Iraqi army hand over a flag during an activition ceremony of the Iarqi 41st Brigade in Baghdad on March 2. The 41st brigade is going to be incharge of the northeastern district of Baghdad which includes Sadr City.(AFP/File/Marwan Naamani)
Old guard Iraqi army commanders back in the mix
BAGHDAD (AFP) - The deputy commander of US forces in the Baghdad area greets a group of portly and mustachioed leaders in the new Iraqi army by kissing each one of them three times on the cheek.
One of the men embraced by Brigadier General Karl Horst is Jawad al-Dainiy, a 57-year-old decorated general whose 37 years in the Iraqi army closely tracked the ascent of ousted strongman Saddam Hussein.
The US military has become obsessed with the need to groom men like Dainiy to lead Iraq's new armed forces in the hopes that they would slowly begin to take over security responsibilities from US troops and pave the way for a gradual reduction in their presence.
The question is whether these commanders, steeped in the ideology of Saddam's army, can adapt to the new realities to lead a cohesive and disciplined army that can fight and withstand relentless threats and attacks from insurgents.
Many among the former Iraqi military brass were banished two years ago when the US-led occupation at the time dissolved the army. They were courted again when US and Iraqi officials were hit with the realities of building an army from scratch.
Dainiy was officially recognised Wednesday during a ceremony at a US military base near Baghdad airport as commander of the newly-launched 41st Brigade of the Iraqi army. He had rejoined the army in November.
"I reached a conviction that I must take part in leading my country, eliminating terrorists and taking charge of security," he says.
Saddam pinned 24 medals to his chest and awarded him the prestigious Al-Qadissiyah sword for bravery.
The stout native of Salman Pak, south of Baghdad, resembles the archetypical member of the ex-dictator's inner circle of aides.
He sports a thick dyed mustache and is dressed in immaculately-pressed dark green fatigues and dons a black beret with an eagle pin attached to it.
His brigade will start with a core staff of 215 members and is expected to swell to 5,000 soldiers with the integration of battalions from the national guard, said Colonel Ed Tennent, a US military advisor helping train the Iraqis.
The plan is for the brigade to take control of securing a large section of Baghdad's east bank in six to nine months according to Tennent.
Its command area would include the teeming Shiite slum of Sadr City, which was the scene last year of fighting between US forces and militia loyal to firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr before he disarmed.
On the capital's west bank, the 40th Brigade took over in February responsibility for the Sunni Arab insurgent strongholds of Haifa Street and Adhamiyah, albeit still marshalled by US military instructors.
The Iraqi army now numbers more than 50,000 soldiers. The government says it wants 100,000 troops trained by July and 150,000 by the end of the year.
US military commanders believe the right leadership is key to attaining this goal and they appear optimistic that a strategy of tapping Iraqi commanders who are not directly implicated in the former regime's brutality combined with training and mentoring new units is bearing fruit.
But some old timers in the Iraqi army are less sanguine than the Americans about the challenges that lie ahead.
"Do not forget we lived nearly half a century under one regime and we cannot adapt to the change from one day to the next," says Major General Daham Radhi al-Asal, 65.
"It is going to take time."
Asal, a graduate of Britain's Sandhurst academy, returned to the army one year ago and says that he wants to ingrain in the new soldiers a sense of loyalty to their nation and not a single leader as was the case with Saddam and not to act to oppress people.
Soldiers gather around Dainiy, who had vowed to "cut the heads of terrorists" in his address to them, and start waving their rifles in the air and dance and sing in praise of his name.
Many of them admitted on the side that they only joined the army out of economic necessity.
Iraq's army, once one of the largest and better trained in the region, became demoralised and drained after Saddam's endless wars with his neighbours.
