Troops Ready for Change in Guard
U.S. Soldiers Hope to Transfer Security Duties to Iraqis Soon
By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, July 22, 2003; Page A09
BAGHDAD, July 21 -- A bomb, tossed at midday from a passing car, exploded in the dirt outside a branch of the al-Rasheed Bank last Wednesday, killing a young Iraqi boy and shattering the leg of a U.S. soldier on guard duty at the bank.
The wounded soldier, Spec. Adam Zaremba, comes from a unit of soldiers trained to fire howitzers. But for several weeks they have essentially been bank security guards, like many U.S. troops who are standing guard outside hundreds of hospitals, power plants, shopping malls and other civilian sites across Iraq.
Pfc. Thomas Poorbaugh, who was manning a .50-caliber machine gun atop an armored personnel carrier still pockmarked from the bombing, kept an eye on passing traffic and summed up the job: "We're sitting ducks here, pretty much."
Of the 39 U.S. soldiers killed in attacks in Iraq since May 1, at least six were on guard duty at "fixed sites," and at least five were directing traffic or manning checkpoints. Military commanders and soldiers on the ground say that those duties have been unavoidable given the looting and insecurity in postwar Iraq.
But now, top U.S. commanders, including Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, want to give those jobs back to Iraqis, freeing American soldiers for different operations and taking them off a duty that has left them especially vulnerable.
Abizaid has said that U.S. casualties suffered during raids or other operations to secure Iraq are an unavoidable cost of combat. But he also said that noncombat casualties, such as those suffered by soldiers guarding civilian institutions, are unacceptable and that those jobs must be given back to Iraqis.
"We're still at war, and in this environment, no soldier likes to be on guard duty," said Army Col. Guy Shields, a spokesman for the U.S. military here. "The way these soldiers are trained, they can do a lot more than just being security guards. We want to get soldiers doing more soldier-like things."
Other officials expressed worry that the heavy U.S. military presence in Baghdad could be a prime reason for the attacks. American soldiers in tanks and armored vehicles patrol the streets here with machine guns ready. Officials said removing military guards from places where Iraqis bank, shop and visit the doctor would lower the military profile and might reduce the simmering resentment among the Iraqi population.
Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, said this week that more than 8,700 trained Iraqis were working in a new facilities protective service, which provides guards for key civilian sites.
That corps is separate from the Iraqi police force and the new Iraqi army that are being organized. It is also distinct from a militia-like civil defense force that U.S. officials plan to create to patrol alongside U.S. troops until the new army is fully functional.
At the al-Rasheed Bank in the Mansour neighborhood of western Baghdad, a crew of Iraqi guards works with U.S. soldiers. Four of the guards were also injured in last week's bombing, two seriously.
"I got out of the hospital yesterday, and today I'm back," said Raid Fadhil Hamid, 22, whose forearm, shoulder and leg bore wounds from the attack.
Hamid, dressed in the same shirt and pants he was wearing when the bomb hit, with holes where shrapnel tore into him, said it was dangerous to work alongside U.S. troops who were being targeted for attacks. But he said the danger was outweighed by lure of his $100 monthly pay. "We have to live," he said.
Lt. Col. Richard Bowyer commands the unit providing security at 10 sites in the Mansour area, an upscale neighborhood he calls "the Beverly Hills of Baghdad." He said he had 190 Iraqi security guards working with his 500-plus troops. For now, his soldiers guard the bank when it is open, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., along with a few Iraqi guards, he said. After hours, the soldiers leave and the Iraqis are in charge of security.
Bowyer said his troops are willing to stand guard duty, and all believe they have helped make Iraq safer. But he said they would be happy when Iraqis take over.
"This is not our primary mission," Bowyer said. "We're artillery men. We shoot howitzers. That's our profession, although I don't think we're going to be shooting howitzers anytime soon."
As Bowyer spoke, about a half-dozen of his troops guarded the bank in the blinding midday heat. Two stood near the roadway, Poorbaugh sat with his machine gun atop the armored personnel carrier, and two other soldiers watched over the scene from the bank's roof.
An Iraqi man walking along the sidewalk appeared to have something tucked under his long, loose-fitting shirt. The soldiers watched him until he was out of sight. A man ran across the street carrying a bag, and Bowyer yelled for the soldiers to check him out. Cars and buses passed 10 feet from the soldiers, who watched closely for anything suspicious -- an open window, an arm getting ready to throw something, a car slowing down.
"You never know when you're going to be attacked, but they do," Bowyer said. "They know where we are, and they can come and case the joint. You really have to be on the edge of paranoia. Fear is okay, because it keeps you on edge."
A soldier assigned to guard duty in Abu Ghraib, just west of Baghdad, was killed by small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire on Saturday. The soldier, identified by the Pentagon as 2nd Lt. Jonathan D. Rozier of the 1st Armored Division, was part of a unit that has been guarding a municipal office building for the past three weeks, said Sgt. Douglas Swanson of the unit.
Swanson said that the soldier was not standing guard at the time he was killed, but that the attack occurred just a few feet from the municipal building. A U.S. military press release erroneously reported that he was guarding a bank at the time .
Swanson said the building, which houses the post office and city council offices, has frequently come under fire, with attacks from nine rockets, two flares, two grenades and lots of bullets from small arms.
Despite that, Swanson said he did not consider the guard duty especially dangerous. He said the attacks were "nothing" compared with combat. But he said he was looking forward to turning the duty over to the Iraqi security guards who work alongside his troops.
"We have to get the Iraqi people involved," he said.
He said the soldier's death was tough on his men.
"I brought 16 guys over here and last night we lost our lieutenant," Swanson said. "But you don't see guys out there beating the kids and shooting everything that moves."
At the al-Rasheed Bank, Akel Oda Saib, 21, an Iraqi security guard, said the U.S. soldiers should leave and turn over guard duty to Iraqis, but not quite yet. He said that for the past few nights, people have shot at the Iraqi guards at the bank. "There are times when we need them [the Americans] and times when we feel they should go," Saib said. "Right now, we are afraid that these things will keep happening. Maybe they should stay for another week or so. Then Iraq will be more confident, safer. Then they should go."
Staff writer Thomas E. Ricks contributed to this report.
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