Law and disorder
Too many robbers and too few cops create lawless conditions in Baghdad
Progress. The instability in Iraq has ricocheted back to Washington, bringing criticism upon Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's decision to maintain a small occupying force in the country and his assertions that the U.S. military footprint was adequate. At week's end he was calling Iraq's security his "No. 1 priority" and declaring that 15,000 more soldiers and 2,000 additional military police troops would arrive in Baghdad by mid-June. And by late last week, some progress was visible. U.S. troops significantly boosted their presence on the streets of Baghdad, patrolling more frequently and guarding banks and gas stations. They began detaining looters for three weeks at Baghdad's airport, instead of releasing them within hours as they had previously done. "You will see more soldiers, day and night," says Gen. David McKiernan, the commander of American land forces in Iraq. "We will stay until a secure peace is achieved."
Not everyone thinks this will be easy. "We didn't expect to be facing a situation this bad," confessed a senior official from the U.S. Office of Humanitarian and Reconstruction Assistance. Even some top commanders are expressing their doubts. In a recent press briefing, Lt. Gen. David McKiernan pointed out the difficulty of bringing law and order to a country this size with the numbers of troops given to him by the Pentagon. "Ask yourself if you could secure all of California with 150,000 troops," he said. "The answer is no. The ultimate answer rests with Iraqis being in control of their country."
U.S. military officials insist that they were conscious that the United States had a short time window in which to bring stability to this war-ravaged nation. But the overall effort has been slow and marred by protracted infighting in Washington about who is in charge and how Baghdad's interim government should be structured. Consequently, as the reconstruction office spins its wheels, the needs of Iraqis go unmet. Just last week, a new U.S. official arrived to take control of Iraq's rebuilding. Paul Bremer, a former top counterterror official at the State Department, took up the job of provisional administrator from retired Gen. Jay Garner. Bremer lost no time in announcing stepped-up patrols, arrests of more looters, and a goal of reincarcerating the common criminals Saddam had released from jail. But it was unclear whether security had been much enhanced.
Meanwhile, progress is frustratingly slow for troops with little training in police matters. Soldiers in the 3rd Infantry Division's Outlaw Platoon have been trying to police their gritty working-class neighborhood. One day, they received a promising tip from two Iraqi informants--a poor man who had never even owned a donkey was driving a 2003 Chevrolet Suburban. The soldiers cased the suspected looter's street at 2 a.m. and found the car parked outside the man's house. They waited until the next morning to raid the house to avoid terrorizing the neighbors. But by then, the car had disappeared. "This is just another sign of us becoming cops, not soldiers," says Lt. Brian Johnson, Outlaw Platoon's commander. "We're working grand-theft auto."
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