Hundreds Line Up to Join New Iraqi Army

They all came Monday -- the young, the old, Sunni and Shiite, the Yankee-go-home bunch and the thank-goodness-for-America crowd too -- each of them wanting to be a soldier in the new Iraqi army.

Under a blazing sky at the site where Saddam Hussein wanted to build the world’s biggest mosque, hundreds of Iraqi men stood in line for hours awaiting their chance to fill out a 19-page application to serve in the first 1,000-man battalion -- and earn a steady paycheck.

The U.S.-led occupation authority and the country’s new governing council intend the Iraqi Corps to be a downsized army of about 40,000, free of political influence, that would be responsible for the country’s defenses against external enemies and for securing its borders.

It would replace the old Iraqi army, which was abolished May 23 by L. Paul Bremer III, the chief U.S. civil administrator.

So far it looks like a buyers’ market for the recruiters. In the three days since recruitment began, thousands of men have jammed enlistment centers in Baghdad, Mosul and Basra. In Baghdad, some came as early as 5 a.m. Monday -- three hours before the first applications of the day were handed out. By 11 a.m., when the handing out of forms ended for the day, 500 men still stood in a block-long line, and many said they would be back today.

The forms, written in English and Arabic, ask for a detailed array of personal information, including the volunteer’s possible affiliations and loyalty to the old regime. After the forms are filled in, the would-be enlistees are invited back in the afternoon for interviews.

Unlike in Afghanistan, where the formation of a U.S.-trained national army has been bogged down by the unwillingness of some tribal chieftains and warlords to send recruits, in Iraq there seems to be no lack of enthusiasm. Even Iraqis who said they oppose a prolonged U.S. presence in their country stood in line.

The volunteers had a wide range of experiences and political attitudes. Some had been fighting in the former Iraqi army up until the last day of the war. Others had been political prisoners under Hussein and had been banned from serving in the old army.

Their common denominator was their desire for a steady salary in a country with massive unemployment, and a wish to serve. Those in line dismissed the sloganeering of anti-U.S. groups who accuse anyone collaborating with the Americans of being a traitor.

“We don’t know who are those people who say that. They are outlaws. They just want to make problems,” said Abdul Wahed Mohsen, a would-be recruit who was rejected because of his age, 53.

Mohsen said he favored the U.S. Army staying in Iraq. “Thanks to them the security is good. Without them, people would be killing each other.”

Enlistees must be from 18 to 40 and in fit condition. They must have no criminal history. They are obliged to serve at least two years after receiving training. No high-ranking members of the former ruling Baath Party, or anyone ranked colonel or above in the old Iraqi army, need apply.

Mohsen insisted he should be taken by the recruiters as a matter of justice, in spite of his age. An ex-pilot, he said he was pushed out of the Iraqi air force in 1979 because his father had been executed by the regime for an alleged political plot.

“I was kicked out when I was a young man, so I want to contribute now, at least for my self- respect,” Mohsen said. “I want back my rights.”

Another man, Hussein Enad, 36, had more practical concerns.

“I am coming back for the money of course,” he said. “There are no other jobs, and I don’t know how I will feed my family.”

Since he lost his army pay three months ago, Enad has been supporting his wife and four children by peddling cigarettes and selling off part of their monthly food rations.

What to do with former soldiers has been a difficult question for Bremer. Occupation officials originally contended that the 400,000-member Iraqi army essentially dissolved itself in the last days of the war and that there was no obligation for the U.S.-led coalition to support the troops. But after a string of sometimes violent protests by the idled military personnel, Bremer agreed to small stipends.

Although he was in the old army, Enad said it was for patriotic reasons, not because he was an admirer of Hussein.

“Hussein is a traitor because he gave up the country without a fight,” Enad said. As to how he would feel serving initially under U.S. command, he answered, “I will serve my country, not the Americans.”

Soldiers in the new force have been promised basic monthly salaries of at least $60, regular meals, health care and the chance for promotion based on merit. That compares favorably to Hussein’s time, when recruits got as little as $4 a month.

Enad, who came to the recruitment center with a group of friends who also had been noncommissioned officers, craned his neck impatiently to look about 25 yards ahead to the front of the line, where four U.S. soldiers in helmets, body armor and desert camouflage kept the throng from degenerating into a mob. On the other side of a fence, a U.S. soldier perched on an armored vehicle surveyed the scene lazily.

The mad rush for the limited number of places came on a day when U.S. forces in Baghdad were once again attacked.

Insurgents killed a soldier from the 1st Armored Division and an Iraqi interpreter, and wounded three other soldiers with an explosive device that blew up under their vehicle in northern Baghdad, U.S. Central Command said. The attack was accompanied by small-arms fire, officials said.

The death brought the number of American troops killed in action since the war began on March 20 to 152.

In another development Monday, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside a U.S. military detention facility in Baghdad to protest the arrests of five Shiite religious leaders, chanting, “No for America! No for Saddam! Yes, yes for Islam!”

Clerics leading the protest said they would maintain a presence until the captive Hawza leaders are freed. Hawza is an extensive seminary and charitable organization based in the holy city of Najaf. The leaders were arrested by U.S. troops who surrounded the home of Shiite leader Muqtader Sadr, son of Mohammed Sadeq Sadr, the most prominent Iraqi Shiite religious leader in recent history, who was assassinated by the Hussein regime in 1999. The rally reached its peak when a protester, who reportedly brandished a pistol within 100 yards of heavily armed soldiers, was quickly spirited away by other demonstrators.

To help counter attacks on U.S. forces, which the new head of Central Command, Gen. John Abizaid, recently described as guerrilla warfare, officials have announced plans to create an Iraqi civil defense force -- separate from the new army -- that would be directly involved with U.S. troops in intelligence gathering and tracking down holdout Baathist elements.

In addition to the army, the recently revitalized Iraqi police and the proposed civil defense militia, some U.S. advisors foresee a need for a force that would safeguard basic services and public property, such as power lines and oil refineries, from saboteurs. That would free up U.S. and British troops who are now thinly stretched.

--- UNPUBLISHED NOTE ---

In stories after April 9, 2004, Shiite cleric Muqtader Sadr is correctly referred to as Muqtada Sadr.

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