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> 戦争３７ > 351.html
★阿修羅♪
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ワシントンポスト：イラク警備米兵は「座った家鴨」指揮官は攻撃に曝される任務命令を心配。交代予定のイラク兵は「米撤退」求めつつ逡巡の矛盾。
表紙の見出しは日替わり。いわゆる「泣きが入る」状況なり。
もとを糺せば、強硬派の計画に無理あり。日本の占領を下敷きと報道されたが、日本は無条件降伏し、官僚はアメリカに協力、旧軍隊は廃止したが、警察は増員、すぐに警察予備隊から自衛隊ができた。
なぜ、アメリカの強硬派が無理押しをしたのかは、わが電網宝庫911謀略関係参照。
911謀略追求からの逃げであった。これが分からないと、すべての謎は解けない。
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Some Soldiers 'Sitting Ducks'
U.S. wants to stop guard duty that has left soldiers exposed to attacks.
ﾐ Kevin Sullivan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24496-2003Jul21.html?nav=hptop_tb
washingtonpost.com
Soldiers Standing Guard Duty Are 'Sitting Ducks'
Commanders Anxious to Stop Assignments That Have Left Troops Exposed to Attacks
By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, July 21, 2003; 5:01 PM
BAGHDAD -- A bomb, tossed at mid-day 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 been essentially 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.
Manning a .50-caliber machine gun atop an armored personnel carrier still pock-marked from the bombing, Pfc. Thomas Poorbaugh kept an eye on passing traffic and summed up the job: "We're sitting ducks here, pretty much," he said.
Of the 39 U.S. soldiers killed in attacks in Iraq since May 1, at least seven were on guard duty at "fixed sites," and at least three more were directing traffic or manning check-points. Military commanders and soldiers on the ground say that those duties have been unavoidable given the looting and insecurity of post-war Iraq.
But now top U.S. commanders, including Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, chief of the U.S. Central Command, want to give those jobs back to Iraqis, freeing U.S. soldiers for different operations and getting them off a duty that has left them especially exposed and vulnerable.
Abizaid has said that U.S. casualties suffered in the course of raids or other operations to secure Iraq are an unavoidable cost of combat. But he said non-combat casualties, such as those suffered by soldiers guarding civilian institutions, are unacceptable and 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 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 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 at the ready. Officials said that 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 population.
Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, said this week that more than 8,700 Iraqis already have been trained and are working in a new Facilities Protective Services, which is providing 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 functioning.
At the al-Rasheed bank in the Mansur neighborhood of western Baghdad, a crew of those Iraqi guards works alongside U.S. soldiers. Four of them 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 bear 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 is dangerous to work alongside U.S. troops who are being targeted for attacks. But he said that danger is outweighed by lure of his $100 monthly pay. "We have to live," he said.
Lt. Col. Richard Bowyer is commander of the unit providing security at 10 sites in the Mansur area, an upscale neighborhood he called "the Beverly Hills of Baghdad." He said he has 190 Iraqi security guards now working with his 500-plus troops. He said for the moment, his soldiers guard the bank when it is open, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., with a few Iraqi guards working with them. 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 will 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, a half-dozen or so of his troops guarded the bank in the blinding mid-day heat. Two stood near the roadway, Poorbaugh sat with his machinegun 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 ten 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 Ghuraib, just west of Baghdad, was killed by small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire on Saturday. The soldier, identified by the Pentagon as Second Lieutenant 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 the soldier was not standing guard at the time he was killed, but 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 the city council offices, has frequently come under fire. He said the building has been attacked with nine rockets, two flares, two grenades and lots of bullets from small arms.
Despite that, Swanson said he didn't consider the guard duty especially dangerous. He said the attacks were "nothing" compared to 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 that 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 in Baghdad contributed to this report.
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