<p>AL BASRA OIL TERMINAL, Iraq - When he awakes in the morning and gazes seaward, Pete Beuttenmuller might be forgiven for thinking he is in the Florida of his youth.</p>
<p>Sunlight sparkles off the turquoise waves of the northern Persian Gulf. Fishing boats spread across an already hazy and hot horizon. Hungry gulls dart between cargo ships.What jolts the 28-year-old Navy lieutenant from Palm Beach County back to reality are the heavy-caliber machine gun mounted a few yards from his bunk and the ring of U.S. and allied warships circling his temporary home, Iraq's largest offshore oil terminal. </p>
<p>For anyone intent on undermining U.S. interests in Iraq and sowing mayhem in the Persian Gulf, there are few more mouth-watering targets than the Al Basra Oil Terminal, where Beuttenmuller is stationed.Ninety percent of Iraqi oil bound for the world market is loaded onto tankers through the terminal's mile-long web of beige pipes and shiny metal walkways.</p>
<p>The consequences would be catastrophic if a bomb were to send it all up in flames, Beuttenmuller said."If someone wanted to really cripple Iraq, all they'd need to do is shut down work here," he said. "Without [this terminal], there's no way that Iraq could ever get back on its feet. That's why our mission is so important."</p>
<p>About 800 U.S. and coalition sailors and eight warships patrol the narrow waterway between Iraq, Kuwait and Iran to ensure that sectarian violence or terrorists don't endanger the two Iraqi offshore oil terminals.With bloodshed and mayhem occurring daily throughout much of Iraq, little attention is paid to this corner of the war, where U.S. and coalition forces have achieved a semblance of normalcy.</p>
<p>Since 2004, the force has overseen the repair and refurbishment of both Iraqi oil platforms. Earlier this year, both stations became operational for the first time since the 2003 U.S. invasion, and now about 1.8 billion barrels of oil are flowing through the two stations.The uninterrupted flow is estimated to produce more than $5 billion in oil revenue for Iraq, money that in theory the country will use for federal spending and reconstruction efforts, instead of U.S. taxpayer dollars.</p>
<p>Much more work remains to upgrade Iraq's pipelines and oil facilities to increase the country's export capacity to the government's target of 3 billion barrels a day. While that is under way, it is up to Task Force 158, as the coalition forceis known, to ensure nothing undermines the progress made so far.</p>
<p>Since 2003, there have been approximately 400 insurgent or terrorist attacks against pipelines, pumping stations, oil fields, and other parts of Iraq's oil infrastructure, according to the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.In one attempt, terrorists with al-Qaida in Iraq packed explosives onto a local fishing boat in April 2004. The common vessel, known as a dhow, set sail from the Iraqi port of Um Qasr for the KAOOT terminal, the smaller of the two platforms about 10 miles offshore.</p>
<p>A U.S. Navy coastal patrol boat, the USS Firebolt, intercepted the dhow before it reached the terminal. While a strike force was preparing to board the vessel, the militants detonated their bomb, killing two sailors and one Coast Guardsman.</p>
<p>The method was similar to the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, in which al-Qaida claimed responsibility for killing 17 American sailors.Naval commanders in the Gulf say that another suicide attack is the biggest threat they fear for their crew and the oil platforms.</p>
<p>After the 2004 incident, coalition warships expanded the exclusion zone, allowing no commercial vessels within two miles of the two oil terminals.That no-go zone flirts with the unmarked boundary between Iraqi and Iranian territorial waters. But coalition commanders say that they haven't seen Iran's attitude toward coalition forces turn more aggressive with this change.</p>
<p>"We aren't trying to escalate tensions here. We are aware of Iran, of course, but they aren't our primary concern," said Australian Capt. Phillip Spedding, who took over command of Task Force 158 last month.</p>
<p>The daily mission for the force is much like a neighborhood cop walking a beat.Four U.S. Navy Cyclone-class patrol boats, each with a crew of about 30, trawl the waters at the edge of the exclusion zones watching the hundreds of boats that move through the narrow straits en route to Iranian or Iraqi ports.</p>
<p>Anytime a vessel looks or is patrolled in a suspicious manner, or enters the exclusion zone, coalition forces order the boat to be boarded and searched.Sometimes the naval crews find commercial contraband or evidence of piracy. Most times, however, operators of family fishing vessels have strayed while trying to take a short cut home.The trick is distinguishing the ordinary from a potential threat.</p>
<p>Lt. Beuttenmuller, a graduate of Palm Beach County's Wellington High School and a former defensive end for the U.S. Naval Academy football team, is a veteran of the mission. He has been part of this naval protection force offshore Iraq since the spring of 2004, including stints boarding and searching vessels. Over the summer, he was placed in charge of the roughly 70 U.S. forces guarding ABOT, the larger of the two terminals.As a weapons specialist, Beuttenmuller is helping train four platoons of Iraqi Marines who are stationed at the two terminals to identify threatening situations and use the heavy machine guns mounted around the platforms to defend the facility.Iraqis have been training with the coalition naval forces since last year. Only recently, however, have they progressed enough to participate in joint search and boarding missions.</p>
<p>"The work I'm doing with the Iraqis is something that I really like. Six months ago, they weren't doing any [of our job.] Now, they are actually helping us out," said Beuttenmuller, who has been deployed to the northern Persian Gulf for 500 of the last 700 days.The sooner Iraqis can take over the defense of the terminal, the sooner Beuttenmuller can head home and start the next phase of his life.</p>
<p>First on his calendar is his scheduled marriage in May to a young woman he met while studying in Annapolis.Then, he says, he may quit the Navy to become a teacher back near his mother in Lake Worth.</p>
<p>Margaret Coker's e-mail address is <a href="mailto:mcoker@coxnews.com">mcoker@coxnews.com</a></p>
<p>By MARGARET COKER
Copyright 2007 Cox Enterprises, Inc.
Cox News Service
October 11, 2007 Thursday</p>