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- FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) -- Under fire and
unwanted by Iraqis, soldiers in the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division in the volatile
town of Falluja were bitterly disappointed on Tuesday by a decision to
keep them in Iraq indefinitely.
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- "It's a big shock," said Sergeant Josh
Holt of Montgomery, Alabama.
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- Facing mounting threats in Iraq, the U.S. military
said on Monday thousands of soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanised)
would stay in the country despite previous plans to bring them home in
July and August.
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- The division was the first American unit to enter
Baghdad during the war and has been in the Gulf since September. Thirty-
seven soldiers from the division have been killed in the war and its aftermath.
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- U.S. troops have come under fire from loyalists
of toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, armed gangs and those hoping to
avenge relatives killed by U.S. troops.
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- After hearing they would head home several times,
3rd Infantry soldiers were stunned by news that the gritty streets of Falluja
would continue to be home for the foreseeable future.
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- "We were told three times we would be going
home in a couple of months. It is not a good time to announce this. We
are demotivated," said Sergeant Chris Grisham, a military intelligence
officer.
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- "It has been tough. I have had to take a seven-year-old
child home whose father we killed in an exchange of fire. The family just
cried. They just cried. I am sure they will try to get revenge. That is
the way it works in Iraq."
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- The commander of the 3rd Infantry division, Major-General
Buford Blount, said U.S. troops, including himself, were ready to go home
but needed to remain committed to their task.
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- "These soldiers have been here about 10 months
after training hard in the desert for six months. They are doing hard work,"
he told Reuters Television.
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- "They are doing a good job here. Morale is
good. We are trying to get them out of here. But they have to stay focused
on the mission."
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- The 3rd Infantry shoulders a heavy burden in efforts
to stabilise Iraq, controlling restive towns like Falluja, where anti-American
sentiment is simmering and U.S. troops are attacked nearly every day.
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- U.S. soldiers are training Iraqi police to eventually
take over Falluja. Policemen have demonstrated against the U.S. presence
and want the Americans to leave now. But the plan will take time.
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- "The decision (to stay) is causing a lot of
marriage problems. I am trying to be positive, thinking I will get out
of here in one piece," said Private Christian Maldonado.
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- Soldiers in the 3rd Infantry were just as disconsolate
in the nearby town of Habbaniyah.
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- "I felt probably a level of hopelessness that
I never felt before in my life. It just felt like the knockout punch,"
said Sergeant Eric Wright.
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- Iraqis Angry
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- American soldiers were not the only ones angered
by the decision to keep them in Iraq. Local Iraqis are also eager for them
to depart.
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- "We boil inside when we see these American
soldiers drive by. There is no security here. If they stay we will fight
them with our weapons," said Ahmed Abdel Razak, puffing on a water
pipe in a crowded market.
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- A man stopped his car to happily tell him that
he had heard a U.S. tank had been attacked.
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- American troops in Falluja sometimes pause from
their patrols to try to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis. But the public
relations gestures often turn into verbal wars of attrition over electricity
and water supply problems.
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- Standing in the blistering heat as Iraqis listed
their complaints, an American soldier brushed from his uniform the powdery
white residue of sweat.
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- His comrades nervously clutched M-4 semi-automatic
rifles, securing the perimeter of a sidewalk crowded with Iraqis who didn't
buy the argument that postwar rebuilding takes time.
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- "I am hoping that as long as I can get my
mail and make some calls home, I can survive," said Private Torrence
Gilliam, from Spartanburg, South Carolina.
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