Posted on 03/28/2003 9:11:45 AM PST by Stand Watch Listen
WASHINGTON -- In the largest operation in their storied history, elite special operations forces are waging a shadow war in Iraq whose success could determine whether coalition forces can topple the regime of Saddam Hussein quickly or whether the conflict will drag on for months, say military officials and specialists.The military's ''silent warriors,'' as President Bush called them yesterday, were involved in the first operations of the war and are likely to conduct some of the last, including helping spearhead the birth of new civil institutions in a post-Hussein Iraq. Details of their activities in recent weeks -- from Iraq's southern and western deserts to the mountainous Kurdish enclaves in the north and even in the capital Baghdad -- have begun to emerge as the war enters its second week.
More than 10,000 special operations forces from the Army, Air Force, and Navy are helping hunt Scud missile launchers in the west, conducting ''surgical'' strikes against key Iraqi leadership targets inside Baghdad, battling an isolated group with alleged links to Al Qaeda, searching for weapons of mass destruction, and identifying key Iraqi government targets. Despite their large deployment, special forces are best known for working in small units that rely on high-tech equipment and adaptability.
''This is the largest deployment of [special operations forces] in history,'' said a US military official who asked not to be named.
There are more than twice as many special operations forces in action in Iraq now than there were during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, officials said. More recently, in the war in Afghanistan, about 6,000 special operations forces played a crucial part in toppling the Taliban regime by pinpointing American airstrikes and recruiting local allies to help ferret out enemy fighters.
This time, the number of conventional US and British troops in the Persian Gulf region -- around 250,000 -- is less than half the size the Gulf War force, making special units even more important to the overall war plan.
''This operation is more analogous to special operations,'' said Jacques Gansler, former undersecretary of defense. ''Using intelligence, shooting around corners in the dark -- this is a one-on-one encounter more than the massing of forces. You'll continue to see a combination of special and traditional operations, but we're seeing in this conflict a lot more of the mix.''
Special operations troops, including Navy SEALS, the Army's Green Berets and Delta Force, and the Air Force's search and rescue teams -- steeped in languages and trained in three or more skills, such as weaponry, communications, or first aid -- entered Iraq last fall to lay the groundwork for a possible war.
They have linked up with an estimated 30,000 Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq who oppose the Hussein government, teaching guerrilla warfare tactics, and with restive Shia Muslims in the south. They have also led the military's wide-ranging psychological operations campaign, which has dropped 17 million leaflets and broadcast radio programs in an effort to persuade the Iraqi population and military officers to abandon their loyalty to Hussein.
Operating in teams of no more than a dozen, special operations forces are involved in missions all across Iraq, a country the size of California.
''At the opening of Operation Iraqi Freedom, special forces helped to secure airfields, bridges, and oil fields, to clear the way for our forces and to prevent sabatoge and environmental catastrophe,'' President Bush said yesterday at at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, home to the US Central Command and the 45,000-strong Special Operations Command.
''They are doing everything,'' added Loren Thompson, a military specialist at the Lexington Institute in Washington.
In western Iraq, Army and Air Force units have secured at least one airfield, known as H3, to limit the danger that Iraq could attack neighboring countries, including Israel, according to special operations officials. They are still battling for control of another western airstrip.
They are on constant lookout for evidence of Scud missiles and Iraqi forces that might try to launch attacks, according to military officials monitoring their recent activities.
In the south, it was SEALs and other troops that secured the vital oil fields that military officials feared would be damaged or destoyed by Iraqi forces. They also sneaked into southern Iraq ahead of regular Army and Marine Corps units last week to blow up obvervation posts and blind Iraqi forces to the coming onslaught.
Officials and specialists also say several hundred troops are in the process of opening a northern front in Iraq, where Pentagon officials hoped to stage heavily armed divisions, but were denied access to from neighboring Turkey.
''Since Afghanistan, special operations have become the force of choice for this sort of warfare, particularly in northern Iraq,'' said Robert Gormly, a former special operations officer who served as deputy chief of staff of the Special Operations Command.
Perhaps most crucial of all, however, special operations pesonnel in and around Baghdad are providing the eyes and ears for the first allied airstrikes aimed in recent days at the six Republican Guard divisions, pulling a page from the Afghan playbook and guiding in punishing strikes on opposing units and tracking ''targets of opportunity.''
''There are [special operations forces] around Bagdad,'' the military official said, declining to provide more details.
If and when the Hussein government falls, special forces will still be needed. Another one of their specialties is helping to maintain peace.
''Hundreds of civil affairs people will move into Iraq after the fall,'' the military official said. ''They're also the military's Peace Corps.''
We laugh. In VietNam, one of the Military Intelligence units had a change of command ceremony. In the Army, there is usually a military parade in honor of the old and new commanders. So this unit called in all of it's agents and operatives, put them all in uniform, conducted the parade, and then had to reassign all of the soldiers that had been working undercover...oops!
"If"?
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