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Abizaid and Sanchez comment on Iraqi security forces
EFLAbizaid: Well, the fact of the matter is that some of them did very well and some of them did not. And in the south, a number of units, both in the police force and also in the ICDC [Iraqi Civil Defense Corps], did not stand up to the intimidators of the forces of Sadrâs militia and that was a great disappointment to us. In other places, such as in and around Fallujah, weâve had good, strong performances by several units, and weâre satisfied with that. With regard to the new Iraqi army, I think we can look for better performance in the future once we get a well established Iraqi chain of command. The truth of the matter is that until we get well- formed Iraqi chains of command, all the way in the police service from the minister of interior to the lowest patrolman on the beat in whatever city it may be, and the same for the army, from private to minister of defense, that itâs going to be tough to get them to perform at the level we want. The good news is, weâre working on those chains of command, and Iâm confident that with work on our part and work on their part, weâll have better performance. SANCHEZ: I think for some time now we have been stating that it was going to take us some time to stand up credible and capable Iraqi security forces that would be able to assume the internal and external security missions in the country. Clearly, what we faced here in the last week to 10 days is a challenge that weâve got to confront directly. Weâre in the process of doing that, but itâs still going to take us a significant amount of time to ensure that they are properly equipped, properly trained and credible and capable with their countrymen, to bring us security and stability. Posted by: Domingo 2004-04-12 |
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