Phil Taylor's papers
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BACK TO : 'NATION BUILDING' & CIVIL-MILITARY AFFAIRS (including CIMIC)
Army's civil-affairs units stretched thin by R Scarborough The Washington Times 
Army's civil-affairs units stretched thin By Rowan Scarborough THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published January 15, 2004 The ongoing rotation of new ground forces into Iraq this year will leave the military with fewer civil-affairs soldiers the personnel who fix schools, buy textbooks, provide electric generators and build housing. Most civil-affairs soldiers are members of the Army Reserve. Planners are finding there are not sufficient numbers left in reserve to replace the ones going off active duty after one-year stints in Afghanistan and Iraq. Brig. Gen. David N. Blackledge, chief of the 352nd Civil Affairs Command, told reporters yesterday in Baghdad that "unfortunately" more than 80 percent of all civil-affairs forces have been activated for those two countries since the war on terrorism began after the September 11 attacks. "We´re running out of civil-affairs experts," Gen. Blackledge said. The shortage means this: When the current 1,600 civil-affairs soldiers leave Iraq, they will be replaced by 70 percent of that force, or 1,120 troops. Gen. Blackledge said that while all regions of Iraq will still be covered by his troops, some communities that now have civil-affairs troops will no longer host them. "There´s been a high demand for civil-affairs experts and many of the folks that will be coming here for this next rotation will have already spent a year in Afghanistan," he said. "But what you can be assured is that a particular civil-affairs team may not be replaced in a particular location, but that area will be covered by civil-affairs forces that will be coming in and be responsible for that area." In the war on terrorism, where winning the hearts and minds of the citizenry is crucial, Army civil-affairs forces have taken on added importance. After the fighting subsides, these experts go into communities to work with local leaders to improve the infrastructure and civil functions. While it is the job of the Army Corps of Engineers to do big projects, such as electrical grids, the civil-affairs units focus on programs close to the community, such as repairing schoolhouses, restoring drinking water and building shelters for the homeless. Yet, most of these experts reside in the reserve force because their special skills, such as engineering, the practice of law and teaching, are not required in large numbers in peacetime. Now that the country is in a long war, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld may change that approach. He is looking at reshuffling the reserve-vs.-active-duty mix. Some specialties, such as military police and civil affairs, may be converted into active-duty units. Gen. Blackledge´s troops have done most of their work in Iraq through the Commander´s Emergency Response Program (CERP). While the Coalition Provisional Authority has a new reconstruction fund of $18.7 billion, CERP works with a much smaller pot, $29 million to date. The general listed some of his troops´ successes: Nearly 6 million students now attend school, aided by 51 million new textbooks free of Saddam Hussein propaganda. Nearly 100,000 Iraqis have applied to college via the Ministry of Education, compared with 63,000 last year. In northern Iraq, soldiers built a village called Project Hope for the homeless. A brick factory in the troubled city of Fallujah was reopened, thanks to an Army-supplied electrical generator, putting 800 Iraqis back to work. The Pentagon last week kicked off a massive rotation of forces that will withdraw 130,000 ground troops from Iraq and replace them with the about the same number of soldiers and Marines by late spring. |