Posted on 02/23/2004 3:48:22 PM PST by Ben Chad
Infantry units prepare to root out insurgents
By Rick Rogers UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 21, 2004
The Marine Corps yesterday released the list of units for the 25,000 Marines and sailors who are going to Iraq for a March-to-September deployment.
About 20,000 of them will come from the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton and the 3rd Marine Air Wing at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station. Others are from Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Marine Forces Reserve, New Orleans.
Defense experts said that the force is notable for the number of infantry and engineers and that each will counted on to help quell what appears to be a broadening insurgency.
The Marines will relieve the Army's 82nd Airborne Division in Anbar province in western Iraq.
Joe Hoar, a former Marine general who once ran the U.S. Central Command, said this 1st Marine Expeditionary Force is much different than the one that rolled into Baghdad early last year.
"Clearly, the MEF is organized for counterinsurgency and not combat," he said. "The emphasis is on infantry battalions. You don't see any fighter or attack fixed-wing squadrons."
Two force reconnaissance companies are going, and Hoar noted that "there are large sections of the area the MEF will be in that are not very well populated and are used as safe havens."
"I anticipate that force recon is going to work those areas and find those units," he said.
Just as important as the ground troops, Hoar said, will be the elements of two engineer support battalions that can handle heavy construction, such as schools and other public projects.
He said bettering the lives of Iraqis will go a long way toward sapping the insurgents' support.
The force's success will depend on how effective its so-called light-touch strategy is the second time around, said Pat Towell, an defense analyst for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
Last year, after the Iraq war, the 1st Marine Division controlled a section of southern Iraq by using a strong yet respectful approach toward the people.
This year, the Marines are going to a different section of the country that includes the Sunni Triangle, so called because of the Muslim sect that largely inhabits the region.
Sunnis were some of Saddam Hussein's most loyal subjects, and U.S. troops are killed almost daily in the triangle.
"How do you use a light touch in the Sunni Triangle? Can you use a light touch in the Sunni Triangle?" Towell asked. "Success is going to hinge on that – or another tactic if that doesn't work."
Two experts see some inherent problems in the deployment, which includes 14 ground combat, 13 air and 14 combat services elements. There could be friction between Marines and Army troops.
"They better keep the Marines far away from the soldiers, because the Marines are only there for seven months while the soldiers are there for a year," said Patrick Garrett, a defense analyst for GlobalSecurity.org.
"I am sure it is going to be a bone of contention between the two services."
Dan Goure, a senior defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, questions the seven-month deployment cycle for another reason.
"You would prefer to have units stay at least a year because it takes them three months just to learn what they are doing, and the last three months they are covering their rear ends so they don't get shot before coming home."
In a letter to Marines and sailors, Maj. Gen. James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, said the coming months will be "hard, dangerous work."
"The enemy will try to manipulate you into hating all Iraqis," Mattis wrote. "Do not allow the enemy that victory."
This is exactly what they do, and the Marines must not allow it. There are many Sunnis who WANT to cooperate, but some feel the soldiers don't like them. It's a rough task to ask a soldier to trust someone who may or may not kill him, but there is no other way.
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