Iraqi soldiers out on their own

BAGHDAD — For the olive-green pickup truck, it was just one small stretch of road. For the half-dozen Iraqi men and one woman seated inside the cabin and flatbed, it was one giant leap.

For the first time since the announcement of sovereignty, the squad of young soldiers of the new Iraqi National Guard ventured out onto the streets without a U.S. Army escort.

The mission one recent day: Escort a busload of young recruits from the Muthana Airport base to Camp Sara, another base on the other side of town.

A giant Iraqi flag waved from their vehicle. A young gunner sat holding a machine gun. Pedestrians gawked. Onlookers waved, laughed or stared bewildered at the sight of Iraqi soldiers with no Americans in sight.

“Finally, my soldiers are patrolling on their own, without Americans,” says Lt. Col. Heydar Abdul Rasool, commander of an Iraqi National Guard unit. “The flag of Iraq on the pickup was for them a sign of independence.”

Despite making baby steps, the Iraqi National Guard is anything but independent.

The 30,000-soldier force created by the United States to provide domestic security still relies on Americans for critical equipment, including walkie-talkies, vehicles and bulletproof jackets.

American armored vehicles still stand guard at the gates of Muthana base, which has been subject to at least two fatal car bombings since the beginning of the year.

Most critically, the U.S. soldiers continue to train the young Iraqi recruits, many of them skinny teens desperately seeking jobs to feed their families. Salaries start at $175 a month.

“Before, I was a taxi driver,” said Ali Sa’ad, a 19-year-old recruit wearing a khaki uniform that appears to be two sizes too large. “The army, it’s better, because I can help my country, and plus, I can double my previous salary.”

Shortly after the U.S. forces took Baghdad, U.S. Administrator L. Paul Bremer dissolved the Iraqi army, built by Saddam Hussein, that had become one of the Middle East’s largest.

The decision has come to be seen by many Iraqis and Western analysts as the U.S. occupation force’s biggest blunder. The ex-soldiers were recruited by insurgents opposed to the U.S. occupation and a huge pool of anti-American hostility developed.

The U.S.-led coalition since has backtracked, calling on old soldiers, including members of Saddam’s Ba’ath Party, to reapply for their jobs.

When Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s government took the helm in late June, those calls became louder.

So far, fewer than 10,000 soldiers have joined or are in training for the new army, dedicated to protecting Iraq’s borders, and more than 30,000 have signed up for the national guard.

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