In Iraqi Villages, Troops See Strides and a Big Challenge

MUSTAFAR, Iraq -- The smell of baking bread wafted over the dusty central square as children clamored to get closer to the U.S. troops and their hulking armored vehicles. Lt. John Sirhal tried fruitlessly to keep order among a group of boys waiting for M&Ms, while Capt. Adam Sawyer calmly walked up to businessmen hawking their wares.

Samir Hassan, a 53-year-old shopkeeper, said he was happy with the U.S. forces who have maintained peace around his home. But the Iraqi police who have set up a checkpoint at the entrance to Mustafar have made the residents uneasy, he said, as have the Shiite militias that operate just miles away.

"We feel safe here," Hassan said, waving his arm at the throngs of people in the streets on a recent day. "But now we can't go to Baghdad. We need to have security in Iraq. The government has no control, and I don't trust the Iraqi forces."

It is in small villages like these that U.S. soldiers say they are making their biggest strides but also face their biggest challenges. Commanders in Iraq say they can win any battle against armed insurgents and conduct any military operation successfully, but persuading Iraqis to believe in Iraq could end up being the most difficult battle in this war.

There are places in Iraq where U.S. troops are greeted with suspicion. And there are others where they confront grave danger. More than 90 American servicemen have been killed in hostile action across Iraq this month.

But in some of the small towns that ring the southern edge of Baghdad, the situation is quite different. For many residents, the daily dose of roadside bombs and gunshots that plague the capital is glimpsed only on television. Here, U.S. forces work to provide more electricity, to ensure water supplies are clean and to fix roads. The locals appear to appreciate it, but they also appear to genuinely fear what could happen if U.S. forces leave.

Lt. Col. Mark Suich, commander of the 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment, is on the leading edge of the campaign to win over a swath of land south of Baghdad that includes Mustafar. He said the key to success in Iraq is to hand over control to the Iraqis, but that doing so could take time.

"Ultimately, they need to see the government functioning, especially in the area of security," said Suich, 42, of Greenville, Pa. "It's a long process to make people change their minds. It's stuff you can't do overnight."

In Mustafar, residents are just beginning to trust the Iraqi police, a ragtag group that periodically makes the short trek from its checkpoint into town to buy lunch or gifts. So far, no one has tried to sneak weapons past the checkpoint, and there has been no violence in the village for weeks.

It has also been peaceful in nearby Abu Hillan, a tiny collection of houses of Sunni Arabs along a strip of dirt road. Residents there recently teamed with a neighboring town and with U.S. soldiers to tap into an electrical substation, boosting their daily availability of electricity from about two hours to more than 20.

"We're happier now," said Othman Ibrahim, 23, a fireplug of a farmer with coarse hands and soft eyes. "We like the U.S. soldiers because they came in and made things better. But we don't trust the Iraqi army, and while there are still militias, we're never going to trust them."

Ibrahim also has difficulty trusting the government. Though he likes the idea of democracy, he said, he isn't sure what difference it has made or will make.