have been battling Sunni Arabs for control of the area’s oil, a roadside bomb killed at least one person and wounded two. Reporting was contributed by Anwar J. Ali, Cara Buckley and Mudhafer al-Husaini from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Basra, Diwaniya, Najaf and Hilla. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071213567167.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_4153432_AEn PjkQAATglR2FsTw2TGi3%2BXBs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071213aaindex_concat.html&cred=y9VY3JQsGgXmlI j6adGZ1tsZGiQr6xBIvDf7YlFndRcza.wky2eN8Usd42gOnR#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post December 13, 2007 Pg. 29 Triple Car Bombing Kills 46 In S. Iraq Attack in Usually Quiet Amarah Is Country's Worst Since August By Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post Foreign Service BAGHDAD, Dec. 12 -- Three powerful car bombs exploded one after the other in a southern provincial capital on Wednesday, killing 46 people and injuring 149, local police said. It was the most devastating attack in Iraq since August. The attack in Amarah in Maysan province was believed to be the city's first mass bombing since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The area is considered one of the country's safest, and the bombings shattered a hopeful, if brittle, lull in Iraq's violence. Coming as British troops prepare to hand over neighboring Basra province this weekend to Iraqi security forces, the bombings also underscored the fragility of southern Iraq, where rival Shiite groups are battling for influence and control over the region's vast oil resources. The British withdrew from Maysan in April. Early casualty numbers varied, and police said they expected the death toll to rise. Officials in Amarah said at least 46 were killed, while Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, which oversees the national police, put the toll at 26. Hours after the bombings, the Iraqi government fired Amarah's police chief and said he would be replaced by Khalaf. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who was visiting Basra on Tuesday, said the attack was carried out by those seeking to undermine efforts to stabilize the country. "Any criminal act they commit would only be a desperate attempt to draw attention away from the clear successes and to break through the siege imposed on the defeated groups," he said, the Reuters news agency reported. Maliki also called on residents in Amarah to exercise restraint and avoid revenge attacks against the "terrorists who do not want Iraq to stand up again." U.S. Embassy spokesman Philip T. Reeker said recent attacks highlighted the dangers that Iraq still faces, even as violence has declined in Baghdad and elsewhere in the country. "We are by no means declaring a victory against those who would like to disrupt the progress in Iraq," Reeker told reporters. In Baghdad, a car laden with explosives was detonated by remote control as a crowded minibus passed by, killing six people and injuring 33, police said. The blasts in Amarah tore through Dijlah Street, a commercial thoroughfare, at around 11 a.m., destroying nearby shops and restaurants, witnesses said. Hamoun Abu Mohammad, 44, was inside his bakery when he heard the series of three explosions. "The second one, which was the most powerful one, went off in front of Jalal Restaurant, and when people rushed to help the victims, the third bomb detonated," Abu Mohammad said in a telephone interview. He said he ferried victims in his car to a local hospital. Police sealed off part of Dijlah Street as ambulances took victims to three hospitals, Lt. Col. Khalid Muhammad said. No group asserted responsibility for the attack, but residents immediately blamed Shiite factions, which many believe are behind recent assassinations and kidnappings in the city. "It is impossible that al-Qaeda is behind these bombings," said Abu Muhannad, 30, a vendor at a vegetable market, who did not want to give his full name. "We have not heard of any existence of al-Qaeda here." Abdul Jabar, 39, the owner of a turban shop, said that when the British withdrew from Amarah in April, Iraqi security forces could not adequately protect the city. "The number of policemen is not enough and do not have enough effective weapons," he said. "Their security measures are very weak here," said Abu Muhannad. "At checkpoints, they don't search cars." Wednesday's attack shattered many residents' sense of security. "I don't think there will be any safe place in Iraq after what happened today," Abu Mohammad, the bakery worker, said. Special correspondents Zaid Sabah and Naseer Nouri in Baghdad and Saad Sarhan in Diwaniyah contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071213567168.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_4153432_AEn PjkQAATglR2FsTw2TGi3%2BXBs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071213aaindex_concat.html&cred=y9VY3JQsGgXmlI j6adGZ1tsZGiQr6xBIvDf7YlFndRcza.wky2eN8Usd42gOnR#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post December 13, 2007 Pg. 1 Iraq's Youthful Militiamen Build Power Through Fear Schoolgirls Told to Wear Scarves, Under Threat of Death By Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post Foreign Service BAGHDAD -- On the first day of class, two male teenagers entered a girls' high school in the Tobji neighborhood, clutching AK-47 assault rifles. The young Shiite fighters handed the principal a handwritten note and ordered her to assemble the students in the courtyard, witnesses said. "All girls must wear hijab," she read aloud, her voice trembling. "If the girls don't wear hijab, we will close the school or kill the girls." That October day Sara Mustafa, 14, a secular Sunni Arab, also trembled. The next morning, she covered up with an Islamic head scarf for the first time. The young fighters now controlled her life. "We could not do anything," Sara recalled. The Mahdi Army of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is using a new generation of youths, some as young as 15, to expand and tighten its grip across Baghdad, but the ruthlessness of some of these young fighters is alienating Sunnis and Shiites alike. The fighters are filling the vacuum of leadership created by a 10-month-old U.S.-led security offensive. Hundreds of senior and mid-level militia members have been arrested, killed or forced into hiding, weakening what was once the second most powerful force in Iraq after the U.S. military. But the militia still rules through fear and intimidation, often under the radar of U.S. troops. "JAM is alive and well in Tobji, although they have gotten younger, like in many other areas," said Lt. Col. Steven Miska, using a military acronym derived from the militia's name in Arabic. For much of this year, his soldiers operated in Tobji. The rise of this new generation is a reflection of the Mahdi Army's deep infiltration of society and could presage a turbulent resurgence of the militia as the U.S. military reduces troop levels. The emergence also highlights the struggle Sadr faces in his quest to control the capital and lead Iraq. In late August, the 34-year-old cleric declared a freeze in operations, in part to exert more authority over his unruly, decentralized militia. Many followers stood down, so much that U.S. commanders give Sadr some credit for a downturn in violence this year. But some militia leaders have ignored Sadr's freeze, and their young, power-hungry foot soldiers may ultimately undermine the cleric's popular appeal. "We have to show people we are not weak," said Ali, a 19-year-old Mahdi Army fighter in Tobji. 'I Was in Control. I Ruled' Two years ago, Ali was unemployed. He recalled that he idolized his older cousins who were veteran Mahdi Army fighters. Like them, he was born and raised in Tobji, a wisp of a neighborhood in north-central Baghdad where every neighbor knows the other. Its official name is Salaam, or peace. Ali and his cousins once befriended Sunnis, Kurds and Christians. But after the February 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, sectarian violence shattered Tobji's tribal and social bonds. Suddenly sect was all that mattered to Ali, and the militia became his new family. He was 17. Abu Sajjad, a 44-year-old former Mahdi Army fighter, remembered seeing a rise in disaffected, jobless recruits at the time. "They were nothing before they joined the Mahdi Army," said Abu Sajjad, who asked to be called by his nickname to protect his security. "The Mahdi Army will protect them better than their tribes or their families." Older fighters quickly indoctrinated Ali. "They are Sunnis. We are Shia. They are not going to kick us out of Tobji," Ali recalled them saying. Ali, tall and slim with wavy black hair, spoke on condition that his full name not be used, fearing arrest by U.S. forces and retaliation by the militia. He is trying to leave the militia and has joined the Iraqi army, which he keeps secret from his comrades. In separate interviews, Sunni and Shiite residents said that Ali was a well-known Mahdi Army member involved in several attacks. Initially, Ali was assigned to a militia checkpoint. He searched cars and demanded that drivers give their tribal names, so he could determine their sect. "I was a teenager. I was in control. I ruled," said Ali, who during a four-hour interview wore a brown sweater and, like many Shiites, a silver ring on his left pinky. "If I told any car to stop, it would stop." At the local Sadr office, recruits were given lessons in Shiite religion and Mahdi Army ideology, which centered on Shiite supremacy. The recruits were ordered to inform on anyone suspicious or breaking Islamic codes. "They can convince anybody," Ali said. "If they tell you that your father is a bad man, you will be more than happy to kill your father." Ali also worked in a barbershop. When customers discussed their lives, he took mental notes and later reported what he had heard to the Sadr office. Four months after he joined, Ali fought his first street battle. He fired a rocket-propelled grenade into the house of a member of a Sunni tribe called the Egheidat, killing him. Ali said he felt remorse, which vanished as smiling, older fighters hugged him. "You are a hero," one of them told Ali. "The rocket saved our lives." Two Egheidat leaders, including Mustafa Salih, Sara's father, said that Ali was known to have fired RPGs during the battle, but they were unsure if he had killed anyone. Mahdi Army commanders punished young fighters for disobeying orders. Offenders were taken to a room inside the Sadr office, filled with steel cables, whips and slabs of iron, where they were tortured. Ali said it was called "The Happiness Room." Murder and Protection On the streets of Tobji one recent day, clusters of girls headed to school in their uniforms, all wearing the hijab. The portrait of a serene Haider Hamrani, a 17-year-old militia fighter shot dead by U.S. forces, stared out from a billboard. Young men with cellphones circled the neighborhood, which was plastered with images of Sadr. They drove mopeds on side streets or gathered on corners. Some wore jeans, others baseball caps, blending into the landscape. They were the early warning system, keeping watch for strangers and U.S. patrols. "No one will suspect they are Mahdi Army," Ali said. Today, more than half the militia here is under age 20, said Ali and another young fighter named Mahmoud. The new generation is heavily involved in the militia's income-generating schemes. They sell the cars of kidnap victims and rent out the houses of displaced Sunnis. The militia also demands payments from generator men supplying electricity. Each month, youths collect 5,000 Iraqi dinars, or about $4, in protection money from every household. "The more flagrant, younger crowd tends to focus on organized crime and lining their pockets with cash," said Miska, the U.S. officer. Many young militiamen appear to have become ruthless murderers, replacing older fighters who have been captured or gone underground. Ali said he took part in four killings, all of neighbors. After Ali informed the Sadr office that his childhood friend Wissam had joined the Iraqi army, several young militia members abducted him and his mother. First they shot Wissam. When his mother kneeled over his body, screaming and in tears, they shot her in the head, Ali and Mahmoud said. Another neighbor, a divorced woman, was killed after Ali mentioned that he had heard on the street that she was a prostitute -- a crime in the view of the militia -- although he had no proof. One of her assassins, Ali said, was a 17-year-old named Saad, who had joined at age 15. When young fighters are told to kill someone, Ali said, "they will kill that person the next day without hesitation." Nearby, in the living room of his narrow two-story home, Abu Ali Hassan, a 42-year-old Sunni, has hung a portrait of Imam Ali, one of Shiite Islam's most revered figures, in case militia fighters visit. Each month, he hands them the 5,000 dinars, which he calls "extortion money." He's noticed that older fighters have all but vanished. "They are running the neighborhood through these kids," said Hassan, a Transportation Ministry employee. Like many areas in Baghdad, Tobji has experienced a decline in violent attacks. But most Sunnis who fled have yet to return, community leaders said. Those who remain live under constant fear that they are being monitored. This year, the militia started to deploy women as spies, Ali and other residents said. Desperate, Hassan has befriended a few young militiamen on his street. "God forbid, if anything happens to me tomorrow, they will be useful to me," he said. "Now, they are the supreme power in our neighborhood." Shiites as Victims Increasingly, the militia's victims are Shiites. Tobji's Shiite head of the local council, Abu Hussein Kamil, and another official were assassinated in August. Kamil, Ali said, had not given jobs to relatives of the militiamen and was suspected of collaborating with U.S. forces. "He was hurting his own people," Ali said. In June, several young fighters tortured and killed a Shiite generator man because he would not give additional electricity to the house of a militia member, his family and neighbors said. "They call themselves the Mahdi Army, but they act like a gang," said Majid al-Zubaidi, 28, the man's brother. "They just want to show they are in control of everything. They want people to fear them." "Now, both Sunni and Shia are upset with the Mahdi Army," Zubaidi said. Abu Sajjad, the veteran fighter, said many older militiamen are also angry. The youths are tarnishing the militia's image as guardians of Shiites, he said. One day, he witnessed two young fighters on a moped drive up to a car and fatally shoot the driver, a Shiite who had publicly criticized Sadr. Abu Sajjad urged the Sadr office to punish the assailants, but nothing happened, he said. The leaders of the office protect the shebab, as the young men are called in Arabic, Abu Sajjad said. "The shebab are their eyes in the neighborhood and are following their orders." On another day, a 17-year-old fighter went to the Sadr office and complained that his parents had ordered him to leave the militia. The office threatened the family, said Abu Sajjad, who knows the teenager and his family. The U.S. military has exploited this generational rift and the anger of residents, Miska said. His troops paid informers for tips that often led to raids and arrests. But some community leaders complained that the American military had also targeted moderate leaders who brought some discipline to the militia. "It's hard to believe they can't distinguish between the good people and bad people," said Ali Khadim, 44, a prominent Shiite tribal leader. U.S. troops, he said, recently raided his own house, where his elderly parents live. Schoolchildren 'Seduced' Down the street from the Sadr office, the tan wall of a secondary school was covered with posters of Sadr and Imam Ali. A long black banner commemorated a Shiite holiday, as women covered in head-to-ankle abayas seemed to float by. Inside some of Tobji's schools, young militiamen have pressured teachers to disclose exam answers and give high grades to relatives of Mahdi Army fighters. They have ordered them to give Shiite religious lessons to students, including Sunnis, according to teachers and parents. "They have turned the schools into their safe houses," said Fadhil Hassan, who teaches at a school in Tobji that he asked not be named, fearing retaliation. A young fighter wanted by U.S. forces shows up every day, Hassan said, and sometimes hits students on the head or shoulder with a stick, separating Sunnis from Shiites. Now, students with problems are also turning to the Mahdi Army, he added, and looking up to militiamen as role models. "They are seduced by these young fighters," Abu Sajjad said. "When children get power and pistols, this is their biggest dream come true." By infiltrating the schools, he added, the fighters have found the most effective means of controlling Tobji. "Families will be terrified through their kids." Following the arrests of Mahdi Army commanders, Tobji's tribes are trying to reassert themselves. But ancient rules built on honor and respect hold little sway over the new generation. Khadim, the Shiite tribal leader, has tried to persuade several young fighters to leave. Only one did, he said. Ali is trying to quit. He's in love with a Sunni woman from the neighborhood. If the militiamen learn of this, he fears he will be killed, he said. Worried about his future, Mustafa Salih has added his name to a list of Sunnis keen to launch a sahwa -- or "awakening" -- protection force, like those the U.S. military has funded in other areas. The tipping point came when he saw his daughter, Sara, rush home from school in October, upset that she had to wear a hijab. "Why plant extremist ideas in children?" Salih asked bitterly. Today, Sara's head scarf has become a metaphor for the militia's grip on her neighborhood. "It feels like someone is choking me," she said. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071213567245.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_4153432_AEn PjkQAATglR2FsTw2TGi3%2BXBs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071213aaindex_concat.html&cred=y9VY3JQsGgXmlI j6adGZ1tsZGiQr6xBIvDf7YlFndRcza.wky2eN8Usd42gOnR#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Los Angeles Times December 13, 2007 Pg. 1 Some Iraqis Returnees Face Uncertain Lives Lured by relative calm and promises of aid, thousands who had fled the violence are returning from abroad and within the country. But trust will be harder to rebuild than homes. By Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer SABA AL BOR, IRAQ — A short woman with a worried look on her face walks down a dirt road toward her home, ignoring the throng of U.S. soldiers and fancily dressed dignitaries clogging the road. They are here to trumpet the revival of this town northwest of Baghdad, which is witnessing the return of thousands of residents, among an estimated 4.2 million Iraqis who have fled sectarian violence in recent years. Ahlam Kareem is here to see what remains of her home, which she last saw 14 months ago. Iraqi officials say tens of thousands of Iraqis are returning to their homes, drawn by improved security and financial aid packages offered by a government eager to bring its people back. But the effort, which includes Iraqis returning from other countries and those who relocated within Iraq, is fraught with problems -- not least the specter of bombings such as the triple blasts that killed at least 41 people Wednesday in southern Iraq. Some, like Kareem, a widow, are finding their homes looted, scorched and uninhabitable. Some, like Abu Ayad, a Shiite Muslim who brought his family back to the Sunni Muslim-dominated Ghazaliya neighborhood in Baghdad, are being driven out again by lingering sectarian tensions. In the latter case, neighbors say, someone tried to burn down his home days after the family's return. Many, like Zaher Salman, who returned to Saba al Bor from Syria early last month, came because they could not afford the higher cost of living elsewhere, or because their visas had expired. Salman laments he has no way to earn a living because he was robbed on the highway from Syria and lost everything, including the car he used for his taxi business. "I'm staying here because I don't have any money left," he said. "I hope it will stay safe." People coming back are eligible for about 1 million Iraqi dinars, or roughly $800, and a monthly payout of about $120 for six months after their return. But the country is struggling to revive schools, clinics and other essentials needed to care for a population traumatized by the past and edgy about the future. So delicate is the situation that the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees issued a warning Nov. 23 about moving too quickly. The agency said it did not believe that Iraqi social services or security were adequate to handle the large-scale return of displaced people. Government spokesman Ali Dabbagh played down such concerns. At a news conference late last month, he said nobody was being forced to come back and that the government was "doing its best" to protect those who did. Determining how many people have returned is impossible, and skeptics accuse the government of exaggerating figures to make it appear that all is well in a still turbulent country. Dabbagh said that 60,000 people had returned from Syria alone in the last month. The Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration says that since October, an additional 10,000 Iraqi families displaced within the country have registered or are in the process of registering for benefits to return to their hometowns. The numbers are a small fraction of the estimated 4.2 million people international organizations say have been uprooted since the start of the war in 2003, but they are enough to worry high-ranking U.S. military officials. Army Col. Bill Rapp, a senior aide to Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of the U.S. mission in Iraq, said a concern to the military was how to handle the situation if returnees find squatters in their homes. "The Iraqi government has not published a policy on what happens when your house is occupied by someone else," Rapp said. "They want these guys to come back, but they haven't yet figured out the mechanism for reestablishing people." He said U.S. forces had been "pleading" with the Iraqi government to come up with a policy so that American troops aren't asked to sort out property disputes. Saba al Bor offers myriad examples of the challenges of bringing Iraqis home. Kareem, 55, reaches the end of the road, passes a small grove of trees and pushes open the broken metal door into her courtyard. The once-comfortable house she shared with her two sons and their families is a shambles. The windowpanes are gone. The doors have been wrenched from their hinges. Dishes, lamps and anything else that could be broken lie in tiny pieces on the floor. Charred paint is peeling from the walls, ceiling and staircase. Only a refrigerator and a TV, shattered and partially melted from an arsonist's attempt to burn down the house, are evidence that a family once lived here. "There is nothing left. It is a total loss," the Shiite woman said after her Nov. 17 visit to the house. "For now, I'm hopeless," she added, explaining that 1 million dinars was not nearly enough to make the place habitable. Kareem has gone back to Baghdad, where she had stayed with relatives since September 2006 after Sunni insurgents began threatening to kill Shiites who did not leave. Kareem, who fled with the rest of her family, came back after hearing that Saba al Bor was safe again. Then she saw her house. On the eastern side of town, where Saba al Bor's Sunni population lives, Talib Abid Karim, who returned Nov. 20, says she did not know she could apply for compensation. She looks at Usama Ali, a volunteer helping resettle people, and asks him to explain the program. Ali says even if she applied for the money she would not get it, because, he insists, only Shiite returnees are being compensated. Later a U.S. soldier, Army Capt. Brooks Yarborough, dismissed Ali's claim as "just a rumor." But he acknowledged that it was a sign of the lingering distrust that must be overcome if Saba al Bor, which before the war was a relatively affluent community of about 73,000, is to once again become a thriving city. Karim's house is unscathed, but she is worried for the future. Her husband has no job, and her 12-year-old daughter bears ghastly scars on her stomach from the time she was caught in crossfire during the year they lived elsewhere. She fears that the girl has no chance of getting married if her scars cannot be treated. But both Sunnis and Shiites, as well as U.S. troops, say there is nowhere close for Sunnis to go for serious medical problems. The nearest hospitals require traveling through areas still considered high-risk for Sunnis because of Shiite militia activities. Many Sunnis are too afraid to go even to the clinic across the city. Getting to a hospital in a Sunni city requires a circuitous route that would take about nine hours. At a recent meeting in Saba al Bor's newly refurbished government center, which doubles as a U.S.-Iraqi military post, two city leaders were trying to devise a system to ensure that returnees stay. They could fix problems such as broken doors and windows, but not broken trust. Radhi Muhsin, the city manager, and Mohammed Abdullah, a resettlement volunteer, agreed that getting people to return is not the problem. It is making the city work again, and getting the Sunni and Shiite population to mix. In the last two months, U.S. officials say, more than 20,000 people have streamed home to Saba al Bor, which had a mixed population before the war. Now, it's mainly Shiite because many Sunnis are wary of returning to a place guarded by a police force that is nearly 100% Shiite, Abdullah and Muhsin said. A mixed soccer team has been created to bring people together, but the city remains unofficially divided into the eastern Sunni section and the western Shiite section. "It's really a cease-fire at this point. It's not reconciliation. They just stopped shooting each other," said Army Capt. Timothy Dugan, with the 7th Cavalry, 1st Brigade Combat Team of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division. The unit has been here since January and has seen the violence subside and the population surge back, but it has also seen how hard it will be to make Saba al Bor whole again. Sunnis, and some Shiite residents, as well as U.S. forces in Saba al Bor, say a major problem is that Shiite-run government ministries in Baghdad neglect the needs of returning Sunnis. On the Sunni side of town, for example, there is one school with six classrooms for 500 pupils. On the Shiite side, there are 11 functioning schools. The Sunni school is overseen by two headmasters, one Sunni and one Shiite, who are old friends. They use their salaries to pay the seven volunteer teachers, because they say the ministry is dragging its feet hiring anyone to teach Sunni children. "We don't have enough teachers or doctors, but if you go to the Shiite sector, you'll see it's different," said the Sunni headmaster, Ali Aziz Sultan. "I'm a Shiite, and it's easy for me to go down there to the clinic," added his colleague, Moyed Hadie. "But it's difficult for the Sunnis to go there." U.S. and Iraqi officials say such complaints are due more to fear and distrust than recognition of the current situation. "The problem is, people keep looking to the past. It is hard to make them look forward," Muhsin said. But most agree that given the past, it's understandable. "If I had lost my brother to Shiites, I'd be afraid to walk to the clinic on the other side of town too," said Ali, the Sunni who accused the government of not paying compensation to returning Sunnis. People who stayed through the war, like him, now see how much better things are, Ali said. "But people who just got here one week ago, it's hard for them to cross to the other side." Times staff writers Peter Spiegel and Saad Khalaf in Baghdad contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071213567213.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_4153432_AEn PjkQAATglR2FsTw2TGi3%2BXBs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071213aaindex_concat.html&cred=y9VY3JQsGgXmlI j6adGZ1tsZGiQr6xBIvDf7YlFndRcza.wky2eN8Usd42gOnR#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Times December 13, 2007 Pg. 1 U.S. Troops Get To Know Anbar Marines learn to cooperate with locals in vast, dry region By Richard Tomkins, Washington Times CAMP RIPPER, Iraq — From a height of 500 feet, the topographical features of western Anbar province are almost indistinguishable — mile upon mile of hard, flat earth — broken only by an occasional oasis, canyonlike depression, narrow road or dry riverbed. It's not the desert of "Lawrence of Arabia," with soft sand, camels and dunes. It's more of the Clint Eastwood spaghetti western variety. And Marine Col. Stacy Clardy seems to know every inch of it. "Out there to the right, if you look carefully at the high ground, is a combat operations post," he said from the door of a Huey UH-1 helicopter. "There's another one a few miles away, and up over there," he said pointing out the opposite door, "we built berms so any vehicle heading for Haditha has to pass by us. "This place is so sparsely populated, if terrorists want any support as they try to transit toward Baghdad, they have to go by vehicle to places like Haditha, and if they try, we got 'em." Col. Clardy is an intense South Carolinian, with a quick, dry sense of humor. He's commander of the Marine 2nd Regiment out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. His desert domain in western Anbar, about 120 miles west of Baghdad, is called AO-Denver. Parts of it touch the Euphrates River and its towns, villages and fruit groves. Other parts reach Syria, Jordan and even Saudi Arabia, and their border communities. In between lie 30,000 square miles of desert. According to Col. Clardy, it's that geography — combined with demographics, Marine flexibility and the practicality of the region's Sunni Arabs — that account for the security turnaround in Anbar. Terrorist attacks have dropped from an average of 75 a week in January to about 24 a week now as tribal sheiks cooperate with one another, Iraqi provincial authorities and U.S. forces. "You can only trust people to do what is in their best interests," Col. Clardy said. "The Iraqis are doing what is in their best interest. "They see their success and future will be built on the relationship they have, we hope, with their own government and with us being here as well, and with the Iraqi security forces to which they contribute their sons. "At some point, they realized that was not going to happen" with al Qaeda in Iraq, or AQI as the terror group is known to the Marines. "These are a practical people," Col. Clardy said of Anbar's residents. "But it takes trust. And we've built that trust, and so are the Iraqi security forces. People are now going to them to provide tips" about arms caches and the presence of terrorists. Col. Clardy noted the importance of tribe to Iraqis and the importance to each sheik of his own tribe's welfare — financial and otherwise. Constant conflict is bad for business, and that means a lack of money for the necessities of life. "The dominant tribes are making sure that all the tribes are moving toward peace and prosperity," Col. Clardy said. "When they recruit for the police or army, they make sure sons come from across the spectrum of tribes. If they don't volunteer their sons, they aren't with us." Attempts to improve cooperation among the tribes still are slowed by the long distances and poor communications. The Marines are responding by providing regular helicopter rides to carry tribal and municipal officials to meetings with their provincial counterparts. "When you get them in a room together, they solve problems," he said. "When you don't, they don't. And they don't always like being in a room together, but when they do, they work it out. They are a very compromising people. ... They don't like personal confrontation too much." Col. Clardy said cooperation with U.S. forces began on a personal level between Marines and the local communities. "Every town is different, every group of Iraqis is different, and we have to trust our small unit leaders to be able to make decisions as long as they understand what we are trying to do," he said. Col. Clardy said he and his 6,000 Marines realize the situation could change at any time, but they trust in their own ability to adapt. Beyond that, he said, "The sheiks and others know if AQI comes back, they die for cooperating." http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071213567295.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_4153432_AEn PjkQAATglR2FsTw2TGi3%2BXBs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071213aaindex_concat.html&cred=y9VY3JQsGgXmlI j6adGZ1tsZGiQr6xBIvDf7YlFndRcza.wky2eN8Usd42gOnR#T OP">RETURN TO TOP San Diego Union-Tribune December 13, 2007 Iraqi Boy Recovering After Losing Arm, Leg Bomb was meant for U.S. soldiers By Maya Alleruzzo, Associated Press BAGHDAD – The boy's dark brown eyes scanned the operating room where he spent two days of lifesaving surgery last month. Layer by layer, the surgeon scrubbed at partially healed wounds to prepare the limbs shattered by a bomb intended for the Americans. When Abdul-Raad Razak was in this operating room last – on Nov. 18 – the doctors feared the 10-year-old would not survive. That afternoon, while U.S. soldiers were patrolling a Sunni-dominated hamlet in Arab Jabour south of Baghdad, Abdul-Raad was on his way to the river to turn on the pump that feeds water to his family's home. He has no memory of the explosion, but the soldiers 20 yards away heard it clearly. “I saw a lot of dust and then I didn't feel anything,” Abdul-Raad said. “I looked and saw that my arm and leg were cut off, and I passed out.” The boy tried to move, tried to get to the U.S. soldiers and their armored vehicle. He fainted again. Then he came to once more. “Mister, mister!” he cried. By then, the soldiers from Second Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, part of the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, were combing through the grassy banks of the Tigris River, searching for a bomb crater. Abdul-Raad could see three soldiers and cried out weakly: “Mister, please help me.” They found him in the tall grass. “We heard a little noise,” said Sgt. Curtis Myers, 26, from Carbondale, Ill. “At first, it didn't even look like a person.” 1st Lt. Charley Staab, 25, from Novi, Mich., carried Abdul-Raad, his leg hanging on by only some skin and muscle. The boy was pale but conscious. The other soldiers searched the river banks for explosives and found two more bombs. “A month before, we did an ambush in the same spot, so they were definitely meant for us,” Staab said. Back in the armored vehicle, two soldiers tied tourniquets on the boy's injured limbs. They rushed back to base, where medics were waiting. Once the boy was stable, a medevac helicopter took him to the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad's Green Zone. Over two days of surgery, Abdul-Raad hovered between life and death. But 11 days later, he returned to the home he shares with his parents and five siblings in Arab Jabour. Abdul-Raad's first fitting for a prosthetic arm and leg will be in about two weeks. “I look forward to the day when he can look at what happened and where he is now and say that he's somewhat normal again,” Staab said. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071213567301.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_4153432_AEn PjkQAATglR2FsTw2TGi3%2BXBs&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071213aaindex_concat.html&cred=y9VY3JQsGgXmlI j6adGZ1tsZGiQr6xBIvDf7YlFndRcza.wky2eN8Usd42gOnR#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Denver Post December 13, 2007 Pg. 1 Ritter Trip To Iraq A Secret By Jennifer Brown, The Denver Post Gov. Bill Ritter, flown to Baghdad by Black Hawk helicopter, described a "glimmer of hope" in the war-torn country Wednesday as Iraqi military and police forces begin to stabilize. But the governor — making a week-long, surprise visit to Colorado National Guard members — predicted American troops would remain in Iraq "for a very long time" and said political stability there is doubtful. "Nobody is saying that success is guaranteed by any stretch of the imagination," said Ritter, who met with Pentagon chief Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington before flying to Kuwait on Monday. "There are innocent Iraqis whose lives are at stake if we don't try to move this country toward stability." At the invitation of the Department of Defense, Ritter embarked on the trip with two other governors before dawn Monday. Though the journey had been in the works for days, Ritter's staff kept it quiet until Wednesday for his safety, he said. The trip, funded by the federal government, took the Colorado Democrat and Republicans Donald Carcieri of Rhode Island and Michael Rounds of South Dakota overnight through Ireland to Kuwait City, landing at midday Tuesday. Ritter had lunch with Colorado Guard troops, then flew by helicopter to Baghdad's Green Zone and later to Balad. Wearing a helmet and flak jacket, Ritter said he listened in as one pilot told another about areas on the route where they had previously taken fire. Other soldiers manning guns kept their eyes on the ground, watching for attacks. "Constant threat of attack" "I just felt how vulnerable it is to ride in a Black Hawk helicopter," said the governor, a former Denver district attorney who does not have a military background. "There is a constant threat of attack. That is just the order of the day for these men and women." As commander in chief of the Colorado National Guard, Ritter said he wanted to see firsthand how the more than 600 Air and Army Guard members were doing in the Middle East. "They are under my command essentially," he said. "It is extremely helpful to me to see this on the ground." In Baghdad, Ritter met state Sen. Steve Ward, a Littleton Republican who is a colonel in the Marines; state Rep. Joe Rice, a Littleton Democrat who is a lieutenant colonel in the Army; and Denver police Officer Ken Chavez, who is commanding a Guard unit. About two dozen Guard members came to meet the governor in the "chow hall" Wednesday morning, Ward said in an e-mail from Iraq. Ward and Rice are expecting to return to Colorado within a couple of weeks of the legislature's convening in January. Ritter made no call for shortening Colorado Guard deployments. "As long as they are not asking me to do that, I'm not going to advocate differently," he said. Air Guard troops are typically sent overseas for 60 to 90 days, while Army Guard troops could end up staying in Iraq or Kuwait for 15 months, he said. "We'd all like to see it less," Ritter said. And the governor did not advocate changing the current strategy in Iraq. "It is important to understand that there is hope that it's moving in the right direction," he said. In Mideast three more days Ritter, who visited military installations, neighborhoods and an Iraqi hospital, planned to stay in the Middle East three more days, returning to Colorado on Sunday. He said he was not allowed to talk about where else he would visit. Ritter is sharing dormitory-style quarters with the other governors and dining in mess halls with troops. He said morale among Colorado soldiers was "excellent," despite that they work seven days a week, 12 hours a day. Colorado National Guard Gen. Michael Edwards called Ritter's visit a spirit-boos |
