[Marxism] US increasing troop levels in Iraq "for elections"

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

U.S. EXPECTED TO BOOST TROOP LEVELS IN IRAQ
By Ann Scott Tyson

** Some question whether it will be enough to quell the violence and
worry
about the impact of prolonged tours. **

Christian Science Monitor
November 19, 2004

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1119/p03s01-usmi.html
or
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_troops_111904,00.html


Amid a spike in violence in Iraqi cities coinciding with the Fallujah
offensive, the U.S. military is now planning to boost combat forces to
secure
the country for elections in January.

The U.S. is likely to expand the force by thousands of GIs in coming
weeks by
delaying the departure of more experienced units from Iraq as fresh
troops
rotate in, military officials say.

The overlap would create a temporary surge in American forces -- which
now
number 141,000 in Iraq -- to cope with an expected wave of insurgent
attacks
aimed at disrupting the polling.  More U.S. troops are required as Iraqi

security forces remain highly vulnerable to attacks and intimidation.
This
was underscored by a rash of insurgent strikes on police stations in
Mosul,
Baqubah, and other cities in the past week, when attacks nationwide rose
to 50
percent higher than the average in recent months.

Some U.S. military officials have long argued that the United States
cannot
win the war in Iraq without committing tens of thousands more troops.
Others
contend that more troops would simply present more targets, and the U.S.

military should scale back and let Iraqis contend with much of the
violence.

In reality, the U.S. cannot substantially increase ground forces in Iraq
for
the long term without accepting risk in other parts of the world or
making
Iraq tours longer or closer together -- a step sure to lower morale.
"I'm
committed to providing the troops that are requested, but I can't
promise more
than I've got," the Army chief of staff, Gen. Peter Schoomaker, told a
Congressional hearing Wednesday in which military service chiefs
detailed
soaring demands on manpower and equipment.   "The demand on the force
has
increased exponentially," the Marine Corps commandant, Gen. Michael
Hagee,
told the House Armed Services Committee, saying Marines now spend about
twice
as much time deployed as two years ago.

Decisions are expected soon on extending specific units in Iraq, and on
the
possibility of deploying others early from bases in the U.S., according
to
senior military officials.  In October, the military ordered some 6,500
troops
to delay their departure from Iraq.

"There is ample opportunity" to increase troop levels by overlapping new

arrivals with others whose tours would be extended as large units of
20,000 to
30,000 troops rotate, says a senior U.S. military official in Baghdad.
But a
larger increase could run into constraints -- the current limits of
basing and
support services.

The string of U.S.-led military offensives on insurgent-held cities
across
Iraq since August has underscored the necessity for more American troops
as
well as elite Iraqi commando units.  They're needed to step in for
struggling
local Iraqi security forces that are frequently unwilling or unable to
fight
off insurgents who threaten them and their families.

"When you take an area that has a stronghold of insurgents and you have
to
build the Iraqi police force from that population, you set yourself up
potentially for failure if you don't have some type of moderating
force," says
Brig. Gen. Erv Lessel, deputy director for operations of Multinational
Forces-Iraq.

To ensure that recaptured cities such as Fallujah and Samarra do not
fall back
under insurgent control, U.S. commanders are having to commit additional

forces to maintaining a presence there, both with U.S. troops and
non-local
Iraqi forces such as Iraqi National Guard (ING) units from outside
areas.

Indeed, in recent weeks U.S. commanders have pushed thousands of
additional
soldiers and Marines into trouble spots in the Sunni triangle such as
Fallujah, Samarra, Ramadi, and most recently the northern city of Mosul.

Samarra, for example, had no coalition presence prior to a major
offensive in
October to root out some 400 insurgents, but now 500 U.S. troops and 500
Iraqi
forces are stationed there.  Even then, insurgent attacks killed 17
Iraqi
police in the city on Nov. 6, as daily strikes in the region tripled.

In Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, the U.S. military doubled its
forces
recently from one to two battalions, and in recent days has engaged in
heavy
clashes with insurgents including some who fled from nearby Fallujah.
U.S.
Marine commanders say they "control" Ramadi, a city of 450,000 people,
but
have not "cleared" it of insurgents.  The increase in troops was needed
in
part because local Iraqi police and Iraqi National Guard (ING) units
were
ineffective, if not complicit with insurgents.

"Many ING and IP posts, compounds, and facilities have been blown up or
handed
over to the insurgents with nary a shot being fired.  [There is] much
acquiescence in the face of the murder and intimidation campaign," says
a
senior official of the 1st Marine Division, which oversees Anbar
Province.

In Mosul, an estimated 400 insurgents took advantage of a drop in
coalition
presence during the Fallujah offensive to take over a dozen police
stations,
burning several of them as well as provincial governor's residence.
City
police "walked off their posts" and became "completely ineffective,"
U.S.
military officials say.  The Mosul police chief was fired.

To quell the violence, U.S. and Iraqi commanders had to impose a curfew,
close
bridges into the city, and call in two battalions of outside Iraqi
forces -- a
commando unit from Baghdad and Kurdish ING battalion -- as well as an
additional U.S. infantry battalion from Fallujah.  The U.S. strategy in
Iraq
envisions a growing role for Iraqi security forces, whose ranks are
expected
to grow from the current 110,000 to more than 150,000 by late January,
when
elections are scheduled.  Yet so far, only a handful of elite Iraqi
units have
proven highly reliable, while the effectiveness of the bulk of local
Iraqi
forces remains uneven.

Iraqi commando units such as the 36th commando battalion have performed
well
in Najaf, Samarra, and Fallujah, U.S. military officials say, yet these
forces
currently only number about 2,400, including the Iraqi Intervention
Force and
Special Operations Force.  Iraq's Ministry of Interior now plans to add
a new
commando battalion.

"[There] is a recognition that [Iraqi commando units] are very, very
capable
and a desire to stand up more of them . . . because you can move them
around
the country and apply them where you need to work with local police
forces,"
says General Lessel.  "Everyone realizes that the real key to long term
success and the biggest challenge is the Iraqi police," he says.




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