Many of them are now supporting America by helping to curtail the presence of al-Qaida in Iraq and other insurgents.
The combination of a troop surge and sending U.S. soldiers to live among Iraqis, a program developed by Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, has helped.
 Sheik Abudalla Mohammed Husson, left, shakes hands goodbye with an unidentified translator during a Saturday meeting between area tribal leaders and U.S. officials. (Suzanne Cronn-Herald/Review) |
When Charlie Company commander Capt. Ryan Barnett arrived at this small complex surrounded by Iraqi farms, he saw a need to coordinate the Concerned Local Citizens, a group of Iraqis who were reaching out to the United States.
The commander of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Combat Brigade Team, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) from Fort Campbell, Ky., company wanted to organize the Concerned Local Citizens into a better auxiliary for security in the area for which he and his soldiers are responsible. The region is slightly more than 30 square miles.
The company now has 1,800 auxiliary guards situated at more than 40 sites, Barnett said. The citizens were vetted before becoming guards, including being checked on terrorist wanted lists and be vouched for by a sheik.
The checkpoints are manned 24 hours a day, every day, and each guard is paid $10 a day, or $300 a month, which is slightly less than an Iraqi Army recruit receives.
The company’s soldiers help build guard shacks and put up protective barriers.
Each of the auxiliary guards must wear “orange road guard vests,” and soon will be wearing brown shirts instead of blue ones, so they are not confused with the Iraqi police, Barnett said.
It is part of trying to gainfully employ Iraqis, much like re-establishing the region’s chicken industry, which Barnett has proposed.
The Concerned Local Citizens program will eventually be disbanded as the Iraqi government takes control, Barnett said.
That will leave the current auxiliary guards unemployed. Hopefully, the captain said, the chicken idea will work out and many of them will find a job in that industry.
But don’t think Barnett will be out of ideas to find work for Iraqis.
The area was once a major aguaculture region — it had fish farms where carp were raised — that he hopes to revitalize. And then there is the possibility of a crop association to help growers of dates, potatoes, melons, corn and a number of other edibles come together to sell their products.
HERALD/REVIEW senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615.
