Disagreeable
Well-known member
Apparently the US military isn't doing a good job training Iraqis. And they don't want more troops in there to help train. OK with me. Let's just pack up and go home. Link below; my emphasis.
"President Jalal Talabani said Sunday that the American program to train Iraq’s military and police, a cornerstone of the American enterprise in Iraq, was a failure.
He also rejected proposals to increase the number of American combat troops in advisory positions within the Iraqi Army, saying it was tantamount to surrendering control of the military to the Americans.
“What have they done so far in training the army and the police?” the president said during a news conference here. “What they have done is move from failure to failure.”
Mr. Talabani did not offer specific criticisms of the American training program, except to blame the Americans for inadequately vetting recruits of the Shiite-dominated police for sectarian loyalties. American and some Iraqi officials say some Iraqi police and army units are more beholden to Shiite militias than to the government and have helped to drive the cycles of retributive violence by attacking Sunni Arabs.
The Americans, Mr. Talabani said, “brought them from the street regardless of their loyalties to the new Iraq and regardless of their abilities. We don’t want this mistake to be repeated again.”
The Iraqi president’s sharp criticisms challenged a central strategy in the American enterprise here. American commanders have poured more than $10 billion into training and equipping Iraq’s security forces and have tied a withdrawal of American forces to success with these efforts.
The report issued last week by the bipartisan Iraqi Study Group called for increasing the number of American trainers embedded with Iraqi forces to as many as 20,000 from the current level of more than 4,000 in the hope that it would help Iraqi units move into the lead of providing security.
Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top American commander in the Middle East, told Congress last month that he envisioned doubling the number of American trainers, but senior military officers now say they are drawing up plans that would at least triple the number of troops assigned to training.
The shift has been endorsed in general terms by President Bush, and in recent weeks commanders in Iraq have started moving hundreds of troops from their combat ranks to training teams.
But Mr. Talabani said the increase in American advisers threatened Iraqi control of the Iraq’s security forces.
“Assigning foreign officers in every unit of the Iraqi Army is a breach of Iraqi sovereignty,” he said. “What will be left of this sovereignty if the Iraqi Army becomes a tool in the hands of foreign officers coming from outside?” Mr. Talabani made his comments about the American training program in the context of a sweeping critique of the Iraqi Study Group’s report, which, he said, offered some “dangerous” recommendations that were “an insult to the Iraqi people.”
More at the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/world/middleeast/10cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1165813200&en=a4700b9da95dd426&ei=5094&partner=homepage
"President Jalal Talabani said Sunday that the American program to train Iraq’s military and police, a cornerstone of the American enterprise in Iraq, was a failure.
He also rejected proposals to increase the number of American combat troops in advisory positions within the Iraqi Army, saying it was tantamount to surrendering control of the military to the Americans.
“What have they done so far in training the army and the police?” the president said during a news conference here. “What they have done is move from failure to failure.”
Mr. Talabani did not offer specific criticisms of the American training program, except to blame the Americans for inadequately vetting recruits of the Shiite-dominated police for sectarian loyalties. American and some Iraqi officials say some Iraqi police and army units are more beholden to Shiite militias than to the government and have helped to drive the cycles of retributive violence by attacking Sunni Arabs.
The Americans, Mr. Talabani said, “brought them from the street regardless of their loyalties to the new Iraq and regardless of their abilities. We don’t want this mistake to be repeated again.”
The Iraqi president’s sharp criticisms challenged a central strategy in the American enterprise here. American commanders have poured more than $10 billion into training and equipping Iraq’s security forces and have tied a withdrawal of American forces to success with these efforts.
The report issued last week by the bipartisan Iraqi Study Group called for increasing the number of American trainers embedded with Iraqi forces to as many as 20,000 from the current level of more than 4,000 in the hope that it would help Iraqi units move into the lead of providing security.
Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top American commander in the Middle East, told Congress last month that he envisioned doubling the number of American trainers, but senior military officers now say they are drawing up plans that would at least triple the number of troops assigned to training.
The shift has been endorsed in general terms by President Bush, and in recent weeks commanders in Iraq have started moving hundreds of troops from their combat ranks to training teams.
But Mr. Talabani said the increase in American advisers threatened Iraqi control of the Iraq’s security forces.
“Assigning foreign officers in every unit of the Iraqi Army is a breach of Iraqi sovereignty,” he said. “What will be left of this sovereignty if the Iraqi Army becomes a tool in the hands of foreign officers coming from outside?” Mr. Talabani made his comments about the American training program in the context of a sweeping critique of the Iraqi Study Group’s report, which, he said, offered some “dangerous” recommendations that were “an insult to the Iraqi people.”
More at the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/world/middleeast/10cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1165813200&en=a4700b9da95dd426&ei=5094&partner=homepage