General Seeking Faster Training of Iraq Soldiers

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 - The retired four-star Army general who was sent to Iraq two weeks ago to assess operations there has concluded that American troops must speed up and strengthen the training of Iraqi security forces, by assigning thousands of additional military advisers to work directly with Iraqi units, said senior defense and military officials here and in Iraq.
...
The aim would be to double or even triple the number of trainers now at work with Iraqi security forces, up to as many as 8,000 or 10,000, though General Luck has not mentioned a specific number. A senior defense official who has been briefed on General Luck's initial conclusions and recommendations said the plan would draw on a mix of officers and senior enlisted troops from Army and Marine units already in Iraq.

Many commanders say that providing more trainers is meant to bolster the Iraqi will to fight, help train officers who would lead, curb desertion and provide Iraqi forces with the confidence that American units would back them up - in some cases fighting alongside them if needed, military and Pentagon officials said. Two American advisers have died fighting with Iraqi units.
...
At her confirmation hearings this week, Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's nominee to be secretary of state, was repeatedly asked to defend the training program. Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the Foreign Relations Committee's ranking Democrat, dismissed as "malarkey" Ms. Rice's assertion, backed by commanders in Iraq, that 120,000 Iraqi troops had been trained.

http://nytimes.com/2005/01/23/international/middleeast/23military.html?hp&ex=1106456400&en=3c9cd538d2284d35&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[jody]

1. Discussion of training Iraqis ignores one critical question, what are we

teaching them because we obviously don't know what techniques will be successful?
:shrug:

[bemildred]

2. We need to teach them how to get blown up like we do.

Then they can "replace" us.

[cliss]

3. They think they can continue the occupation,

by using Iraqi troops to control their own people. They have finally understood that the white faces of the American troops are intolerable in Iraq. There will never be any peace as long as we're there.

So the contingency plan is to train thousands of Iraqis who will do what we have so far been unable to do.

It still will not work. The US has already tried this. They hastily trained some Iraqis, and told them to point their guns at their own people, and shoot. They wouldn't do it. They laid down their guns. They walked away. They told reporters later that "The Americans were so arrogant, they treated us like crap".

And they think it will work this time?

[Rose Siding]

4. Luck will even suggest that US advisers be part of the Iraq govt

snip>
General Luck is also expected to recommend that American and other allied military officials fill several adviser positions in the Iraqi defense and interior ministries, that those ministries' responsibilities for various security forces be reassessed to ensure effective operations, and that American commanders be given greater flexibility on spending their budgets, defense officials said.

[DELUSIONAL]

5. Well hell -- Saddam had the troops to control

the people -- so now the idiots running this mess in Iraq want to copy Saddam's M.O.

The idiots just want to move on to another county -- so they can loot the US treasury and the oil from the next country.

A fine pickle of a mess this gang of thugs will be leaving the next GENERATIONS to clean up. This pisses the hell out of me -- what the hell happened to PEACE ON EARTH. What the hell happened to -- END OF COLD WAR dividend?

I am beginning to doubt that the idiots in control are really of this world -- I doubt that they are even human. They somehow believe millions and billions and trillions of dollars they are looting will protect their offspring -- or perhaps they really do believe in the "end times".

[Bob3]

6. FUBAR

God it just keeps on getting better doesn't it. Now we'll have lots of poorly trained Iraqi troops - who will, when they are not acting like gangsters by robbing civilians will be selling their weapons to the guerrillas or simply deserting.

a cluster fuck.

ech.