.Marines helping to line up Sunnis for Iraq's army U.S. military seeks to diversify a mostly Shiite fighting force
Qaim, Iraq -- They came by the hundreds. Iraqi men, mostly young but a few graybeards, milling about the desert or squatting in the sand with their robes tucked between their legs and turbans fluttering in the breeze.
It's recruiting day. These men have come to join the Iraqi army.
They are Sunni Arabs from tribes that populate the vast desert region to the west along the Syrian border.
No one looks very happy. Some have come from many miles away. Some have never left home before. They are joining an army that is often attacked by insurgents. Some may very well die in the coming weeks, months, years.
"They come out here at great personal risk," said Capt. John Black of Stockton, an officer with 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment out of Twentynine Palms (San Bernardino County). "They can't find jobs around here, so this is the best they can do."
The 1st Battalion controls this area of Anbar province and helped with the recruiting drive, which was coordinated by the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force headquarters based in Fallujah.
It's part of the U.S. military effort to get more Sunni Muslims into the Iraqi army. The idea is to make the army more representative of Iraq's ethnic makeup than the overwhelmingly Shiite force that it now is.
To that end, U.S. military recruiting teams have been going around the province passing out flyers, making announcements over radio stations and coordinating with various tribal sheikhs and city officials.
Lt. Col. Nick Marano, 1/7 battalion commander, said the sheikhs from the Qaim region had promised to send about 1,500 men to join the army. On Saturday, nearly 400 showed up. It was the first of several recruiting days the Marines planned to conduct.
"A lot of these guys were insurgents," Marano said with a smile. "It wasn't long ago we were shooting at them. But that's OK. If they're here, they're ready to join the army. They can make some money and stay out of trouble."
It was cold when the Iraqis arrived early in the morning. The surrounding countryside is mostly desert, bisected by the Euphrates River. The recruits gathered in a taped-off square in an open field, about a quarter-mile off the main highway that runs into Qaim, and eventually to Syria, though the border is currently closed.
A gruff Iraqi sergeant major passed a handheld metal detector over each man's body. He occasionally spoke softly, appearing to offer encouragement or welcoming the volunteers to his world.
"These men good, very good," he said, a grin cracking his leathery face. "My cousin, my cousin, my cousin."
The gathering area was adjacent to a vehicle checkpoint operated by the Iraqi army and protected by a full-time Marine contingent with armored vehicles and heavy weapons.
An M1 Abrams tank stood watch, its big gun pointed in the direction of the highway where cars lined up while drivers waited for their turn to pass through the checkpoint.
Marano acknowledged he brought a lot of firepower to the site.
"This is a juicy target for the insurgents," he said. "You've seen what they do in Baghdad, drive a car bomb into these kinds of crowds. We're not going to let that happen."
It was a simple and quick recruiting drive.
The Americans taped off a pathway that led from the open field to the Marine compound, where tents were set up for the screening process. Inside, Iraqi translators checked each potential recruit. The men stripped down to their boxer shorts so they could go through rudimentary physicals. And they were given a brief literacy test.
Those who passed got an A on the back of their hands. Those who failed got an X.
About half the men were rejected. One was sent home because he had tried to scratch off his tattoos. The screeners said he had engaged in self-mutilation. They said he had a "personality abnormality." Nearly all the rest were sent away because they could not read or write.
A lot of the men who were rejected responded angrily. A number of them tried to wash away the X and get back into the recruitment line. Finally, they walked away, shouting in Arabic back to the other men who were still waiting.
Maj. Timothy Burton, who works for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, the highest Marine headquarters in Anbar, shook his head while he talked about the rejections.
"I think we need to look at schooling these guys," he said. "Maybe the solution is to make basic training a little longer for the ones who can't read. We can teach them to read there. Otherwise, we just make them more resentful. A lot of these men came a long way to join and then got turned away."
No one standing in line spoke English. A couple of men said through a translator that they were joining to help their country and help their families.
One said he joined because his brother had been killed by an insurgent bomb.
"I want to shoot terrorists," he said, his face tightening into a hard scowl.
After a long morning of screening, those who passed were loaded onto 7-ton trucks and taken to the Marine base outside Qaim to await transportation to basic training.
Later, they were loaded aboard big CH-53 helicopters. For most of them, it was the first time they'd ever been in an aircraft.
It was a rude awakening. Many needed help just putting on the seat belt. Although it flies fast, it's a bumpy ride, almost an hour, to the air base at Al Asad. A lot of Iraqi recruits threw up into plastic bags as the heavy helicopter pitched and rolled with the wind.
Finally, they were down, waiting for another leg of a trip that would take them to Habbaniya, where the Iraqis have a basic-training facility.
They will be there for five weeks. Then, it's on to an army unit, and the war.
SFGate
It's recruiting day. These men have come to join the Iraqi army.
They are Sunni Arabs from tribes that populate the vast desert region to the west along the Syrian border.
No one looks very happy. Some have come from many miles away. Some have never left home before. They are joining an army that is often attacked by insurgents. Some may very well die in the coming weeks, months, years.
"They come out here at great personal risk," said Capt. John Black of Stockton, an officer with 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment out of Twentynine Palms (San Bernardino County). "They can't find jobs around here, so this is the best they can do."
The 1st Battalion controls this area of Anbar province and helped with the recruiting drive, which was coordinated by the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force headquarters based in Fallujah.
It's part of the U.S. military effort to get more Sunni Muslims into the Iraqi army. The idea is to make the army more representative of Iraq's ethnic makeup than the overwhelmingly Shiite force that it now is.
To that end, U.S. military recruiting teams have been going around the province passing out flyers, making announcements over radio stations and coordinating with various tribal sheikhs and city officials.
Lt. Col. Nick Marano, 1/7 battalion commander, said the sheikhs from the Qaim region had promised to send about 1,500 men to join the army. On Saturday, nearly 400 showed up. It was the first of several recruiting days the Marines planned to conduct.
"A lot of these guys were insurgents," Marano said with a smile. "It wasn't long ago we were shooting at them. But that's OK. If they're here, they're ready to join the army. They can make some money and stay out of trouble."
It was cold when the Iraqis arrived early in the morning. The surrounding countryside is mostly desert, bisected by the Euphrates River. The recruits gathered in a taped-off square in an open field, about a quarter-mile off the main highway that runs into Qaim, and eventually to Syria, though the border is currently closed.
A gruff Iraqi sergeant major passed a handheld metal detector over each man's body. He occasionally spoke softly, appearing to offer encouragement or welcoming the volunteers to his world.
"These men good, very good," he said, a grin cracking his leathery face. "My cousin, my cousin, my cousin."
The gathering area was adjacent to a vehicle checkpoint operated by the Iraqi army and protected by a full-time Marine contingent with armored vehicles and heavy weapons.
An M1 Abrams tank stood watch, its big gun pointed in the direction of the highway where cars lined up while drivers waited for their turn to pass through the checkpoint.
Marano acknowledged he brought a lot of firepower to the site.
"This is a juicy target for the insurgents," he said. "You've seen what they do in Baghdad, drive a car bomb into these kinds of crowds. We're not going to let that happen."
It was a simple and quick recruiting drive.
The Americans taped off a pathway that led from the open field to the Marine compound, where tents were set up for the screening process. Inside, Iraqi translators checked each potential recruit. The men stripped down to their boxer shorts so they could go through rudimentary physicals. And they were given a brief literacy test.
Those who passed got an A on the back of their hands. Those who failed got an X.
About half the men were rejected. One was sent home because he had tried to scratch off his tattoos. The screeners said he had engaged in self-mutilation. They said he had a "personality abnormality." Nearly all the rest were sent away because they could not read or write.
A lot of the men who were rejected responded angrily. A number of them tried to wash away the X and get back into the recruitment line. Finally, they walked away, shouting in Arabic back to the other men who were still waiting.
Maj. Timothy Burton, who works for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, the highest Marine headquarters in Anbar, shook his head while he talked about the rejections.
"I think we need to look at schooling these guys," he said. "Maybe the solution is to make basic training a little longer for the ones who can't read. We can teach them to read there. Otherwise, we just make them more resentful. A lot of these men came a long way to join and then got turned away."
No one standing in line spoke English. A couple of men said through a translator that they were joining to help their country and help their families.
One said he joined because his brother had been killed by an insurgent bomb.
"I want to shoot terrorists," he said, his face tightening into a hard scowl.
After a long morning of screening, those who passed were loaded onto 7-ton trucks and taken to the Marine base outside Qaim to await transportation to basic training.
Later, they were loaded aboard big CH-53 helicopters. For most of them, it was the first time they'd ever been in an aircraft.
It was a rude awakening. Many needed help just putting on the seat belt. Although it flies fast, it's a bumpy ride, almost an hour, to the air base at Al Asad. A lot of Iraqi recruits threw up into plastic bags as the heavy helicopter pitched and rolled with the wind.
Finally, they were down, waiting for another leg of a trip that would take them to Habbaniya, where the Iraqis have a basic-training facility.
They will be there for five weeks. Then, it's on to an army unit, and the war.
SFGate
posted by madtom at 2:05 PM
1 Comments:
"No one looks very happy. Some have come from many miles away. Some have never left home before. They are joining an army that is often attacked by insurgents. Some may very well die in the coming weeks, months, years."
And this differs from the US military?
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