Army Advisers a Vital Link to Iraq Exit

172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team soldiers patrol during the sentencing court session for former leader Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2006. Iraq's High Tribunal on Sunday found Saddam Hussein guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to hang, as the visibly shaken former leader shouted "God is great!" (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed ) (Khalid Mohammed - AP)

FORT RILEY, Kan. -- As the Army sees it, the way home from Iraq begins here.

On a desolate plain dotted with splashes of yellow and gold foliage, soldiers are preparing not to defeat the insurgents in Iraq but to coach the Iraqis to do that for themselves.

It is an approach born of the realization that giving the Iraqis uniforms, rifles and bullets and training them in the basics of combat is not enough. To get the Iraqis ready to handle their own security, U.S. officials have concluded they need more American soldiers inside Iraqi army and police units to advise them.

President Bush, under intensifying pressure to curtail America's role in the deeply unpopular war, has said that once Iraq shows it can stand on its own, U.S. troops can go home. The Army hopes its advisers will make that moment arrive sooner.

In teams of 10 to 12 soldiers each, the advisers live and work with Iraqi forces who have completed their basic training _ not only Iraqi soldiers but also the national police and border agents.

The advisers act as role models, steering Iraqis away from corruption, human rights abuses and other problems, while also going on raids and other missions to coach them and assess weaknesses.

"It's the way ahead," says Maj. Gen. Carter Ham, commander of the 1st Infantry Division. In June, the division began training the advisers, who are selected from throughout the Army to spend 60 days at this post overlooking the Kansas River.

Some are more skeptical.

"It certainly is vital, but there are severe limits," says Anthony Cordesman, who monitors Iraqi security forces for the private Center for Strategic and International Studies. The Army is hard-pressed to find enough qualified soldiers for this duty, he said _ a problem that could worsen as the number of advisers grows.

One of the toughest obstacles the advisers face is a language barrier. They get 42 hours of instruction in Arabic at Fort Riley, enough to make them familiar with the language but not fluent.

The Army has had to dip into regular combat and support units to find the midlevel officers and senior enlisted soldiers who make up the teams. It also has used reserve soldiers. That has added further complications for an Army already straining to find fresh combat forces for one-year tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are more than 3,000 U.S. military advisers in Iraq, and the number is growing weekly. The teams operate in units of about 500 Iraqi soldiers or more. The Pentagon is considering expanding the size of the adviser teams to perhaps 25, and some have suggested expanding the number of adviser teams so they can work with smaller Iraqi units.