Posted on 05/25/2003 11:34:04 AM PDT by SLB
The United States plans to increase its military force in Iraq in an effort to stabilize the country.
U.S. officials said nearly 20,000 troops would arrive in Iraq over the next few weeks. This would increase the U.S. force level to about 163,000 troops. Currently, about 145,000 U.S. soldiers are deployed in Iraq.
U.S. troops have disarmed a militia group affiliated with pro-American Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi, as part of a campaign to impose law and order in Iraq, a political official said Sunday.
But fighters of the biggest Muslim Shi'ite group, trained by Washington's bitter foe Iran, reacted warily to the U.S. military's June 14 ultimatum for Iraqis to surrender their weapons.
Parts of Iraq were plunged into chaos after U.S.-led forces toppled president Saddam Hussein last month, and some Iraqis complain that crime has reached unprecedented levels. Gen. Peter Pace, deputy chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the additional troops would come from the 1st Armored Division, Middle East Newsline reported.
The U.S. military dissolved the Free Iraq Forces (FIF) and disarmed its fighters, said Entifadh Qanbar, spokesman for Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress.
The FIF, with fewer than 700 fighters and armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, had been working under U.S. command.
Pace said the arrival of the armored division would represent the peak force level of the U.S. military in Iraq.
"The number is being increased as we speak by about 18,000 with the arrival of the 1st Armored Division," Pace told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday. "And then beyond that, there are no current projected deployments."
The United States has been joined by 20,000 British troops in Iraq. Washington has been discussing the contribution of other allies to the stabilization effort in Iraq.
Its been 6 weeks. Why haven't the U.S. or the Coalition hired enough Iraqi Police.
Why not have our soldiers trained more police Or convert Iraqi soldiers to be policemen to do this? All with a minimal force of U.S. forces to watch them.
I can't picture two scruffy looking Iraqi kids wandering off with one
We were hoping that we were going to capture enough drafted Iraqi soldiers to train for these positions. But many were forced to fight to the death or see their families killed by the Fedayeen Saddam, and others went AWOL and changed clothes to civilian so they couldn't be identified.
Also, the Iraqi people were resistent to having the actual police force that had brutalized them for years being put back in power. Only those, like traffic cops and lower eschelon cops they didn't have grudges against were allowed to go back into uniform without the populus protesting.
The Brits coming and the new Americans coming are M.P. types with policing experience, and the Brits will be training the new Iraqi police force.
The Iraqi equipment for their utilities is falling to pieces due to lack of updating parts over the last decades, diverting money to build palaces instead.
What isn't well reported is that most of the utilities were running at 50% efficiency BEFORE the Iraq War, due to jerryrigging unrepaired and unreplaced equipment and infrastructure. In many places now our efforts to provide water and electricity equal or exceed pre-WAR performance.
No, actually.
There is no political mileage to be had here. Personally, I support 10 Million troops being deployed to Iraq. Until we reach that number, all bets are off. I want to see an additional 10 carrier groups created and deployed. Nothing less than complete subjugation of the jihadists will satisfy me. 20,000 troops? Let's not talk peanuts.
The backup plan had the Kurds and CIA run the Northern front but it gave Franks less boots on the ground than he would have prefered for control and mop-up. At first, it appeared that the lesser number might work out in spite of everything, but with the criminal control problems and the bad press, the original number of troops in the original plan was seen to be necessary.
Wars are like that. You deal with the reality and fix what didn't go perfectly.
Bush and friends can find all the money and the troops in the world to secure another country's borders.
Too late.
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