KANE'OHE BAY — In a case of deja vu, the first of nearly 1,000 more Hawai'i Marines said goodbye to family and boarded buses for flights that will take them to one of the most dangerous places in Iraq.

Yesterday, it was the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment. In late February, it was the 3rd Battalion saying goodbye.

Many of the 2nd Battalion Marines who will be leaving in the next several weeks deployed to Afghanistan in June of 2005, but are on their first tour to Iraq.

Lance Cpl. Jason Paul, 20, said he is "living life" and excited to go to Iraq to do his part. But Paul, of the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, also sees Biblical overtones to the Middle East conflict.

"I'm a Christian. I think it's beginning Revelation. Muslims and Jews are fighting. It's starting. It's a holy war," he said.

At 18, Lance Cpl. Mikey Trejo is making his first combat deployment. The Detroit man joined the Corps when he was 17, arrived in Hawai'i about a half year ago "and I'm already deploying," he said yesterday.

Trejo admits going to Iraq scares him.

"You never know what can happen," he said.

For Alex and Emily Jackson, ages 2 and 5, the uncertainty of dad Staff Sgt. Calvin Jackson's deployment to Iraq took on a different perspective.

Alex wanted to get on the bus with dad, and cried when he couldn't.

"Daddy's gotta go, Bubba," Calvin Jackson said as he hugged his kids and wife, Melissa. "I love you guys."

The area the Marines are deploying to includes Haditha, where a Marine unit out of California was accused of shooting 24 unarmed civilians out of frustration.

According to an Associated Press report out of Haditha, U.S. commanders have said privately that a military solution to the insurgency in western Anbar Province is impossible, and what's needed is a political deal between the Sunni Arabs and other ethnic groups.

"We're in a recruiting war with the insurgency," said Brig. Gen. Robert Neller, the deputy Marine commander in western Iraq, in the AP report.

Even with reports from the region pointing to worsening relations, Lt. Col. Norm Cooling, the Hawai'i-based 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment commander now in Iraq, continues to paint a positive picture of what's happening on the ground, despite Marine injury and death.

In his task force, which consists of just over 1,700 personnel, 10 Marines have been killed, 61 have been wounded in action, and 14 were injured seriously enough to require evacuation from the theater, he said.

It's into that environment, characterized in different ways, but one of the most daunting in Iraq, that 1,000 more Marines are headed to replace the Hawai'i unit there now.

"We're doing what Marines do, and we're doing it very well," said Capt. Brian Moore, 33, an aviation adviser heading to Iraq. "I think it's up to the Iraqis to decide what kind of country they want. Only the Iraqis can win this."

Cooling said by e-mail that the Hawai'i Marines "recognize that they have made a difference here. After six months, they can see tangible differences in the capabilities of their partnered Iraqi units."

Those units have fought side by side with U.S. forces in multiple firefights and "have performed exceptionally well," Cooling said.

But there also is the acknowledgement by Cooling that the future of Iraq is in Iraqi hands. Some Marines have complained about Iraqis not taking responsibility for security in their own country.

Building capable security forces is "unquestionably the key" for the people to rebuild their infrastructure and run viable local government services, and that must be enabled by good governance at the national level, Cooling said.

Statistics provided by U.S. military commanders show that the two Iraqi divisions in Anbar Province are about 5,000 short of their authorized strength, and some 660 soldiers are AWOL, the New York Times reported.

The newspaper said there are more attacks on Americans in Anbar on a per-capita basis than in any other part of Iraq.

Although there have been reports that the Sunnis who dominate in the Haditha area don't trust the largely Shiite-populated Iraqi Army, Cooling said the soldiers "are viewed by both themselves and the local population as being Iraqi first."

A few have joined fringe militias that are sectarian in nature, but "the Iraqi soldiers serving with us are often more effective than we are in engaging with the population because they share the same language and culture, and they are Muslim," Cooling said.

Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, is part of an area that includes Barwanah and Haqla-niyah called the "Triad."

In Baghdadi nearby in late July, a speeding truck loaded with hundreds of pounds of explosives attempted to break through a Hawai'i Marine base's protective barriers.

Cpl. Jeff Globis, manning an observation outpost, saw the truck, warned others to take cover and opened fire, according to a Marine report by Sgt. Roe Seigle. The truck exploded and part of the outpost roof collapsed, but no Marines or soldiers were killed.

Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 363 out of Kane'ohe Bay will replace HMH-463, and more than 7,000 Schofield Barracks soldiers are starting a year of duty in northern Iraq.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.