The Fayetteville Observer January 12, 2007
82nd advance team arrives in Baghdad
By Kevin Maurer
Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division led President Bush’s surge of troops into Iraq.
An advance team from the division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team was in Baghdad just after Bush’s speech Wednesday night. The rest of the unit was moving from Kuwait into the Iraqi capital Thursday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the rest of the troop increase will occur gradually.
“The increase in military forces will be phased in,” he said. “It will not unfold overnight. There will be no D-Day.”
While the 2nd Brigade led the troop buildup, another 82nd unit’s members learned that they are not part of the surge strategy.
The 1st Brigade Combat Team remains on scheduled to deploy to Iraq this summer. Rumors had been circulating that the troops would be called to duty early.
Four other Army brigades will deploy to Iraq in the next five months.
The 4th Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division from Fort Riley, Kan., will deploy in February. The 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Benning, Ga., will leave in March.
The 4th Stryker Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Wash., will deploy in April and the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division will leave in May.
Other units already in Iraq — including soldiers from the Minnesota National Guard and Marines — have had their tours of duty extended.
Military commanders plan to split Baghdad into nine separate sections. The additional troops will be divided among the sections to assist Iraqi soldiers already deployed there. The plan more than doubles U.S. combat power in Baghdad.
“This is looking at the problem areas, specifically Baghdad and Al Anbar, to determine what we can do to help the Iraqi government to protect their own people,” Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Thursday.
John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington defense policy think tank, said the new units must focus on “public order,” not combat. One way of fighting the insurgency, he said, is hiring Iraqis to clean up the streets.
“Baghdad is a garbage dump,” he said. “There is high unemployment.”
Besides a troop increase, Bush wants to expand the reconstruction effort by increasing the number of teams focused on rebuilding, and providing $350 million to the Commander’s Emergency Response Program, a fund used by field commanders for short term reconstruction projects.
In some respects, the administration’s strategy resembles the 82nd’s 2003-04 “Iraqization” program, which focused on turning over as much responsibility as possible to the locals.
At the time, 82nd paratroopers were responsible for an area in western Iraq that included Fallujah and Ramadi, then and now centers of the Iraqi insurgency.
The strategy relied on Iraqi police and Iraqi Civil Defense Corps soldiers to keep the peace while jobs were created and infrastructure was repaired. The region was much less volatile during the 82nd’s control.
© Copyright 2007, The Fayetteville Observer
