CIAO DATE: 08/04

The U.S. presence in Iraq: inching toward internationalized ‘peacekeeping’?

Colin Robinson

Center for Defense Information

July 2003

With the end of major combat operations in Iraq officially declared on May 2, the U.S. authorities have been quick to reorient their operations toward reconstruction and the reestablishment of an Iraqi government. However, in the absence of legitimate Iraqi security forces, police or military, U.S. and other coalition military forces have to remain in the country to maintain order and the authority of the new interim government, the Coalition Provisional Authority. With the lack of public safety cited as virtually the number one concern of most international and Iraqi officials by the July 17 report of the Iraq Reconstruction Assessment Mission, it is important to examine how the provision of military security is being handled, and what support the United States is likely to receive from the wider international community.

While the United States failed in the lead–up to the war to gain active non–Western allies which might have broadened the fighting coalition, in its aftermath a number of other countries have been publicly announced as being prepared to join in the military control of the country. However, while U.S. leaders have spoken of raising two international divisions — which would imply some 30,000 soldiers — to supplement or replace the five U.S. and one British division in Iraq, contributions have been small and slow to arrive, with only the Polish international division of around 9,200 certain to take over a sector from the U.S. Marines in the south of the country. This lack of other troops and the difficulties the U.S. forces are having has resulted in some speculation that a policy change may occur and the administration of President George W. Bush administration accept a UN mandate for a peacekeeping force in the country. However the United Nations is not keen to acquire the responsibility for the most high–profile country needing peacekeeping forces either; it looks as if the United Nations will only be active on the humanitarian and reconstruction arenas in Iraq.

Under Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of Central Command, the leader of the U.S. forces in Iraq is Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez in Baghdad. Sanchez has been just promoted to commanding general of the Army’s V Corps that was deployed from Germany, but now also heads Combined Joint Task Force 7 (CJTF 7), the organisation established to run the U.S. military’s efforts in Iraq. V Corps is providing most of the staff for CJTF 7 at present, but a permanent task force staff is being built up to replace the personnel V Corps is providing. April reports also indicate that Central Command’s forward headquarters, which directs the entire U.S. Middle Eastern military effort, may be preparing to move to Baghdad at some point.

The U.S. military leadership has divided Iraq into four zones of responsibility under CJTF 7. A sketch of the situation in each announced sector follows.

Northern Region

U.S. operations in the north of Iraq still appear to be under the Military Coordination and Liaison Command, headed by Maj. Gen. Henry Osman of the Marine Corps’ II Marine Expeditionary Force (II MEF). Established by early April, it was originally headquartered inside Turkey, at Silopi, six miles from the border with Iraq . This was a provisional force formed by European Command and despatched to the area where it came under the control of Central Command. This is an especially difficult sector given the need to control the situation on the ground while maintaining relations with the Turkish military, whose strength is estimated variously at some 5,000–17,000 troops deployed up to 15 kilometres inside Iraq. The Northern Region covers the northernmost Iraqi governates (provinces); the dividing line between it and the Baghdad region has not been made clear from publicly accessible documents.

The Northern Region was intended by U.S. officials to be taken over by the Indian Army, and pending political agreement plans were being made by the Indian Army to send a full division of 17,000 to the region. However, New Delhi has now formally declined to take the job without a UN mandate, and while Pakistan later ’agreed in principle’ to send troops, difficulties are arising over how much the United States will pay Pakistan to carry out the mission. It seems that any Pakistani replacement troops will take months to arrive.

U.S. forces in the region consist of up to 35,000 personnel in infantry and armored units plus thousands more in essential back–up logistics units. (A division, made up of three brigades, has around 15,000 soldiers, a brigade up to 5,000.) The 173rd Airborne Brigade from Italy is in Kirkuk supported by elements of Germany–based units. The 101st Airborne Division, the unit responsible for finding and killing Saddam’s two sons in Mosul on Jul.22, has elements of its 1st and 2nd Brigades in and west of Mosul as far out as Tall Afar, with detachments across northern Iraq. The division’s military police battalion is training new Iraqi border guards on the Iranian border. The chief of staff of the Army’s rotation plan (made public July 23) asserts that the division will be relieved by a multinational division by February 2004. As noted above, no country has been willing yet to provide such a force.

The 4th Infantry Division from Colorado is also spread across the north. It is likely that some Marine forces remain in the north as well. It was announced that the 4th Division will be relieved by the 1st Infantry Division from Germany by April 2004, which already has up to a third of its troops committed there already. To alleviate the stress on the already committed 1st Infantry Division, an as yet unnamed National Guard brigade will be attached to the division.

Baghdad Region

This region covers the governates around Baghdad. In Baghdad, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez leads Combined Joint Task Force 7, formed from the headquarters staff of the V Corps deployed from Germany. In Baghdad is the 1st Armored Division, deployed from Germany but reportedly to be eventually re–stationed in Eastern Europe, and the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment. The 1st Cavalry Division will eventually, by April 2004, replace both units with the assistance of a yet unnamed extra National Guard brigade.

The long–suffering 3rd Infantry Division is in, and west of, Baghdad, though exact locations are not clear. Individual soldiers in the 3rd Infantry Division have made headlines recently by publicly stating that some personnel would welcome woundings, so that they could return home. It should be borne in mind here that the 3rd Infantry Division was first to be deployed in early January, after components of the division were on exercise in Kuwait for much of the last half of 2002. Thus the division has been at a heightened state of activity — or deployed — for virtually the whole of the past year, and it should be no surprise that two–thirds of the division’s soldiers felt extremely unhappy when they were told their September departure date has slipped forward into the indefinite future. (One third of the formation, the 3rd Brigade, has now returned home to Fort Benning in Georgia.) The 3rd Division also has the responsibility for the difficult town of Fallujah.

With the announcement of the rotation plan, the September date is to be kept, with the 82nd Airborne Division, already with units in Afghanistan, bringing its HQ to Baghdad to relieve the 3rd, along with one infantry brigade. The 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, is already responsible for the Al–Rashed district in southern Baghdad, and its area of responsibility covers some 1.5 million people. Thus, the 82nd will replace two brigades of the 3rd Division with only one of its own, as two of the 3rd’s return home with only one brigade arriving.

Meanwhile the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment is spread across Al Anbar governate, the huge western province, with its main base at Al–Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad. The regiment has been enduring near–nightly mortar attacks. It will have to stay in place until March 2004, when it is to be relieved by the first Stryker brigade from the 2nd Infantry Division at Ft. Lewis, Wash.

South Central Region

The Marine’s I Marine Expeditionary Force under Lt. Gen. James T. Conway will hand over command to the Polish Multinational Division Center South (MND CS) between Aug. 15 and Sept. 1. Polish Maj. Gen. Andrzej Tyszkiewicz will command the force. Three deputy commanders will assist him. The Marines will hand over five of the seven governates they currently control to the Polish led force, while at least one other, Dhi Qar governate, will fall under the British led South East division.

On July 15, it was reported by www.orbat.com that there are only 19,000 troops left with I MEF, down from 65,000 at the height of the war. The drawdown has been low–profile, with little media attention. The total apparently includes 9,000 ground troops, 3,000 with the Marines’ air component, and 7,000 support troops. With the arrival of some multinational forces, it seems unlikely that more than five or six Marine infantry battalions remain in the area.

MND–Center South will be headquartered at Camp Babylon , Hillah, and will consist of Polish, Ukrainian, and Spanish–led brigades, expected to incorporate a Bulgarian infantry battalion and forces from Fiji, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, the Philippines, Thailand, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia.

Brigade Combat Team 1, formed on the basis of the Polish 12th Mechanised Brigade and including some 2,300 troops, will take responsibility for Babil and Karbala governate with two Polish mechanized battalions, plus some contributions from other countries. Brigade Combat Team 2, the Ukrainian 5th Separate Mechanized Brigade, will be 2,400 strong and will control Wasit governate, and apparently include elements of a Ukrainian nuclear–chemical–biological defence battalion which had been in Kuwait. Finally the Spanish led "Plus Ultra" Brigade Combat Team 3 with 2,400 troops will supervise al–Qadisiyah and an–Najaf. The Spanish brigade will group troops from the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, and also include 360 troops from El Salvador, which will be deployed in an–Najaf. The Polish will provide the division reaction force, a 300–strong detachment of 14 helicopters from 7th Air Cavalry Battalion to be based at al–Jarrah, near Al Kut.

It remains to be seen how effective this division will be, built out of such a wide variety of countries and languages, but it will be covering one of the quietest areas in Iraq, where Shias dominate. Cooperation with the previous U.S. forces has been high in the region.

Southern Region

In the south, the British Army has just conducted a headquarters changover, bringing the 3rd UK Mechanized Division and 19th Mechanized Brigade into the region. The British force has been concentrated around Basra, but the newly forming headquarters of Multinational Division South East, based on the 3rd UK Division, will bring in forces from many other countries to cover the governates of Al Muthanna, Maysan, and Dhi Qar as well as Basra itself.

Italy is leading a mechanised brigade which took over responsibility in Dhi Qar governate from the U.S. Marines on July 19. This freed 900 Marine reservists from New York City to go home. Along with the 18th Bersagalieri Infantry Regiment, the brigade appears to include a engineer battalion and nuclear–biological–chemical defense units. Meanwhile, the British relieving force will include three battalions and armored reconnaissance vehicles of the Light Dragoons, as well as 40 Regiment Royal Artillery. A Norwegian engineer company will be attached to the British force’s engineer regiment.

Other countries are also sending troops to join the British–led force. The Netherlands is sending a Marine Battalion Group, which will be responsible for Al Muthanna Province, as well as a heavy lift helicopter detachment. In the north of Al Muthanna Pronvince will also be based the Romanian 811 Mechanised Infantry Battalion, at As Samawah. Denmark is also to send an infantry battalion group, which will incorporate a Lithuanian detachment and be based at Al Qurnah. The Czech Republic, Portugal, and New Zealand will send support forces.

The Way Ahead

With the U.S. troop rotation plan announced on July 23, much of the imminent urgency has been removed from difficulties faced by long–suffering U.S. troops. Soldiers have at the very least a date on which they will return. Yet, the force that is being cobbled together to assume long–term security duties consists of a wide variety of numerous countries’ troops some unskilled in peacekeeping operations, allied to U.S. troops for which peacekeeping is not what most joined the military for. Re–enlistment rates among U.S. Army personnel are already reflecting this. Significant portions of U.S. reserve and active forces will be committed for a year at least, and if the mission is to be completed well, foreign troops will have to stay for several years. It should be remembered here that U.S. troops entered Bosnia in 1995, and have not left yet.

The U.S. Army has never emphasised peacekeeping training and doctrine to any great degree. However, it now faces what is arguably the critical task in America ’s Middle East policy conducting such activities. It can only be hoped that the Army will implement British and other experience in order to operate with more emphasis on smiles, cooperation, and learning the culture of the people, and less the traditional U.S. preference for military firepower and high technology. Berets, street patrols, and a friendly wave are a much better policy for community relations than helmets, armored Humvees, and dark glasses, as has been the U.S. policy often during the 1990s in the avowed interests of force protection. The Coalition Provisional Authority and the U.S. troops and coalition troops that serve it have to win the confidence of the Iraqi people, otherwise the road ahead will become extremely difficult.

Sources:

Gregorz Holdanowicz, “Poland Makes Its Mark on NATO With Iraq Plan,” Jane’s Defence Weekly, June 4, 2003

Jane’s Defence Weekly, July 9, 2003, April 30, 2003

Lale Sariibrahimolgu and Robin Hughes, “Iraq: The Turkish Factor,” Jane’s Defence Weekly, April 2, 2003

Joseph Stefula, U.S. Army Divisions and Separate Brigades: Deployments and Missions, www.orabt.com, July 15, 2003

“El Salvador: 360 Troops will join Latin Brigade in Iraq ,” Miami Herald, July 17, 2003

Spc. Bill Putnam, ’Keane announces overseas unit rotation schedule’, US Army News Service, www.army.mil, July 23, 2003

U.K. Ministry of Defence, Operation Telic, www.mod.uk

“U.S. Marines Eager to Leave Iraq ,” Japan Today, July 20, 2003

Iraq ’s Post–War Reconstruction, Iraq Reconstruction Assessment Mission, July 17, 2003

Thanks also go to Johann Price of orbat.com and Patrick Garrett of globalsecurity.org for providing information for this article.