Eager to hand off, U.S. troops coach Iraqis

KHALDIYAH, Iraq — As a patrol of Iraqi soldiers snakes down the dirt-and-gravel streets, the line of bearded and mustachioed faces is interrupted by a clean-shaven foreigner monitoring the troops, then peering down narrow alleys.

Staff Sgt. Christopher Watson is among three U.S. advisers with the Iraqi patrol. He marches alongside the Iraqis, sometimes watching the soldiers interact with residents and at other times urging the Iraqi commander to be more aggressive.

His is among the most dangerous jobs in Iraq.

As the U.S. military hands over parts of the country to Iraqi forces, small teams of American soldiers and Marines stay behind to mentor, advise and sometimes cajole Iraqi troops in the fight against the insurgents.

Advisers say they can already see some improvement.

"One of the big improvements is that they actually patrol instead of putting their heads down and speed walking," said Staff Sgt. Ray Torres of Los Angeles as he watched several Iraqis tromp through fields outside this city 50 miles west of Baghdad. "The ones we have now have their heart in this."

Advisers are likely to take on a more prominent role in U.S. counterinsurgency efforts as the U.S. military presses ahead with its handover strategy this year.

In this city of about 15,000 people, sometimes only one U.S. adviser accompanies an Iraqi patrol, and some Iraqi squads have started leaving the base by themselves.

However, this progress has come at a cost — about 500 soldiers from an Iraqi brigade of fewer than 2,000 men that arrived in September deserted their units.

And, as insurgents fought back against the new Iraqi troops this fall, the advisers' increased exposure to danger was evident. The team in Khaldiyah and the outlying districts suffered a 20 percent casualty rate after five months in the area.

The U.S. advisers, called Military Transition Teams, typically live, eat and sleep with the Iraqi troops on outposts or bases adjacent to larger American bases. The teams are small — in this area about three dozen advisers were assigned to a brigade designed to have 2,500 Iraqi soldiers — and their missions vary from accompanying experienced soldiers on missions to walking recruits through boot camp.

Several advisers lauded the progress of their soldiers, saying that with U.S. resupply assistance the Iraqis were close to being able independently to stabilize this area once suspected of harboring militants.

Other advisers said that although the Iraqi soldiers have greatly improved, they would falter without the U.S. advisers and support. During some firefights, a few Iraqi soldiers simply abandoned their posts and walked away. But on other occasions, advisers said, Iraqi soldiers stepped in front to protect them.

"I think they have a decent foundation, but without decent supervision it'd go to the wayside — not in a month or week, but sometime," said Watson of Chesterfield, Va. "The [Iraqi] army is not to the point that the American people think it is."

Several advisers have gone to great lengths to see their trainees prepared. In the western city of Haditha, one adviser voluntarily extended his assignment in October while his wife was approaching her ninth month of pregnancy so that he could accompany his trainees on their first mission.

Marine Col. Daniel Newell, head of the advisers in this area, said his home and nearly all his personal possessions were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina during his tour.

"My personal goal was to prevent one U.S. battalion from deploying to Iraq one more time," Newell said of his unit's work. "I think it does translate into some Americans not being buried in the ground or walking with artificial limbs."

"No matter what we do, we can only take it so far," added Newell. "And at the end of the day, it'll be the Iraqis who have to seal the deal."