CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — For months, American commanders in Iraq have talked of their desire to withdraw most U.S. troops from Baghdad's dangerous streets and pull them back to the relative safety of big, wellguarded bases outside the capital.
In an interview Wednesday, the commander of day-to-day U.S. military operations in Iraq explained why he plans to do the opposite -- push more American troops into the city's neighborhoods, making them responsible for stopping sectarian violence.
Army Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli also said he wants U.S. soldiers to oversee an army of Iraqis digging water and sewer lines and other public works to create jobs for Baghdad's residents. Military officials plan to start with a budget of about $75 million to $100 million for the projects.
"How do we stop the violence, the sectarian killing?" Chiarelli said. "We give them hope for a future."
Chiarelli says his plans are not a rejection of the military's previous strategy, but they put him squarely on one side of a debate that has divided American generals about how to win the war in Iraq.
The military's previous strategy has been to reduce the presence of U.S. forces in order to diminish casualties and give insurgent groups fewer targets.
Chiarelli said that pulling back the troops made sense when the enemy was mainly insurgent groups. But now that the violence in Baghdad is increasingly between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, stopping it requires a new approach, he said.
"What we have here is a level of sectarian violence," he said. "And the way you have to fight this is that you have to have presence on the streets. I don't know any other way to fight it."
Under the latest plan, military officials hope to establish zones of security by putting robust U.S. and Iraqi forces in key neighborhoods, then gradually expand those safe areas. Throughout the city, the Americans will try to quickly contain outbreaks of sectarian killing.
Nine thousand U.S. soldiers, 8,500 Iraqi soldiers and 34,000 Iraqi police officers provide security in Baghdad. Military officials plan to bolster those numbers with 4,000 additional U.S. troops and 4,000 more Iraqi soldiers.
But the cornerstone of the new plan is economic development projects, which Chiarelli is known for championing. When he commanded the 1st Cavalry Division in Baghdad from March 2004 to March 2005, he reduced the violence in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City by putting many of the fighting-age men to work digging a sewer system.
