U.S. Troops Shocked by Move to Keep Them in Iraq By Michael Georgy Reuters
Tuesday 15 July 2003
FALLUJA, Iraq - Under fire and unwanted by Iraqis, soldiers in the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division in the volatile
town of Falluja were bitterly disappointed on Tuesday by a decision to keep them in Iraq indefinitely.
"It's a big shock," said Sergeant Josh Holt of Montgomery, Alabama.
Facing mounting threats in Iraq, the U.S. military said on Monday thousands of soldiers from the 3rd Infantry
Division (Mechanised) would stay in the country despite previous plans to bring them home in July and August.
The division was the first American unit to enter Baghdad during the war and has been in the Gulf since
September. Thirty- seven soldiers from the division have been killed in the war and its aftermath.
U.S. troops have come under fire from loyalists of toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, armed gangs and
those hoping to avenge relatives killed by U.S. troops.
After hearing they would head home several times, 3rd Infantry soldiers were stunned by news that the gritty
streets of Falluja would continue to be home for the foreseeable future.
"We were told three times we would be going home in a couple of months. It is not a good time to announce
this. We are demotivated," said Sergeant Chris Grisham, a military intelligence officer.
"It has been tough. I have had to take a seven-year-old child home whose father we killed in an exchange of
fire. The family just cried. They just cried. I am sure they will try to get revenge. That is the way it works in Iraq."
The commander of the 3rd Infantry division, Major-General Buford Blount, said U.S. troops, including himself,
were ready to go home but needed to remain committed to their task.
"These soldiers have been here about 10 months after training hard in the desert for six months. They are
doing hard work," he told Reuters Television.
"They are doing a good job here. Morale is good. We are trying to get them out of here. But they have to stay
focused on the mission."
The 3rd Infantry shoulders a heavy burden in efforts to stabilise Iraq, controlling restive towns like Falluja,
where anti-American sentiment is simmering and U.S. troops are attacked nearly every day.
U.S. soldiers are training Iraqi police to eventually take over Falluja. Policemen have demonstrated against the
U.S. presence and want the Americans to leave now. But the plan will take time.
"The decision (to stay) is causing a lot of marriage problems. I am trying to be positive, thinking I will get out of
here in one piece," said Private Christian Maldonado.
Soldiers in the 3rd Infantry were just as disconsolate in the nearby town of Habbaniyah.
"I felt probably a level of hopelessness that I never felt before in my life. It just felt like the knockout punch,"
said Sergeant Eric Wright.
Iraqis Angry
American soldiers were not the only ones angered by the decision to keep them in Iraq. Local Iraqis are also
eager for them to depart.
"We boil inside when we see these American soldiers drive by. There is no security here. If they stay we will
fight them with our weapons," said Ahmed Abdel Razak, puffing on a water pipe in a crowded market.
A man stopped his car to happily tell him that he had heard a U.S. tank had been attacked.
American troops in Falluja sometimes pause from their patrols to try to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis. But
the public relations gestures often turn into verbal wars of attrition over electricity and water supply problems.
Standing in the blistering heat as Iraqis listed their complaints, an American soldier brushed from his uniform
the powdery white residue of sweat.
His comrades nervously clutched M-4 semi-automatic rifles, securing the perimeter of a sidewalk crowded
with Iraqis who didn't buy the argument that postwar rebuilding takes time.
"I am hoping that as long as I can get my mail and make some calls home, I can survive," said Private Torrence
Gilliam, from Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Mitayo Potosi
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