How to train for an enemy troops can’t discern?

Soldiers and Marines are drilled constantly on the rules after they come to Iraq, and most face situations every day where they have to make a decision to shoot.

In Ramadi, insurgent attacks are often preceded by unarmed men staking out coalition positions, walking by them or watching from a distance. U.S. troops must wait until they are sure of “hostile intent” — typically when a man is brandishing a weapon or planting a bomb.

Sometimes suspected insurgents will pop their heads around corners to get a glimpse of U.S. forces, a tactic Marines call “turkey peeking” that often prefaces a burst of insurgent gunfire.

No substitute for experience
Maj. Fred Wintrich, executive officer of the 502nd Infantry Regiment, said exercises and training prepare soldiers for Iraq as much as anything can, but there is no substitute for experience in a combat zone.

“Everywhere from Samarra to Mosul is a combat zone,” Wintrich said. “There’s nothing saying we won’t have to make a life or death decision walking to the laundry.”

The killings in Haditha on Nov. 19 came after a Marine died from a roadside bomb aimed at a convoy of a unit that was on its third tour in Iraq. U.S. lawmakers say military investigators have said evidence points toward unprovoked murders by Marines angered by the death.

Multiple tours, or what some call a “revolving door” deployment policy, can take a psychological toll on soldiers, experts say.

“Repeated deployments have a cumulative effect on people’s ability to maintain moral judgment, tactical standards,” said Howard Prince, a retired Army general who is director of the Center for Ethical Leadership at the University of Texas at Austin.

Links to an earlier war
Some historians have compared the Haditha killings to the massacre in My Lai, a hamlet in Vietnam where American soldiers killed hundreds of innocent civilians during a sweep for communist guerrillas in 1968.

U.S. commanders insist there is no comparison. But they have ordered all American troops in Iraq to undergo ethics and values training in the aftermath of Haditha.

Staff Sgt. Mike Dover has been both to Fort Irwin and Fort Polk for training. While he feels the constant drilling on rules of war has made him a better soldier, even exercises that deal with ethics or overcoming combat stress fail to mimic the reality of war.

Dover, 42, of Charlotte, N.C., won’t judge what happened in Haditha. He was close to a roadside bombing in Mahmoudiyah, a town south of Baghdad, and has lost friends, too.

Human emotion sometimes is too strong and takes over, he said.

“It’s human nature to try and take revenge on somebody that’s trying to kill you,” Dover said. “It’s really hard not to want to indiscriminately fire back.”

MORE FROM MIDEAST & N. AFRICA

Mideast & N. Africa Section Front

Carter defends handling of Iran hostage crisis U.N.: Iran nuclear facility to start in 2011 Saudi cleric accuses Iran of ties to Yemeni rebels Bingo’s comeback erases divisions in Baghdad Mideast & N. Africa Section Front   Add Mideast & N. Africa headlines to your news reader: