European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 14, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse June stars and stripes Page Iraq dust cant hide gis frustrations the idea was for residents to see iraqi forces working for the Good of the by soldiers stood alone by Teri Weaver stars and stripes Iraq it was noon in a neighbourhood in the Babil provincial capital that the army has tagged noncom and a Small group of troops stood All the iraqi the iraqi police and the Batt swat unit had All evaporated in sundays scorch ing even the scores of who just minutes before had swarmed the american troops begging for were but the Small teams feelings of vulnerability left alone in the Dusty Street paled in compari son to their frustration at being abandoned slowly throughout the morning by their iraqi counter parts during a Mission called operation Babylon instead of coaching the iraqis on interviewing suspects and collecting illegal the team watched iraqi police let Resi dents walk unimpeded through a iraqi soldiers quit their House searches after about two and an iraqi company commander take a mid morning Tea break in the the worst part of the in the american teams came just before when the troops found themselves guiding a sewage truck through the Nar Row looking for standing sewage in need of this is not our finest said 1st class Stephen of this is not what were trained to master Walter of Baldwin put it an other Ive got a new name for operation Babylon he operation spending part of the morning tailing a sewage truck was a Apt metaphor for the transition some of whom say their iraqi troops Are performing worse than when their unit arrived in late of the Days break Downs Point to the growing weak Nesses they see in training the iraqi operations like Babylon sweep have too Many components and too Many members of the team the iraqi 2nd brigade has nine and none is on a regular training the iraqi army Doest want to escort a sewage truck any More than the american team they 06371613660 Price Teri and stripes Mark of fort Center talks with an iraqi officer about where to employ a Street sweeper to help clean the at first the iraqi officer tells Nadig there Are no paved streets in the but when Nadig pulls out a map and reminds him of a few nearby the officer agrees to Send the sweeper that we need to go Back to said Kil Laurin of the Intelli gence adviser for the transition what do we want them to learn they have to be Able to do this to train and adapt so they will last five Days after we leave this but the teams Thomas says he Doest the luxury of time to execute smaller operations and constantly work on Basic training with an iraqi brigade that already has gone through several training the commander for the brigade special troops Battal 4th brigade combat team 25th infantry said he thought sundays opera Tion was a it was the first time the team had added local government such As the sewage to the mix of look ing for bad Guys and moving through neighbourhoods with humanitarian see sweep on Page 8 rate Tia Community cower and cafes saturday 10
