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What We Leave Behind
After nearly nine years of war in Iraq, moving out isa bigger job than you might think.
BY DAVID AXE | DECEMBER 16, 2011http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/12/15/what_we_leave_behind
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U.S. Marines loweredthe American flag at Baghdadairport today, bringing the Iraq war to an official end. The conflict, whichclaimed 4,484American lives and thoseof at least 100,000 Iraqis, may have ended with an understated ceremony -- butthe process of leaving Mesopotamia was anything but quiet.
The U.S. exit in Iraq was made possible by one ofthe largest, most sophisticated logistical campaigns in world history. Shuttingdown hundreds of bases, packing up millions of pieces of equipment, and turningaround the cargo ships, transport planes, and truck convoys represented a"monumental task," according to Army Brig. Gen. Bradley Becker, who oversawthe final months of the drawdown.
To understand the scope of the U.S. drawdown overthe past two and a half years, it helps to look back at the enormous footprintthat the United States built over more than eight years of war. In the fourmonths of build-up thatpreceded the March 2003 invasion, U.S. Transportation Command -- the Pentagon'sin-house logistics and shipping service -- delivered just over 1 million tonsof cargo and 258,000 passengers, using 3,900 round-trips by airplanes and 150by ships. Counting pilots, ship's crews, cargo handlers, bookkeepers, warehouseworkers, and other professionals, the pre-war supply push employed 150,000soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and civilian contractors.
By contrast, United Parcel Service (UPS), theworld's largest express shipping company with roughly 425,000 employees, in atypical four-month period delivers around 5 million tons of cargo to the entire world. In other words,Transportation Command hauled to just one country roughly a fifth of what UPSdelivers to more than 220 countries, combined.
This massive U.S. presence only grew during thewar's peak in 2007 and 2008, when the armed services maintained some 505 basesin Iraq, housing 165,000 troops and hundreds of thousands of weapons andvehicles. The occupation force was fed, fueled, and supplied by tens ofthousands of military and contract logisticians in a round-the-clock effortthat cost, on average, $307 billion a year.
This effort was not only expensive, it wasdangerous. As the invasion transformed into an occupation, U.S. Army truckersassumed the major burden of hauling supplies between ports in Kuwait and thefront-line bases in Iraq. It was dull and dirty work, as Iraqi insurgentsquickly learned to target U.S. forces where they were most vulnerable: theirsupply lines.
In January 2005, I rode along with troopers from theSouth Carolina Army National Guard's 1052nd Transportation Company as theyconvoyed back and forth across north-central Iraq in tan-painted big rigs. Onnearly every mission, they came across roadside bombs as they passed nearinsurgent strongholds such as Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit and theShiite bastion of Najaf. If they spotted the bombs in time, Explosive OrdnanceDisposal teams would swoop in to disable them. But the guardsmen weren't alwaysso lucky: On Oct. 27, 2004, the 1052nd's Sgt. Jerome Lemon was decapitated by a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle. Lemonwas just one of hundreds of military logisticians to die in eight years of war.
The truck drivers' efforts helped establishsprawling bases such as Logistics Support Area Anaconda, just outside the cityof Balad. Anaconda's perimeter stretched 12 miles. At its peak, the base was hometo more than 36,000 troops and contractors.
Becker's team was essentially charged withreversing this massive and expensive buildup. The dismantling of the U.S.occupation was, fortunately, far less deadly than the build-up. A combined 114Americans died in Iraqi in 2010 and 2011, compared to an average of 703 per yearbetween 2003 and2009.
One by one, the United States emptied out its 505bases and turned them over to the Iraqi government. In late November, Beckerreported that just 317,000 pieces of equipment remained -- enough for 1,700truckloads. Some equipment was transferred to the Iraqi military, includinghundreds of armored vehicles the Army had bought specifically for the Iraq war.The rest backtracked along the same routes that had brought it to Iraq in thefirst place: First by road to an airbase for a flight back to the UnitedStates, or to Kuwait to be shipped by sea.
Iraq's army could make use of many of the vacatedfacilities, but it's equally possible many of them will simply fall apart. U.S.soldiers have said that Iraqi troops routinely pillage former U.S. bases assoon as they're handed over, stripping them of copper wiring and other valuablematerials.
The Dec. 1 shutdown of the AirForce's Sather Air Base in Baghdad marked the transfer of the final U.S. base -- although this one is going to the State Department rather than the Iraqi government. Airmenpacked up everything, including the shelving and packing material that had onceheld incoming supplies. "There are literally going to be guys who areworking to secure the airfield right up until the moment they run to the planeand take off," said Air Force Col. Michael Gaal, secondin command at the base.
And then, of course, there's the departure of thesoldiers themselves. U.S. troop levels in Iraq have been steadily decreasingsince President Barack Obama announced the withdrawal plan in February 2009, from 146,000 to the 4,000 remaining soldiers today. All but ahandful of those are scheduled to depart the country by Dec. 31.
Sather Air Base is one of the fewfacilities that will remain in American hands, albeit those of the U.S. StateDepartment. For while the U.S. military is departing Iraq, the diplomats arestaying. Sixteen thousand people, including 5,000 contract security guards, staff the U.S. embassy in Baghdad plusseveral smaller diplomatic facilities. The State Department plansto spend more than$6 billion in Iraq in Iraq next year -- much less than the Pentagon's $50billion expenditure this year, but not peanuts either. The embassy in Baghdadis one of the largest, most lavish, and most heavily defended in the world.
The State Department's staff willinclude 150 military advisors, who are tasked with overseeing arms sales toBaghdad. Further proof that even after all the equipment and bases are gone,America's wars never truly end.
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发表于 2011-12-18 03:27
