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Bremer: Iraqis Not Ready to Run Security
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi security forces will not be ready to protect the country against insurgents by the June 30 handover of power, the top U.S. administrator said Sunday - an assessment aimed at defending the continued heavy presence of U.S. troops here even after an Iraqi government takes over.
That was obvious.
The unusually blunt comments from L. Paul Bremer came amid a weekend of new fighting that pushed the death toll for U.S. troops in April to 99, already the record for a single-month in Iraq and approaching the number killed during the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein last year.

The military had always planned to remain after June 30, when the U.S. is to handover sovereignty to Iraq. In recent months coalition officials acknowledged the transfer of security will be significantly slower than hoped because Iraqi forces were not prepared. But Bremer said the fighting across the country this month exposed the depth of the problems inside the security forces. "Events of the past two weeks show that Iraq still faces security threats and needs outside help to deal with them. Early this month, the foes of democracy overran Iraqi police stations and seized public buildings in several parts of the country," he said. "Iraqi forces were unable to stop them."
Several months of training aren't sufficient. And they were being asked to fire on their own. Ain't going to happen.
"It is clear that Iraqi forces will not be able, on their own, to deal with these threats by June 30 when an Iraqi government assumes sovereignty," Bremer said in a statement issued by the U.S. coalition.

U.S. officials have been rebuilding the military from scratch, arranging the training of recruits and naming Allawi as its civilian head. But the recent violence has shown the weaknesses and conflicted feelings of the armed forces. An army battalion refused to join the Marines in the siege of Fallujah, saying they did not intend to fight fellow Iraqis. During the Shiite militia uprising in the south, many police abandoned their stations, realizing they were badly outgunned or sympathizing with the militia's cause.
Posted by: Steve White 2004-04-19
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=30899