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2007-07-08 Iraq
Iraqi army still not meeting U.S. needs
Lack of trained forces hampers progress

SALMAN PAK, Iraq (AP) - U.S. soldiers in night-vision goggles piled out of a Chinook helicopter under a wide, orange moon. They crawled through mud along canals south of Baghdad, then stormed a chicken farm that the U.S. military believed doubled as a car bomb factory.

But something was missing: Iraqi partners.

The Iraqi army has yet to deploy a single soldier on this 380-square-mile swath, where the U.S. military is waging an offensive to dislodge al-Qaida fighters from marshlands along the Tigris River.

In Tuesday’s predawn raid, the lack of Iraqi backup meant a frustrating outcome for U.S. forces. When suspects fled, there was no Iraqi cordon to catch them.

But more broadly, it illustrated a key weakness in the new U.S. counterinsurgency strategy of "clear, hold, rebuild." American commanders say the "hold" phase relies on Iraqi forces’ ability to move into cleared areas and keep insurgents in check once the U.S. draws down its troop levels.

But areas such as Salman Pak - once an enclave for Saddam Hussein’s favored officials - reinforce the accusations that the Iraqi military is still a long way from meeting U.S. expectations.

"We’re all very frustrated. We’re trying to fix this country, but the Iraqis are having trouble recruiting and getting their numbers up," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, which is deployed in the area.

The Department of State sets the number of fully "trained and equipped" Iraqi soldiers at slightly more than 353,000 - still nearly 40,000 short of the U.S. goal by the end of the year. But the complications go beyond just numbers.

Last month, Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who used to oversee Iraqi training, said many Iraqi army units are not at full strength, and security forces face chronic desertions. Recruiting stations for the military and police have been frequent targets of extremist bombers.

There also are signs of an unwillingness by Iraq’s leadership to commit forces to operations outside Baghdad. About 11,000 Iraqi soldiers were assigned to a U.S.-led offensive launched last month in and around Baqouba, on Baghdad’s northeastern rim. Only about 1,500 showed up, U.S. officials said.

"In some areas, the Iraqi army is full of capable military professionals, but there are other places where there are literally no Iraqi security forces," Lynch told The Associated Press this week. "Those are the places where the coalition will have to stay until the Iraqi government recruits, trains and builds forces to deny militants those sanctuaries."

The region of Salman Pak, about 15 miles south of Baghdad, has seen a spike in activity by Sunni insurgents since a U.S.-Iraqi security push began in the capital nearly six months ago, said Col. Wayne Grigsby Jr., commander of the Army’s 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division.

Insurgents apparently streamed out of Baghdad, setting up fighting positions on the so-called "belts" around Baghdad. Salman Pak was a natural place for them to go.

Many former officers from Saddam Hussein’s military still live in the area, home to a major military and security complex during his rule. It also was the site of a biological weapons lab until the program was dismantled in the early 1990s.

Since his arrival here in March, Grigsby said he put in several requests for two Iraqi army battalions - up to about 1,500 men - to join the 3,800 U.S. troops now in the area. He is still waiting.

Iraq’s Defense Ministry said it was concentrating its resources in Baghdad. So U.S. commanders here are resigned to teaming up with whatever Iraqi partners they have - mostly Iraqi police patrols riding in pickup trucks with just rudimentary armor as protection from mines and other attacks. And they are no match for al-Qaida, U.S. military officials say.

"I understand" Iraqi officials’ "reasoning. If you have to stretch forces, you take risks with your supporting effort, rather than your main effort in Baghdad," Grigsby said. "But it leaves us in a less-than-ideal situation here."

Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2007-07-08 10:46|| || Front Page|| [1 views ]  Top

#1 The US military has very high performance standards, and it is extremely hard to incorporate the culture of such standards with civilians who have no background in them.

Early on, we should have adopted a philosophy of making Iraqi military pay extra high, but only on the condition that you stay with your unit for your entire enlistment. This would also mean that early on, we would have to have some pay system for them to get money safely home to their families--a very difficult proposition.

In the final analysis, Iraq will have to use whatever we have given them to modernize and professionalize their military. For this reason, it would be very good to convince many of their seasoned leaders to enter politics, so that their government will have experts for its military policies.
Posted by Anonymoose 2007-07-08 13:44||   2007-07-08 13:44|| Front Page Top

#2 Salam Pak is in a Sunni area. Until the local tribes create a "Salvation Council" like Anbar, the soldiers are going to have to be imported from outside.

In the Arab scheme of things, this means desertion and under equipping is inevitable. (Arab and other 3rd world armies count on the family to provide a soldier's logistical support).

The Iraqi Army is facing an interesting tension: It is being built from the bottom up by the Americans, but the higher ranks are still stuck in the old way of doing things.

Right now the "frontier" between the 2 groups is the batallion headquarters. Most of the proplems are found above that line (pay doesn't arrive, no spare parts)

It remains to be seen which approach is going to prevail.

Al
Posted by Frozen Al 2007-07-08 14:34||   2007-07-08 14:34|| Front Page Top

#3 The US has always had trouble training effective Arab forces because the US system is based on competence and initiative at the mid enlisted ranks and at the lower officer ranks. The Soviet system would probably work better but that makes joint operations more difficult. In the short term training an Arab force to operate like an American force seems to be akin to harnassing cold fusion. While infuriating, their culture does ensure that we will be able to bank on being able to defeat them handly for the forseable future.
Posted by Super Hose 2007-07-08 15:12||   2007-07-08 15:12|| Front Page Top

#4 How can any amount of effort can work at training the Iraqis into a modern military force if they are not paid on time and adequately supplied? No wonder the Iraqi troops don't show up or desert. Those deficits are almost surely due to political corruption higher up the Iraqi political food chain.
Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2007-07-08 15:44||   2007-07-08 15:44|| Front Page Top

#5 It seems reasonable to expect the process of building a Western-style professional army would take the better part of a generation, as those trained to the new standards slowly make their way up the ranks to command levels (that's the same as upper management in corporate parlance, right?) and Master Sergeants and such. I'm sure lots of unskilled and semi-skilled Iraqis signed up out of patriotism and desire for the paycheck, but are finding they aren't suited for the work. With time and the improving Iraqi economy, they'll be able to find other means of supporting their families, and the problem will gradually dwindle.

Equally, it's not likely we'll find perspective in a report from the Associated Press.
Posted by trailing wife 2007-07-08 17:36||   2007-07-08 17:36|| Front Page Top

#6 Some of this, regretfully, is the Al-Maliki government, footdragging.
Posted by OldSpook 2007-07-08 22:03||   2007-07-08 22:03|| Front Page Top

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