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| Iraq |
| U.S. Says New Iraq Army Won’t Join Combat |
| 2003-09-18 |
| EFL WASHINGTON (AP) - The new Iraqi army will not initially join U.S. troops in combat operations against holdouts from the deposed government of Saddam Hussein, a senior American adviser to the U.S. occupation authority said Wednesday. Walter Slocombe, adviser on national security matters to Iraq civil administrator L. Paul Bremer, told a Pentagon news conference that the new Iraqi force is being trained for less demanding tasks such as providing security for vehicle convoys and manning checkpoints. Eventually it will be of sufficient size and sophistication to defend Iraq’s territory, he said, "because Iraq lives in a dangerous neighborhood, and it needs to be able to defend itself." The first group of about 800 Iraqi soldiers is due to finish its training next month. Slocombe said the goal is to have 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers trained and operating within one year, which he said is half the time U.S. authorities initially believed raising an army of that size would take. The timetable has been accelerated because U.S. officials discovered that the former Iraqi military had competently trained its conscripts; the bigger task now is for training officers. The Iraqi army has played no role in U.S.-led efforts to stabilize the country because, Slocombe said, it disintegrated during the major combat phase of the war in March and early April. Iraqi soldiers and commanders who were not killed or captured in the fighting simply went home, he said, and "took with them whatever they thought was worth taking; and what they didn’t take, people came in and stole or destroyed or looted. "The degree of the looting of military installations in Iraq is really hard to imagine. They didn’t just steal stuff that was not nailed down, they stole the toilet fixtures, and they stole the pipes and the tile in the latrines." Those being recruited to join the new army are mainly former conscripts and lower-ranking officers, he said. Iraqis who were senior members of Saddam’s Baath Party are banned, as are the special security and intelligence services that were the backbone of the dictatorship. The new army will be mainly light infantry and will operate under the command of the senior American general in Iraq until the United States returns sovereignty to a new Iraqi government, Slocombe said. Establishing a new Iraqi army is part of a broader U.S. strategy for stabilizing the country and hastening the day when the U.S. occupation authority can relinquish control to an Iraqi government and send U.S. troops home. Other elements of the strategy include re-establishing a police force, border guards, a facilities protection service and a civil defense force. This is the answer; certainly better than letting Indian and Pakistani troops in, and better than caving to the French. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #6 My suggestion, for what it's worth, is to put them to work securing the borders. That will give them experience, possibly slow down the jihadi influx, give them some well-earned (rather than pseudo) pride in performance, and some skill in handling unhealthy situations. Put them under competent US officers and SENIOR NCO's, with the instruction of that group to keep an eye out for quality officer and NCO candidates. After six to nine months on the border, give them responsibility to guard pipelines and oilfields, working toward giving them more control of the military requirements of the country as a whole as they progress in experience and competence. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-9-18 5:18:47 PM |
| #5 Slocombe said that Iraq had an adequate basic training program that turned out recruits that could accomplish basic security functions. This cut the estimate to achieve force readiness by about a year. For example, most Iraqi males older than 12 years can field strip, clean and reassemble an AK-47 in a very short period. The existing soldiers can march and make their beds, but they have no leaders. Slocombe says the training focus will be to establish a corps of effective NCO's and Junior Officers. He says out of the Iraqi force of 500,000 there were 11,000 people of flag rank. Kind of top heavy. Many of the flag rank and other military jobs were in the construction industry or performed other functions that whould be civilian jobs anyway. Based on what I saw of the interview, I don't expect to see Iraqi soldiers on missions for a while. Without effective NCO's they would be a danger to everyone except the opposing force. I doubt that we have enough Arabic speaking Special Forces types to lead Iraqi soldiers in numbers. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-9-18 3:33:59 PM |
| #4 Read the first sentence carefully: The new Iraqi army will not initially join U.S. troops in combat operations . . . . They're not going into combat now because they're being trained. That "initially" suggests that they're going to be held back until training reaches a high standard, which is best for the long-term quality of the force. Don't want to send them out before they're ready. |
| Posted by: Mike 2003-9-18 1:14:18 PM |
| #3 I agree with mhw. Getting some of these guys out with our troops--after they've had some training and screening--would be a great way to establish some close ties for future joint training and operations, establish a cadre of experienced veterans who will disseminate what they've learned, and help the Iraqi military re-establish a sense of pride in themselves and their country. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-9-18 10:24:30 AM |
| #2 If the new Iraqi troops have any kind of self respect, they will soon demand to be on the Baath hunt detail. It would be a shot in the arm if some of the new Iraqi troops were part of the task force that catches Saddam. |
| Posted by: mhw 2003-9-18 8:25:59 AM |
| #1 I happened across the briefing in question on CSPAN. Slocombe was excellent. He is a walking quagmire killer. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-9-18 6:00:28 AM |