U.S. Iraq prepares for exodus23: 48 15/03/2010, Martin Chulov, editorial, guardian.co.uk, Iraq, U.S. foreign policy, us, us military, us politics, wor

U.S. Iraq prepares for exodus23: 48 15/03/2010, Martin Chulov, editorial, guardian.co.uk, Iraq, U.S. foreign policy, us, us military, us politics, world affairs, Guardian Unlimited

Every night, a giant base north of Baghdad, a team that moves to make a living armies are preparing for a mission to set the time in Iraq, more than any other act that makes the invasion of seven years.

Its leader is the senior U.S. official to orchestrate military withdrawal, a man who claims to have one of the highest levels of job satisfaction in the country.

"I have the best job in Iraq right now," says Brigadier General Paul Wentz, 13 U.S. military Sustainment Command. "No doubt about it."

Whether the assessment reflects the full preceding years of occupation, or the imminent end of a war increasingly unpopular, or that his staff had prepared so well that can not fail, is open to conjecture. Either way, men and women of the 13th Sustainment Command are eager to begin the largest movement of troops and equipment anywhere in the world, from Vietnam, more than 40 years.

The order will probably do so within 60 days after being declared the general election result in Iraq recently. Vote counting is painfully slow - only about 65% of the votes had been counted more than a week after election day on March 7. But if, as the White House, Obama hopes the result is the time considered to be credible, the U.S. commander head end to the war that previously described as "silly."

As soon as Wentz receives the call of the general commanding U.S. in Iraq, Ray Odierno, a massive network of trucks, planes and ships will begin to evacuate about 45,000 troops and more than 1 m tonnes of equipment, ranging from the super-sized bulldozers, water coolers, and hundreds of different types of equipment and weapons used to fight and run the war.

The withdrawal is seen as a big pay day for the Iraqi army. Last year the U.S. government set a cap of 30 million dollars worth of equipment that commanders can leave at each facility - a 15-fold increase from the time guidelines were written five years ago.

A total of 31m will be packed and stacked products, including 43,000 military vehicles, 600 helicopters strange, 120,000 containers and 34,000 tons of ammunition. Left out is estimated to have 240,000 trucks and 119 cargo planes sent.

The withdrawal will only be 50,000 troops U.S. in Iraq on August 30, none of them in combat roles, and reduce the number of bases from 290 to fewer than 10. Even with the U.S. presence others, the withdrawal is likely to be perceived, in Iraq and elsewhere, as the final act of war.

It is a milestone Wentz is well aware of. "This will be a chapter in history and really try to make sure it is a good chapter in the story," says a prelude to the giant Balad Air Base, near where their jobs are still the coordination of movements more than 3,000 U.S. vehicles throughout Iraq each day. "Our guys are still busy and we like to feel they are making a difference. Success for us will be if we wake up in September, and nobody knows that they have gone."

That may be the reference point in Iraq where people long ago began to rant against the huge and slow convoys which used to snarl traffic, and often interminable delays at checkpoints with U.S. soldiers. UU .. But not in the U.S., another key indicator is more important - to repeat the mistakes of the final U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in 1991.

That withdrawal was marked by delays, loss of equipment and incompetence, and has since been seen as a case study in how not to do things.

"We learned a lot since then," says Wentz. "We have no stores of Indiana Jones that nobody knows what's inside.

"Many of the bad things that came out of the first Gulf War have been corrected. We've seen a lot of technology. This is very important to the American taxpayer. We must be fiscally responsible and good governance fund managers.

Although the bulk of the heavy lifting has yet to begin, tanks and military trucks known as MRAP giant already in motion, some of the pieces out of Iraq with the units that came with others and preparing for another war.

"The team will go south and most likely be reworked in Kuwait and sent to the people of Afghanistan," said Wentz.

"Some of the containers will go through the port of Aqaba in Jordan, and also the port of Umm Qasr. Every month we get rid of more and more capacity, but until now, most are components that have accumulated over of years. "

The preparation for the big move has been dubbed Operation Clean Sweep.

Most troops will fly out of Iraq to Kuwait, where it will plug into a well established network of military flight to America.

The main roads of Iraq are safer now, but the military still prefers to keep as many troops as possible away from the 10-hour south of Kuwait. The main street of the backbone of Iraq, known as Route Tampa, was built to move armies. Sealed four-lane road was built by Saddam Hussein to move his troops and equipment to Iran's front and back at home. He also gave a direct route to Kuwait.

The U.S. and British armies used the Tampa route to reach Baghdad in 2003. And U.S. convoys have continued to use ever since, despite being widely targeted by militants launched ambushes and roadside bombs detonated countless sand berms that line the roads.

Captain Jason Vivian Ordinance 80th Battalion, based in Pennsylvania, is in charge of a central courtyard on the Balad base, which will become one of the busiest centers in Iraq when to move Odierno has ruled. For him to get rolling withdrawal is the pinnacle of a career.

"This is the reason he joined the military," he says, standing between rows of cranes and heavy armor. "The rise and invasion were important, especially for a logistician, but for me is what this is about."

Iraq
U.S. Military
U.S. foreign policy
U.S. Politics
United States
Martin Chulov


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News