Mahmudiyah, Iraq – Allegations that Marines killed unarmed men, women and children in Hadithah are raising questions about whether U.S. troops are being properly train ed for a war against insurgents who walk freely among civilians.
The military has adapted its training, but troops say no one arrives in Iraq completely ready for the complexity and stress of a guerrilla war in which insurgents are loosely organized and fight with hit-and-run tactics on the streets of cities crowded with innocent bystanders.
“Nothing is going to prepare you,” said Spec. Travis Gillette, 26, an Army infantryman from Coldwater, Mich. “You can train up all you want, but you’re not going to be prepared until you get here and mingle with the culture.”
From changes in boot camp, where recruits learn the basics of fighting in Iraq, to advanced training centers that teach commanders about urban insurgencies, the U.S. military has tailored its training at home for the mission in Iraq.
Most Army soldiers spend weeks at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., or the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La., immersed in high-tech training scenarios designed to acclimate them to urban combat.
Soldiers conduct patrols in makeshift towns that look like Iraqi villages, with actors behaving as residents would during demonstrations and uprisings.
Commanders say the exercises give soldiers a base of knowledge, but they concede the real test is the war itself.
“It helps you with the foundation, but that foundation is where you start in Iraq,” said Lt. Col. Thomas Kunk, commander of the 101st Airborne Division’s 502nd Infantry Regiment.
“When they are unarmed, we can’t just shoot ’em, and they know that and use it against us,” said Marine 2nd Lt. Brian Wilson, a 24-year-old platoon commander from Columbia, S.C.
“That’s why this war is so hard. The enemy is everybody and nobody at the same time. All they have to do is put down their AK (assault rifle) on the side of the road and walk.”
Troops are drilled constantly on the rules after they come to Iraq, and most face situations every day in which they must decide whether to shoot.
In Ramadi, insurgent attacks are often preceded by unarmed men staking out coalition positions, walking by them or watching from a distance. U.S. troops must wait until they are sure of “hostile intent” – typically when a man is brandishing a weapon or planting a bomb.
Sometimes, suspected insurgents will pop their heads around corners to get a glimpse of U.S. forces, a tactic called “turkey peeking” that often precedes a burst of insurgent gunfire.
The killings in Hadithah on Nov. 19 came after a Marine died from a roadside bomb aimed at a convoy of a unit that was on its third tour in Iraq. U.S. lawmakers say military investigators have said evidence points toward unprovoked murders by Marines angered by the death.
Multiple tours can take a psychological toll on soldiers, experts say.
“Repeated deployments have a cumulative effect on people’s ability to maintain moral judgment, tactical standards,” said Howard Prince, a retired Army general who is director of the Center for Ethical Leadership at the University of Texas at Austin.
Some historians have compared the Hadithah killings to the massacre in My Lai, a hamlet in Vietnam where American soldiers killed hundreds of innocent civilians during a sweep for communist guerrillas in 1968.
U.S. commanders reject the comparison but have ordered all American troops in Iraq to undergo ethics and values training in the aftermath of Hadithah.
