WASHINGTON — The terrorist attacks that have shaken Baghdad over the last few weeks threaten to undermine the Pentagon's strategy for extricating U.S. troops from Iraq, senior U.S. officials and independent experts said Oct. 27.

The brazen and well-coordinated strikes, they said, could prevent an accelerated handover of security duties from American to Iraqi forces and the creation of a new Iraqi government.

“What it means is that we're stuck,” said one senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The strikes, the worst since the Iraqi capital fell to U.S. troops in April, included the suicide bombings on Monday of three Iraqi police stations and the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and a rocket attack Oct. 26 on the heavily fortified al Rasheed Hotel. The violence on Oct. 27 alone killed at least 35 people and wounded about 230 others, mostly Iraqis.

Almost daily reports of U.S. soldiers getting killed in Iraq as the U.S. coalition tries to rebuild the country has led some people to question the wisdom of U.S. involvement there.

The Register interviewed Franciscan Friar of the Atonement Father Kenneth Cienik about the conditions there.

A chaplain in the U.S. Naval Reserve since 1986, Father Cienik saw Iraq from the inside, both in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and Operation Iraqi Freedom this spring.

A native of Pittsburgh, he's the vocation director for the Atonement Friars, working out of Washington, D.C. He's also a former rector of the Church of Sant'Onofrio in Rome.

Just before Veterans Day, Register correspondent Joseph Pronechen spoke with Father Cienik about his five-month tour of duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom — and about prospects for peace and the role of Islam in the conflict.

This wasn't your first trip to the Middle East.

I served on board the battleship U.S.S. Wisconsin in Desert Storm, then aboard the U.S.S. Saipan, an amphibious assault ship of 3,200 Marines and sailors, in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I was in the North Arabian Gulf and went into Iraq to minister to our personnel.

Were you close to combat?

I was in harm's way but not in combat. Helicopter pilots from the Marine Air Wing saw combat up close and personal. The grunts, the infantry Marines, were in some of the worst combat in Al Nassariya. I did a lot of personal debriefing with these guys. They are the new veterans who saw their fellow Marines killed or injured in combat.

There was one occasion in late April when we had to fly two helicopters together in case one went down. One did go down in Al Nassariya — not mine. We had to sleep three nights under the helicopter with the Marines protecting our perimeter.

What did you observe in our service personnel?

My experience in the two wars is the old adage, “There are no atheists in foxholes.” Everyone looks at their personal values more deeply and clarifies them. Even nonbeliev-ers have values challenged and have to come to grips with the reality of their mortality. My three values of faith, family and friends were clarified, too.

One young Marine came to Mass and, being a Pittsburgher, we talked. This was the first time he had a chance to talk to somebody about that. He saw combat, people injured and killed, and bullets flying all around. He said his faith sustained him as well.

My opportunity for ministry was very rewarding because there was lots of openness and appreciation of the chaplain. Especially in this last deployment, with 3,200 on the ship, a number of Marines and sailors were especially active practicing their faith. On the ship we had active participation in daily Masses. At weekend Masses the sailors and Marines were tremendous putting together a choir.

We had weekly classes on the sacrament of reconciliation and the opportunity for confession. We had the rosary and the Stations of the Cross. A large group prepared for confirmation.

Everybody wanted to read the six copies I had of the book The Grunt Padre, the life of Father Vince Capodano, who was given the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously for the Vietnam War. The Marines and sailors were impressed by his dedication and self-sacrifice. I'm convinced there are a number of people there who have a vocation and can respond to the call.

I feel my priesthood in all its richness being in the most needed of circumstances. A lot of Catholics look to the priest for moral guidance. However, much of the ministry is not sacramental but pastoral counseling. A difference with this war was that we had e-mail. News would come that someone had died or a spouse was leaving.

What were some of your other adventures?

I took an inflatable boat from a ship to the Min Al Bakar oil transport station to say Mass on two occasions for the Catholic Coast Guard personnel. The SEALS and Marines overtook the station because we knew it would be blown up at the start of the war.

In Al Kut, we reclaimed a cemetery of 420 graves of the Indian Expeditionary Force from the time the British were in Iraq in World War I. It was a garbage dump. The Marines, Navy SeaBees and British worked to clean out dead animals, garbage and weeds, and clean the tombstones. The queen sent her military bishop for the reclamation ceremony.

One different kind of surprise were the 6,000 cookies my community at Graymoor [headquarters of the Friars of the Atonement in Garrison, N.Y.] baked for us. I took half into the desert for the Marines and the other half for the sailors and Marines aboard ship watching the NCAA game.

How do you see the situation in Iraq?

In many respects the war went quickly. We were braced for the worst — biological, chemical, nuclear. That didn't happen. The problem is not that we didn't win the war but that we're fighting to win the peace. In my mind there's no doubt we acted appropriately from the get-go. How much we were prepared for the postwar liberation is another issue.

Was the mood in Operation Desert Storm the same?

When I served aboard the Wisconsin, the sense when the war ended was it really didn't end. A lot of the officers said this isn't over; either we or our kids will be back.

When we went to Desert Storm, most people serving in the military never thought they'd be involved in a war. But once it became apparent we'd be in the war, the morale was good and continued to an impressive homecoming into Norfolk, Va. The ship pulled into Norfolk on Holy Thursday.

Is the conflict between Islam and the West?

It's a hot-button item. My ministry is basically pastoral care. There is a religious aspect to the war, but it's not mainline Islam; it's the radicals.

As Friars and Sisters of the Atonement our charism is rooted in reconciliation. We work and pray for unity of the Christian churches. We're engaged in dialogue not only with Christians but also with Jews and Muslims.

As a Friar of the Atonement, I can't help but think of the witness of Pope John Paul II in his appeal to religious leaders to speak out against terrorism.

You've certainly had your share of the desert, but you also served in Antarctica. What was that like?

Cold! I was on Operation Deep Freeze at McMurdo Station and at South Pole Station. The survival training was memorable because it was 44 degrees below zero. A helicopter crashed and we had two killed and seven injured, and I gave pastoral care.

I celebrated the closing of the Marian Year on Jan. 1, 1988, at the South Pole with Mass, and I placed in the archives there an icon of Our Lady of the Atonement.

Joseph Pronechen is based in Trumbull, Connecticut.

(A wire story by Warren P. Strobel and Dave Montgomery of Knight-Ridder Tribune contributed to this report.)