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Reduced Violence Doesn't Make Job Easier, Troops Say

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 13, 2008

BAGHDAD - Violence in Iraq is at its lowest level in four years, but ask Capt. Mike Forbes, and he will tell you his job as a troop commander in Baghdad has gotten harder, not easier.

He spends less time worrying about roadside bombs and battling armed extremists than on his previous two tours to Iraq, and he and his soldiers are happy about that.

But now they are digging into less violent, albeit more complex problems that still hamper Baghdad's western Mansour district: Working closely with local Iraqi officials to fix sewer and electric systems, and keeping corruption down in hopes of making the calm last.

"A quiet environment doesn't necessarily mean a less challenging one. It just gets more complicated," said Forbes on Thursday, standing inside the small patrol base in Mansour that houses 30 members of B Troop, 4th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment.

"The hotter an area is, the simpler," Forbes said. "You just go find the bad guys and kill them."

For many soldiers across Iraq, the recent drop in violence has meant a renewed focus on the rebuilding role the U.S. military first took on years ago, but often had to put aside, as it battled years of severe violence.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, this week called it the next urgent task across much of Iraq: helping the government turn recent security improvements into a longer-lasting stability by getting services to people and getting the economy moving.

Much of the effort is concentrated in small urban outposts like patrol base Washash in Mansour, the former Sunni insurgent stronghold where B Troop operates.

For Forbes' soldiers, the task is complicated by the end of the U.S. troop surge. As American units pull out and head home, those left behind have to take on wider geographic responsibilities.

They also must, usually with just a few weeks' handover, manage the key relationships with Iraqi officials that often been essential to the violence drop.

Also, The Bush administration is considering the withdrawal of additional combat forces from Iraq beginning in September, according to administration and military officials.

One factor in the consideration is the pressing need for additional troops in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and other fighters have intensified their insurgency and inflicted a growing number of casualties on Afghans and American-led forces there.

More American and allied troops died in Afghanistan than in Iraq in May and June, a grim trend that has continued this month.

By the time President Bush leaves office on Jan. 20, as many as three of the 15 combat brigades now in Iraq could be withdrawn or scheduled for withdrawal, the officials said.

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