U.S. troops in Iraq expect lower profile

By Bradley Graham
The Washington Post

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After June 30, with the transfer of limited sovereignty to Iraqi authorities, military helicopters will switch to flying friendly approaches instead of hostile ones, U.S. soldiers will go on patrol only when accompanying Iraqi security forces, and any shooting of U.S. weapons meant to harass or interdict will require higher-level approval than before, military officers here said.

In Mosul, Army Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, who leads a brigade of armored Stryker vehicles and other forces, said he expects his troops will assume a much lower profile.

"On July 1, what I want Iraqi people to say is: "Where are the airplanes? Where are the Strykers?' " Ham said. "What they'll see instead will be Iraqi forces."

For U.S. troops in Iraq, the coming political change — from occupying power to supporting partner — is supposed to be accompanied by a major shift in military mission and tactics.

While legally still authorized under a U.N. resolution to use "all necessary means" to ensure security in Iraq, U.S. commanders say they will reduce combat operations, focus on training and assisting Iraqi forces and promote local governance and economic development.

U.S. and Iraqi officials acknowledged in interviews and in briefings to visiting Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz last week that their plan is sure to be complicated by two main factors.

First, many of the 215,000 members of Iraq's fledgling forces are far from ready to take over much of the security burden. And second, the deadly insurgency that emerged shortly after the U.S.-led invasion last year continues to bring fresh waves of violence, most recently a surge of assassinations and attacks on oil facilities.

Under such uncertain circumstances, U.S. military authorities are trying to show at least their willingness to step back and let Iraqi forces take the lead but are hedging their bets by keeping U.S. troop levels at around 140,000 and girding for a gradual turnover of operational responsibility.

"If Americans are in danger, if there's a really bad person we've got to go after, it's the same old rules," said Wolfowitz, making clear U.S. forces wouldn't withdraw from the fight.

"But we would like people to see that something has changed," he said. "In the first few weeks, a lot of the challenge is how to create some optics when the underlying substance hasn't changed that much."
 
Commanders also are concerned that U.S. forces will be spread thin. In the northern city of Mosul, U.S. military authorities noted that roadside bomb attacks rose after some U.S. troops were sent south, and the drop in U.S. presence in Mosul has allowed insurgents more time to plant bombs.

Iraq's long borders with Syria and Iran remain largely uncontrolled as a result of a shortage of patrols, according to U.S. commanders in Mosul and Tikrit.

"I'm stretched about as thin as I'd want to be with 22,000 troops," a senior officer told Wolfowitz in a briefing attended by reporters on condition names not be cited.

Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, the second-ranking commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, acknowledged that as U.S. forces shift to more supporting tasks in Iraq, such as training Iraqi forces and protecting leaders of the new interim government, they will be even more hard-pressed to muster troops for combat operations.

Still, Metz rejected the idea that more U.S. troops should be sent to Iraq. Instead, he said, greater efforts would be made — through improved intelligence gathering and other means — to use the troops that are available in more efficient ways.