Gates Meets With Troops Over Breakfast in Baghdad, Asks Their Advice

Dec. 21, 2006
By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service

BAGHDAD – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is here to ask tough questions of generals, diplomats and Iraqi leaders. But this morning, he asked some of the same questions to a different group of the people putting their lives on the line every day here: junior enlisted soldiers and Army noncommissioned officers.

“What advice do you have for me on this, my fourth day on the job?” Gates asked about 15 soldiers of the 1st Infantry, 1st Cavalry and 10th Mountain divisions, with whom he had breakfast this morning.

He also asked them if they thought more troops would help the situation. Nearly all the soldiers agreed more troops would help, and none said they did not think it was a good idea.

“Sir, I think we need to just keep doing what we’re doing,” said Army Spc. Jason Glenn, of Company C, 101st Military Intelligence Battalion, part of the 1st Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team.

Glenn added that he thinks more troops would help the situation here.

“With more presence on the ground, more troops might hold (the insurgents) off long enough to where we could get the Iraqi army trained up,” Glenn said.

Army Pfc. Cassandra Wallace, of the 210th Brigade Support Battalion, 10th Mountain Division, agreed. “More troops would help us integrate the Iraqi army into patrols more,” she told Gates.

Army Sgt. Christopher Coulter, of Troop E, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, told Gates he doesn’t believe the Iraqi army is ready to take responsibility for the country, “but they’re getting a lot better.”

Coulter also said he believes “there needs to be a lot more of them,” because many don’t come to work.

U.S. officials have acknowledged this is a problem within the Iraqi army. Most of the soldiers aren’t deserting, but inadequate banking services in Iraq force them to physically take their pay home to their families. During a Pentagon roundtable with reporters earlier this week, officials said this problem often removes about 30 percent of Iraqi troops from the force at any given time.

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