The US military is restructuring its forces in Iraq to create a lighter, more mobile force with a bigger intelligence capability, better suited to the sort of low-level insurgency facing its troops, its top commander here said yesterday.
| I understand that virtually all the troops in Iraq are doing the same quasi-infantry thing. F'rinstance, there aren't a lot of artillery fire missions, so ammo humpers are standing guard and going on patrol. Best to fix that... |
As a major troop rotation sees the combat units and heavy amour that took part in the six-week spring invasion return home, Washington will deploy more infantry and lighter armored cars, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said. âWe are in fact going to change the composition of our forces to give us additional infantry,â the general told a Baghdad briefing. âWeâre moving to a more mobile force, one that has the right blend of light and heavy. What weâre in search of is a very mobile, very flexible, lethal force that can accomplish its mission. Those terms are dictated by the enemy.â
| Something we should probably look into is forming security battalions, similar to those the Sovs formed in Afghanistan — ours should be a bit more effective, of course. This isn't going to be the last reconstruction mission we see, and battalions made up of two comapnies of light infantry, one of MPs, and maybe one of intel makes more sense for that mission than tanks and artillery. And I hope the new force structure involves kill squads... |
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