"WE'RE SITTING DUCKS HERE, PRETTY MUCH"

The dangers of guarding "fixed points", and what GEN Abizaid plans to do about it.

BAGHDAD -- A bomb, tossed at mid-day from a passing car, exploded in the dirt outside a branch of the al-Rasheed Bank last Wednesday, killing a young Iraqi boy and shattering the leg of a U.S. soldier on guard duty at the bank.

The wounded soldier, Spec. Adam Zaremba, comes from a unit of soldiers trained to fire howitzers. But for several weeks they have been essentially bank security guards, like many U.S. troops who are standing guard outside hundreds of hospitals, power plants, shopping malls and other civilian sites across Iraq.

Manning a .50-caliber machine gun atop an armored personnel carrier still pock-marked from the bombing, Pfc. Thomas Poorbaugh kept an eye on passing traffic and summed up the job: "We're sitting ducks here, pretty much," he said.

Of the 39 U.S. soldiers killed in attacks in Iraq since May 1, at least seven were on guard duty at "fixed sites," and at least three more were directing traffic or manning check-points. Military commanders and soldiers on the ground say that those duties have been unavoidable given the looting and insecurity of post-war Iraq.

But now top U.S. commanders, including Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, chief of the U.S. Central Command, want to give those jobs back to Iraqis, freeing U.S. soldiers for different operations and getting them off a duty that has left them especially exposed and vulnerable...

Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, said this week that more than 8,700 Iraqis already have been trained and are working in a new Facilities Protective Services, which is providing guards for key civilian sites.

Glad to hear that. Now, lets train 8,700 more, ASAP.