The Iraqi military: our last hope

The only hope to getting out of Iraq with anything that looks like success is to have an Iraqi Army and Police that is capable of taking over when we leave. Even if Al-Qaeda is actually expelled from Iraq, dozens of sectarian militias threaten the stability of the country. Other commanders have noted a distinct lack of loyalty to the Iraqi government among the Iraqi military. Again we see confirmation of this, as Gen. Dubik says the troops he is attempting to train seem to be more loyal to their sectarian militias than to Al-Maliki.

It takes 9 weeks to train a U.S. marine. We've had more than four years to train the Iraqi Army and Police. But this pace is apparently too fast.

And this is our only hope to getting out of Iraq with anything that looks like success.
Connect the dots.


Story from NYT

General Training Iraqis Cites Problem of Sectarian Loyalty

By STEPHEN FARRELL

Published: July 29, 2007

BAGHDAD, July 28 — The new American general in charge of training and equipping Iraq’s security forces said the hardest challenge was finding good leaders free of sectarian loyalties.

Reach of War

“You can’t grow a force this fast and have the right number of qualified leaders,” Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik told The Associated Press on Saturday. “You can’t do it. This is a problem now, and it will be a problem for a good number of years.”

General Dubik said nonsectarianism was “much harder” to instill than teaching soldiers how to fight.

The Iraqi police on Saturday more than doubled the estimated death toll of a truck bombing on Thursday in the central Baghdad district of Karrada, to around 60 from 25. Two days after the explosion, rescuers were still searching for human remains in the rubble of a dozen apartments and houses that were destroyed or badly damaged by the blast.

Nearby, relatives of missing people watched miserably as Iraqi security forces removed the debris. Funeral corteges passed, with mourners carrying coffins and chanting.

Insurgents dressed as women attacked an Iraqi Army checkpoint near the northern town of Kirkuk on Saturday, killing three soldiers and wounding one, said Col. Sadr al-Din Abdullah, an Iraqi Army commander.

The governor of Kirkuk announced a three-hour curfew before the Asia Cup soccer final on Sunday between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, as security forces across the country prepared to tighten security, fearing that insurgents would attack celebrating crowds.