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| Iraq-Jordan | |
| Former militia members eyed for Iraqi security | |
| 2004-06-12 | |
| EFL - snip- A coalition military official, who asked not to be named, added that an example of how newly resigned militia members will invigorate existing Iraqi forces could be seen in the April violence. While many Iraqi units failed to fight against insurgents in Fallujah, the 36th battalion of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC) did stand its ground. This unit is not made up of newly converted Iraqi civilians, but of hardened former militia members, including the tough-minded Kurdish peshmerga... So they will run unless they are Kurdish. Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, the former commander of the 101st Airborne Division, which last year oversaw northern Iraq, is now back in the country. He is in charge of training, and, in some cases, retraining Iraqis for police and counterinsurgency duties. ... The approximately 100,000 paramilitaries, who were not part of the insurgency attacking coalition troops, will be given the option of joining one of Iraq’s five security forces or of receiving training for civilian jobs. "It’s an historic agreement in the pursuit of building a moderate, democratic Iraq," Mr. Senor said. He said that "sectarian tensions" made it paramount that Iraq not have multiple militias roaming the country outside state control.
The Pentagon has nearly met its strength goals for the various Iraqi security units, signing up 225,721 toward a goal of 259,337, according to its most recent report. There are five main branches: the police; border enforcement; the army; civil defense corps and facilities protection. Of those, the armed forces faces the largest shortfall. It requires 35,000, but only has about 7,000 on duty. The police force already has exceeded its target of about 90,000 officers. Still, of the pool of 100,000 ex-militia, the coalition military official said, "We are certainly ready to absorb all those people." "Hopefully, we can use these militia to help improve the security of ordinary Iraqis but I would doubt it’s appropriate to use them for months from now for any kind of serious offensive operations," said Patrick Clawson, a Middle East analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Mr. Clawson added, "The key moment will be when Iraqis accept that the country’s future will be decided by elections and they recognize that when this new election business is working well the Americans can leave. Right now, too many people in Iraq think force matters. That’s been the way of Iraq for decades." | |
| Posted by:Super Hose |