Word: raouf
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...radio slung from his body armor and clicks the hand mike. "Colonel, is everybody going to Gator Base?" A voice crackles back: "Yes." It's a routine exchange, save for one thing: the voice of Johnson's convoy commander belongs not to an American but to Colonel Mohammed Faiq Raouf, a former officer in Saddam Hussein's army who shot down a U.S. jet during the first Gulf War. Johnson and his small team of U.S. soldiers are serving under Raouf's command. Having received his direction, Johnson radios back to Raouf. "I'm ready, Colonel," he says...
...Iraqi soldiers live in a strip of two-story concrete barracks. Johnson and his men sleep in a separate part of the compound where they keep an independent operations room, but spend the rest of their time living and working side by side with the Iraqis, helping Raouf with logistics and communications and making sure the Iraqis' operations are coordinated with U.S. forces. All the G.I.s in Johnson's team of advisers volunteered for the job. "It's something different," says a U.S. sergeant. "And unlike the guys back in my unit doing their thing, I can actually...
...lives of the advisers bear similarities to those of Green Berets. While conventional units cannot leave U.S. bases with fewer than three armored humvees, Johnson's team heads out in only two vehicles for nighttime missions accompanying pickups filled with Raouf's soldiers. The Americans are passengers, with the Iraqi officer selecting the route and determining when it's time to return to base. Raouf says his U.S. advisers are the "same as my family. But I'm the father," a description Johnson doesn't dispute...
...division of labor is evident as the troops head out on a foot patrol through Haifa Street. Raouf's men fan out in patrol formation while the colonel and his bodyguards move through the middle. Raouf, in dark wraparound sunglasses, a pistol strapped to his thigh and a snubby machine gun dangling from his waist, waves at men sipping tea at sidewalk cafés and barks orders to soldiers as they scan the alleyways and rooftops for snipers. Johnson hangs back, surveying the street and occasionally radioing the humvees behind him. When Raouf stops to talk to a crying woman...
...trainers hope that by turning over decision making to Iraqi officers, they will groom leaders who can hold units together and prevent desertion, a chronic malady of the new Iraqi forces. Judging from the progress made by Raouf's battalion toward pacifying Haifa Street, the strategy is bearing fruit. Since Feb. 15, when Iraqi forces took over responsibility for the area, attacks have dwindled to nothing. That is partly because of the aggressive tactics of Raouf's men. But the biggest contributor to peace in the area appears to be the shrinking presence of U.S. troops. According to sources...