28.07.2003, 00:59
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Zitat:US commits to long-term force rotation plans
By Kim Burger, JDW Staff Reporter, Washington, DC
The US Department of Defense (DoD) has announced plans for maintaining US troops in Iraq over the next year and beyond and identified units that will begin replacing current forces in September.
The plan will see active US Army units deployed on one-year tours in Iraq although six-month rotations will continue in Afghanistan and the Balkans. In the face of continuing insurgency in Iraq the DoD has abandoned pre-war plans to reduce force levels and will maintain about 150,000 military personnel into 2004.
US officials said they are adjusting capabilities, bringing in units equipped with High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles and light equipment instead of M1 main battle tanks.
Rotations begin with the 82nd Airborne Division (AD) relieving the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanised) in September, with additional replacements scheduled for early 2004.
A number of factors could determine whether the US troop presence ultimately grows or shrinks. The deaths on 22 July of Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, in an attack launched by US forces should quash any fears among Iraqi citizens that the Husseins will return to power, officials said. They are hoping that will ease tensions between the coalition and an ambivalent, sometimes hostile, Iraqi public.
The brothers were among four Iraqis killed after a firefight in which elements of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) fired 10 Tube-launched, Optically-tracked Wire-guided (TOW) anti-tank missiles into the house near Mosul where the men had barricaded themselves into a "fortified" area.
"Now, more than ever, all Iraqis can know that the former regime is gone and will not be coming back," President George Bush said. However, an Arab TV network showed Saddam Fedayeen members vowing revenge.
Attacks on US forces continued throughout the week: on 22 July a member of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (3rd ACR) was killed and another wounded; the following day another 3rd ACR soldier was killed; and on 24 July three members of the 101st AD were killed when their convoy was ambushed outside Mosul.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz acknowledged on 23 July that US officials had not anticipated several problems that are now hampering security. These include the lack of significant defections from the Iraqi Army that could now be assisting the coalition, the poor state of the Iraqi police force and the persistent attacks on coalition forces by supporters of Saddam.
Another factor sure to affect the ability of the DoD to bring US troops home is the expected arrival of a third multinational division, which US officials said they hope to have formed by December and which is scheduled to relieve the 101st AD in February and March 2004. However, while most components of the UK-led division are already in place and the forces committed to the Polish-led division, the lead nation and contributors to a third division have not yet been identified. The Bush administration was hoping that India would contribute a full division, but New Delhi has refused to do so without a UN mandate.