Posted on 12/29/2004 6:31:57 AM PST by prairiebreeze
It appears to have become a consensus among congressmen, opinionados, and the like chatterers that the training of Iraqi soldiers is the key to victory in Iraq. What started as a harmless idea to create the seeds of an exit strategy while giving Iraqis a sense of empowerment has morphed, at least in the public perception, into a central strategic plank of the actual waging of war in Iraq.
This newfound significance of the otherwise nice idea of training Iraqis is both silly and dangerous.
It is silly inasmuch as the trained Iraqis are not going to be a replacement for the American military. If our military has not been able to crush the insurgency as yet -- though doubtless great strides have been taken - it's unlikely a late-fangled Iraqi contingent will not do the trick.
At the moment, we offer a three-week training program for those brave Iraqis willing to join our effort. I am a thirty years old male in good health; but if you started training me on New Year's Day, I will not make the most impressive soldier by January 22nd. Certainly not impressive enough to reestablish law and order in Iraq.
At this stage in the game, what we need to train is not an Iraqi army, but an Iraqi police force. The Iraqis we train could not conceivably take on the hodgepodge of angry militants in Mosul, Fallujah, and half a dozen other soft targets. Not if we cannot.
Nor does the Iraqi nation need the United States to create its army. In fact, such a US-created army is bound to lack legitimacy in Iraqi eyes. The new Iraqi army will have to be created by the Iraqi nation when the Iraqi state regains stability. But bringing the Iraqi state to stability is our own mission. Nobody can do it but the United States Armed Forces.
The danger is that we start thinking of those trained Iraqis as our ticket out of Iraq, as many among us appear to have already done. The trained Iraqis can battle petty thievery and, on a day of glamour, armed robbery. They cannot finish the job the American military is struggling to accomplish. The American military will have to finish that job, whether or not there is an alternative Iraqi force in its wing, and then we can leave Iraq.
So our ticket out of Iraq is simply the completion of the mission we have taken upon us: to replace the murderous despotism of Saddam Hussein with a democratic government (or at least a government that is otherwise answerable to the governed) that rules over a relatively stable Iraq. That is our ticket out and the only honorable way we can bring our troops back home.
As American casualties mount, and the American public starts wondering why we are doing this, there is a temptation to sell to the public a fairytale about an American-trained Iraqi military that will soon take over, replacing American casualties with Iraqi ones.
To the extent that this is sheer deceit, it is wrong. But it is even more dangerous if it is meant in earnest. For it may lead eventually to a public upheaval that culminates in a demand to act on such a plan, with disastrous implications for Iraq and consequently American credibility.
If we get out of Iraq before the job is done because we cannot accept the death toll, we will have confirmed Bin Laden's diagnosis that we don't have what it takes to take on such grand projects as we have initiated in Iraq. And we can forget about reforming and reshaping the Middle East, the sort of reshaping that is the only genuine cure for the malady of terrorism.
It is time for the nation's leaders, starting with the President, to say so clearly and unambiguously. We must accept the possibility that by the time we leave Iraq 5,000 of our best compatriots will have died; that we cannot leave before we ourselves restore law, order, and stability to the reemerging Iraqi state; and that no collection of hurriedly trained Iraqi soldiers, however courageous and devoted, can complete that task in our stead.
Rather than indulge in the fantasy of seeing our troops soon replaced by non-American soldiers, one would do better this holiday season to make a donation to Operation Gratitude, the Wounded Warrior Project, USO, and other organizations devoted to supporting our troops in battle and beyond -- with a clear-headed determination to stay the course.
This article is authored by Uriah Kriegel? OK I try to be as "multicultural" as the next guy but who names their kid Uriah any more?
Uriah Heep? Now there's a keeper.
One has to wonder what the extent of their training really is if even these basic concepts are not being taught.
You forgot the barf alert!!
This is some pretty sad drivel.... The author obviously has no idea what's actually going on over there... perhaps we should send him so he would be more informed. Give him a nice t-shirt with bold letters declaring "I'm a liberal peace activist, and therfore un-armed"
Guess that explains just about everything we need to know.
What we really need to do is catch the next pack of terrorists who attack a police station and wipe them out to the last man. When Terrorists can attack police stations any time they like and come away winners we will never get peace in that area.
Depends what they are being trained for. Concerning the Iraqi police, here's an excerpt from a recently posted message:
BAGHDAD, Iraq – The Iraqi Police Service received 39 of a planned 50 light armored personnel carriers from the Jordanian government recently and will use them in a mechanized police unit planned to counter insurgent activities.
The 8th Mechanized Police Brigade (MPB) is a paramilitary, counterinsurgency unit that will deploy to high risk areas. The MPB will comprise three battalions of approximately 1,500 officers.
A six week course is currently underway with nearly 800 recruits. The MPB can deploy as a company, battalion or even a brigade-level force. The brigade will be stationed in Central Iraq.
This training would be considerably longer than the three weeks our philosophy teacher claims. The Iraqi National Guard also has an equipped and trained Mechanized Brigade.
Whether we are there or not, the Iraqis will have to fight and defeat the Baathists and the crazies or go back to life as it was under Saddam. Don't think they will be going back. Especially not the Kurds.
"this exit strategy stuff"
Badges? We don't need no stinking badges.
Forget old timey concepts like "exit strategies". There is none. It's all been revealed by our Commander in Chief.
You're just not getting it. The game board spans all 20 Arab countries, all of Indonesia, Africa, SE Asia,China,Russia and a bunch of traitorous allied Euro-trash countries, plus some really slimey So. American "neighbors"...and half the American public.
Tell it to the libs and the media. Tell it to Kennedy and Kerry. They're the ones clamoring about it.
I don't see why it's either/or. The exit strategy has two major prongs: both the establishment of a stable constitutional democracy and building up the indigenous security apparatus. What a foolish article -- is he saying one shouldn't do the latter? Obviously it is a tough and long term job, but it's got to be done.
No, I don't believe he's saying that. He's warning against buying into an early illusion that becomes a means/justification that might lead us to pull out too early.
That's what I read is being said by the author. That we shouldn't allow ourselves to be pressured by the negative naysayers to cut short seeing the mission to completion. I don't think the President is thinking of pulling out early either BTW.
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