http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=18162snip..
U.S. troops face roughly 15 attacks in Iraq every day.
“Fifty percent of those attacks were conducted at a long range,” Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top ground commander in Iraq, told reporters on Sept. 4. In those attacks, he said, “the enemy has made a decision to stay away and not engage us other than with improvised explosives that are being remotely controlled, or with mortars where they can escape readily.” The rest of the attacks, like the one that took Hebert’s life, “are being conducted with a combination of small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and improvised explosives,” Sanchez said. “Seven
a day occur where we can engage the enemy and kill them in a near battle, and they last about a minute to two minutes,” said Sanchez. “Now tell me that I have a strategic or an operational or a tactical problem here in this country when I have got 160,000 troops on the ground. Absolutely not. There is no risk at any of those levels.” For the individual soldiers on the ground, however, the risk is very real. More troops have been killed or wounded since the U.S. invasion of Iraq began than in any U.S. conflict since Vietnam.
The fear factor
With attacks coming as swiftly as they do randomly, fear can be a constant companion for many soldiers. But that fear, say some, can give them an edge. “Every possible moment, you don’t know what’s out there,” said Sgt. Jason Sauder, an artilleryman in northern Iraq. “We’ve learned to expect the enemy to hit us first. So how quickly you react is going to help determine your survival rate.” For a long time, Sauder said, he had a “Superman complex.” “I didn’t believe I could get it. I guess it comes from our training, and knowing the odds are in my favor.” But when his buddy got killed, “that kind of burst my bubble.” Still, the fear is real. Sauder, who is getting ready to head back to the States, says he won’t ride in the lead Humvee in convoys anymore. “It’s the one that tends to get hit in an ambush and I’m too short,” he said, referring to his time left in Iraq.
“You can’t see the bad guys coming,” he said. “It’s scary, especially when you hear about guys getting shot in the back of the head while getting a soda or guarding a hospital.” Army psychologist Capt. Marc Houck, who heads a Combat Stress Control Team with 4th Infantry Division in Tikrit, added that attacks from anywhere can add to soldiers’ worries. “There is no front line here — you walk out the gate and you’re in the front lines. Even inside the gates, we’re getting mortared every day.”
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