Multi-National Division – Baghdad PAO

CAMP TAJI, Iraq – Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers from 1st Battalion 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, along with member of the embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team –Baghdad 5, attached to 2nd SBCT, toured three schools and helped open another in Tarmiyah, northwest of Baghdad, Oct. 9.

The schools were in various stages of progress; from the very beginning phases to a completed building, which is ready for children to learn.

“There is nothing more fulfilling for me than to build a school for children,” said 1st Lt. Erik Peterson, Civil Military Operations officer, 1st Bn. 14th Inf. Regt.

Peterson joined the school building projects in February and said the Tarmiyah Qada Council has put in a lot of work to make progress possible.

“They have been there every step of the way,” he said. “Everything that goes into construction was done by Iraqi engineers. All Americans did was handle a little bit of paperwork.”

Malcom Phelps, and senior education advisor for the ePRT agreed.

“The Iraqi people are stepping up to their responsibilities,” he said. “It has been slow, but it is a growing process."

Progress on some of these schools has taken a long time and seen the rise and fall of violence in the area.

One of the schools toured, the Quadasiyah School, was in the middle of violence for years.

Renovations on the school began approximately three years ago, but were halted due to al-Qaeda in Iraq taking over the building. When that happened progress stopped, Peterson said.

“Now that al Qaeda is basically gone from this area we can finish this project,” he said.

The school is scheduled for opening this year.

These four schools were the first schools visited by Phelps, when he arrived in April of last year.

Though the building is near completion, the school still awaits furniture and books. This school is also scheduled for opening this year.

“They see the progress being made and they want to be a part of it,” he said. “It’s symbolic as well as real progress they can see.”

The Barada School is now open and ready to provide children in the area with the opportunity to learn, The Soldiers and residents celebrated its opening and Phelps recognizes it as an example of the great work the Iraqi people are doing and step in the right direction.

Handover of Sunni groups a slow process

Americans retain some control over ‘Sons of Iraq’

By James Warden, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, October 11, 2008

TAJI, Iraq — Sheikh Abid Mohammad Hussein stood with his country’s flag in his hands Tuesday, just below a stage on the Iraqi side of Camp Taji.

The "Sons of Iraq" leader turned and handed the flag to Col. Todd McCaffrey, commander of the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. McCaffrey then passed the flag to an Iraqi army commander. The display — intentionally echoing the American military’s change of command ceremonies — symbolized the recent transition of the "Sons of Iraq" from American control to the Iraqi government.

In this case, though, that authority may be more symbolic than actual. While the Iraqi government will be footing the bill for the "Sons of Iraq," American units around Taji will retain operational control of the groups until they feel the Iraqis are ready to manage them on their own.

Multi-National Division — Baghdad turned over control of nearly 55,000 "Sons of Iraq" members to the Iraqi government starting Oct. 1. The decision was part of a push to give the Iraqis more responsibility for their own communities and to encourage cooperation between the government and a program that it has often criticized.

Yet the Taji arrangement suggests that transition is far from complete.

Partly this is because the Americans still control the battlefield around Taji, said Lt. Col. Tom Boccardi, commander of 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, a subunit of the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. American units are taking the lead in the area, with Iraqi units in support.

"Some of them are very capable, but they do not have the things they need," Boccardi said. "Quite simply, we are still in tactical control of the environment."

The Shiite government also has a history of conflict with "Sons of Iraq" groups, which rose out of a Sunni movement to make peace with the Americans, throw out insurgents and secure their own communities. Many politicians disparage the groups as little more than militias, and most American commanders concede that the program simply hired away poor, restless men who form the traditional fodder for insurgent recruiters.

The Iraqi government has already generated controversy by arresting some "Sons of Iraq" leaders.

The precarious nature of Sunni participation in the political process could allow any mismanagement of the groups to threaten Iraq’s fragile peace.

The government could disintegrate the groups if it had full control of them, Boccardi said. It’s harder for them to do that if the Americans retain some authority.

They’ve established "redlines" to create checks and balances on what the Iraqis can do to the "Sons of Iraq," he said. The government can’t target group leaders. They can’t arrest them without a valid warrant, which must have been seen by a judge. They must have objective evidence against the leader, not just a neighbor nursing a grudge.

The 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry, working with "Sons of Iraq" leaders, also determines where the groups’ checkpoints will be — a point Boccardi reiterated when one leader told him Wednesday that he worried the Iraqi army would push his checkpoints outside Tarmiyah, a city north of Taji.

"The tactical deployment of the‘‘Sons of Iraq’ is an American responsibility,""Boccardi said. "The Iraqi army cannot push you out of town.""

The Iraqis feel they’re in control, which was evident during the speeches they made at Tuesday’s transition ceremony.

"Coalition forces are not responsible any more for the ‘Sons of Iraq,’ " one officer said, reading a letter from the prime minister’s office. "If you need anything, go to the Iraqi army, and they’re going to help you."

American comments were more carefully worded, though: "We have stood beside you in the past, we stand beside you today, and we will stand beside you (during the transition)," McCaffrey said.

Sheikhs who lead the groups used the day’s ceremonies to make demands from their ostensible overseers, but they were vague about their new relationship with the Americans.

Hussein, one of the leading sheikhs in the area, said it would be up to the U.S. to determine its new relationship with the "Sons of Iraq."

Asked whether he’d go to the Iraqis or the Americans for help, Hussein demurred.

"It doesn’t matter," he said. "We don’t have to cut our relationships with friendly sides."