WASHINGTON, July 1: Two months after US President George Bush declared major combat over in Iraq, the United States needs more troops on the ground and should accept any foreign help it can get to crush resistance and start real nation-building, military analysts said on Tuesday.
Since May 1, at least 25 US troops have been killed in hostile circumstances in Iraq, in a conflict experts say is fast becoming a low-level guerilla war — a description rejected by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
“The war has moved into a disturbing new phase, a guerrilla, counter-insurgency phase. We need to adapt,” said retired Army Gen. Dan Christman, a former Pentagon planner.
Six more US soldiers were wounded on Tuesday and a fatal blast at a mosque fuelled Muslim anger toward US forces.
Christman and other military analysts said the United States needed to adapt by getting more boots on the ground to deter attacks and to enable politicians to focus on nation-building and win over a distrustful Iraqi population.
“Our army is absolutely stretched thin and we ought to be reaching out to all of those countries who are offering to send troops — the Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, the Indians, and NATO — I’m not sure why we have been reluctant to pick up a NATO offer,” said the retired general.
NATO’s role in Iraq so far has been agreeing to provide logistics help for up to 7,500 Polish troops scheduled to deploy to Iraq this month.
Christman said the presence of other flags would boost US legitimacy during the crucial reconstruction phase, which should focus on the economy and getting oil pumping again.
Sen. Joseph Biden, a Democrat from Delaware, said last weekend after a trip to Iraq that an international force of up to 60,000 troops was needed to crush the resistance.
Retired Air Force Gen. Chuck Boyd agreed NATO should get involved and he estimated several hundred thousand troops would be needed. “We need far more than 150,000 troops to secure a country of that size,” said Boyd.
Mr Rumsfeld said the United States has been in discussions with more than 20 countries about what they can contribute. “We have been working for weeks to bring in additional countries’ forces into Iraq,” he told reporters on Monday.
Analysts believe the reconstruction phase has been damaged by a power vacuum left after President Saddam Hussein was toppled on April 9, and the relative inexperience of US troops in nation-building tactics.
MORE IRAQI INVOLVEMENT: While the attacks were significant, general public mistrust of US troops was more disconcerting, said Marcus Corbin, a senior defence analyst at the Center for Defence Information.
“The problem from the point of view of the Iraqis is that whatever limited authority they thought they were getting is being pulled back. Their sense is that things are going backward rather than forward,” said Corbin.
Corbin recommended the US authority in Iraq should hand over as many government functions as possible to Iraqis.
Analyst Anthony Cordesman predicted much of the resistance could dissipate once Iraqis could see a reason to halt extremist efforts.
While basic services such as water and power were limited during Saddam’s reign, some of these scarce resources have deteriorated since then, exacerbating Iraqi distrust.
“It’s the lack of goals that has led to the violence today. The absence of a clear plan fuels every conspiracy theory that exists in Iraq,” said Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Cordesman said the US-led administration focused too many efforts on Iraqi exiles, who now seek their share of power. “The exiles are basically as much as the problem as the Baath. They may not be killing American soldiers but in general they have served no other function than disruption,” he said.—Reuters
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