Operation Iraqi Freedom Force Rotation Plan

Federal News Service January 28, 2004 Wednesday

HEADLINE: HEARING OF THE HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE

SUBJECT: OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM FORCE ROTATION PLAN

ACTING CHAIR: REPRESENTATIVE JIM SAXTON (R-NJ)

LOCATION: 2118 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.

WITNESSES: GENERAL PETER SCHOOMAKER, ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF; GENERAL MICHAEL HAGEE, MARINE CORPS COMMANDANT; LT. GENERAL NORTON SCHWARTZ, DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS, JOINT STAFF; LT. GENERAL JAMES CARTWRIGHT, DIRECTOR FOR FORCE STRUCTURE, RESOURCES AND ASSESSMENT, JOINT STAFF

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REP. RICK LARSEN (D-WA): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And, gentlemen, thank you for your patience today. Thank you for your service as well to the country. I've got a lot of questions to ask. I want to be sure that we're exercising our appropriate oversight role in getting things answered.

The first question is for General Schwartz, and this goes back about two hours ago when you were commenting in regards to the Washington State National Guard, who are now in California right now training and getting ready to head out. Did you say that the 81st would be one of those brigades that will be there longer than 12 months?

GEN. SCHWARTZ: No. It is succeeding units, and therefore the contract is up to 12 months boots on the ground for the 81st.

REP. LARSEN: Okay. They'll be happy to hear that. Thanks, I appreciate that.

The second set of questions is for General Hagee and General Schoomaker, and this has to do with the troop rotation, obviously, but the focus is less on our troops and more on Iraqi security forces. One of the assumptions about being able to move from having 130,000 or so U.S. troops on the ground to 105,000 U.S. troops on the ground is having an increased Iraqi security capability. I don't want to simplify this too much, but we're decreasing the U.S. presence by about 25,000 through this troop rotation, and the Iraqi security footprint will be about-right now-in October it was 115,000. It's probably higher than that now. It's certainly higher than that now-not sure of the exact number. But it seems to me that if we're-what kind of confidence can we have in the capability of the Iraqi security forces, made up of police and civil defense and facility protection, and the very few numbers in the Army, where it takes 115,000-plus Iraqi security forces to compensate for a drop in 25,000 U.S. security forces? The question I have directly for you, General Hagee, and General Schoomaker, is your assessment of the capability of the Iraqi security forces, especially in face of a seemingly increasingly sophisticated and stubborn insurgency? Can you provide some comment on that, and provide some comment with regards to your planning on troop rotation-this troop rotation-and any thinking that you have about it in the future?

GEN. HAGEE: Sir, this is probably really outside of our lane. This is something that General Abizaid, who is the combatant commander over there, and General Sanchez, soon to be General Metz (ph), are working on a day-to-day basis, and providing us information back. So really that question needs to go to them, sir.

REP. LARSEN: General Schoomaker?

GEN. SCHOOMAKER: Well, I agree it's outside of our lane. But we've had visibility of what the plan is and the progress there, and I think there's been substantial progress. You know, what we're trying to do is stand up a sovereign nation. And if you talk to General Abizaid about his concept of going from local control to regional control to more of a strategic oversight, I think he's well on track for that plan. And I don't think you can make a one-to-one relationship. I think it is complex, standing a nation up, and dealing with all the complexities they've got there across all the kinds of demographics and configurations they've got.

But it appears to us, from the briefings that we've received, that we're making significant progress, and I think that we're on track to well over 200,000, is what I recall.

REP. LARSEN: But those are numbers, and I'm talking capabilities. And the concern that I am expressing has to do with the fact that it takes 200,000 -- I think 212- is the total number across the civil defense force and the military and the facilities protection and police. But it will take 200,000 then to replace the 25,000 fewer U.S. troops that we'll have in terms of capabilities. I'm trying to get a feeling of our confidence in the capabilities of the Iraqi security force, because even in November, when this troop rotation was originally planned, it was still conditioned based upon the ability-not just to throw Iraqi bodies into --

GEN. SCHOOMAKER: Right, their capability --

REP. LARSEN: -- security, but to have the capability for Iraqi security, a capability within the Iraqi security.

GEN. SCHOOMAKER: Their capability is nascent and increasingly becoming better, and they bring many attributes that in the long run will be very, very beneficial-certainly because they speak the language, they're local, they understand all of the things there. And I'm encouraged by the fact that we're making the progress we are.

I think it's very, very difficult and incorrect to compare on a one-to-one basis the finest military in the world against --

REP. LARSEN: I think-I'm-Mr. Chairman, if you'll just indulge me-I am absolutely on board with that. There is just no way that we can make a one-to-one relationship between one of our military and one of their security.

The issue I have is that we see an increasingly sophisticated insurgency, and their work continues, and they're targeting Iraqis as much as they're targeting us. And if we're trying to eventually work our way towards Iraqi civilian government, and then work our way out of there at some point, we need to be sure that Iraqi security can fill that gap, so that we don't have a bigger problem later on.

GEN. SCHOOMAKER: There's no argument from me on --

REP. SAXTON: We're going to have to move on --

REP. LARSEN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate that.