Newsday (New York) August 20, 2003
Two Approaches to Occupation
By Zachary R. Dowdy
Since May 1, when President George W. Bush declared major combat operations in Iraq were over, 60 U.S. service members have been killed in hostilities - 59 of them Army troops and one a Marine.
That stark difference is rooted in the smaller number of Marines now serving in Iraq and in the fact that the Army occupies the most hostile territory. According to some analysts, part of the discrepancy may be in the relationships the two forces have developed with Iraqis.
Five months since U.S. and British forces launched the war in Iraq, those differences have become a matter of life and death.
"The Army has a bigger footprint," said Peter W. Singer, national security fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington, D.C. He said the sheer size of the force of soldiers makes them a larger target.
"There's a disparity in force number so, of course, you're going to have more casualties because you have a larger force," he said.
Capt. Jeff Sandrock, spokesman for Central Command, said the United States has about ',000 military personnel on Iraqi soil. U.S. officials have said there are about 8,000 Marines in Iraq.
While Marines formed a larger part of the force that invaded Iraq in March, observers said their numbers have been declining as they are replaced by Army units.
Another key reason for the disparity in casualties, experts said, is that Marines are assigned to areas outside the so-called Sunni triangle, a hostile area between Tikrit, Baghdad and Ramadi that has seen the bulk of attacks on U.S. military personnel.
The area, which is patrolled by the Army, is home to Sunni Muslims, who were more closely aligned with Saddam Hussein. The remaining Marine forces in Iraq are assigned to areas south of Baghdad, whose people belong mainly to the Shia sect of Islam.
"The guerrilla war is purely a Sunni war," Friedman said. "Marines are withdrawing and are being replaced by Army troops. They [Marines] are an aggressive, light force, and what that means in practical terms is they are usually part of the combat but rarely part of the occupations."
Marcus Corbin, a senior analyst with a Washington-based nonprofit group that monitors the military, the Center for Defense Information, said the manner in which Marines interact with Iraqis may play a role in whether tensions rise. For example, the Marines, like British forces operating in southernmost Iraq, have adopted policies like removing sunglasses when speaking to locals. For a local person, the ability to see a Marine's eyes can help reduce tensions that naturally rise when a military force invades a city.
"The theory is that it shows you're not afraid of them," he said. "You're not hiding behind something and you're not intimidating them like a state trooper's reflecting sunglasses."
Emboldened Enemy
Since the war in Iraq officially ended May 1, guerrilla attacks have become more coordinated and, in cases such as yesterday's bombing of the UN building, more deadly.
May 8
A soldier is killed by a sniper, the first post-war combat death.
June 24
Six British soldiers are killed by angry mobs in Majar-al-Kabir.
June 25
Two soldiers and their Humvees disappear from their checkpoint north of Baghdad. They are found dead days later.
July 5
Bomb kills seven U.S-trained Iraqi policemen during their graduation ceremony in Ramadi.
July 16
A missile is fired at a U.S. transport plane at Baghdad International Airport. Though the missile misses, the incident marks an escalation of attacks.
July 18
A soldier is killed when his vehicle passes over a remote-detonated bomb near Fallujah. The attack reflects a rise in the use of improvised explosives.
July 23
A day after their unit leads the Mosul raid that kills Saddam's sons, Qusay and Uday, one soldier from the 101st Airborne Division is killed and seven are wounded when their convoy is struck by an improvised bomb.
Sunday
Bombers hit a water main in Baghdad, just days after saboteurs set an oil pipeline to Turkey ablaze.
Where the Troops Are
Army units have taken the brunt of attacks because most of them are stationed in or near the so-called "Sunni Triangle," where Saddam's fiercest supporters are.
ARMY
1: 101st Airborne Division
2: 173rd Airborne Brigade
3: 4th Infantry Division
4: 2nd Light Cavalry Regiment
5: 1st Armored Division
6: 3rd Infantry Division
7: 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment
8: 82nd Ariborne Division
9: 5th Special Forces Group
MARINES
1st Marine Expeditionary Force
Army 170,300 (Includes forces in Kuwait and other personnel)
Air Force 550
Navy 1,550
Marines, as high as 8,600
Coalition 12,400
SOURCE: Defense Department; GlobalSecurity.org
GRAPHIC: AP Photo - Marine Cpl. Jonathan Dyk and comrades in a vehicle wait to enter Baghdad on Saturday to start patrol duty. Newsday Chart / Rod Eyer - Emboldened Enemy (SEE END OF TEXT); MAPS: 1) AP / Newsday Map - BAGHDAD - Jordanian Embassy (Bombed Aug. 7); Canal Hotel ( UN Headquarters) (not in text database); 2) "Sunni Triangle"
© Copyright 2003, Newsday, Inc.
