Top US civilian (DynCorp chief): "It could go on like this forever."

[Rose Siding]

snip>
Heidingsfield, on leave from the Memphis and Shelby County Crime Commission (he served as Scottsdale chief from 1991-98), is contingent commander of the State Department’s civilian police advisory mission. As the top American civilian helping to create an Iraqi police force, he assesses the training of Iraqi police on the ground. The danger he faces is illustrated by statistics released this week: 151 Iraqi cops were killed and 325 wounded in May alone.
...
During a series of interviews in Jordan and Iraq, Heidingsfield was brutally honest about factors that will help decide whether the United States is successful in this mission or not.

It’s not just al-Qaida that he has to worry about. It’s militant Sunnis, it’s the notorious Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his followers, and it’s organized crime.

"My greatest concern is that Iraq, if it is not stabilized, will never get beyond where we are today," he told Sullivan. "And if the level of insurgency were to continue, it will be a daunting challenge to reshape the Iraqi police into an organization that understands that they’re critical to the future of the country. That’s what worries me."

He described the insurgency as alive and well, expressed the frustration he feels when he hears overly optimistic views of the situation, and at one point said, "It could go on like this forever."

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=42535

[Wright Patman]

1. To answer the editorial writer's

question, "forever" means "until the last drop of oil is pumped from beneath Iraq's sands."

I think the young people recently refusing to enlist "get that" by now.

[JohnyCanuck]

2. Silly fellow, what does he know?

The Commander in Chimp says, "Bring 'em on. Nothing we can't handle."

Who should we believe - a former police chief who is responsible for training Iraqi police to impose law an order in the the midst of an insurgency and who has been travelling around Iraq for 6 months, or an intellectually deficient sock puppet of the military industrial complex who has spent no more time in Iraq than it takes to sneak into Baghdad at 5:00 am to deliver a plastic turkey before high tailing back to the USA as fast as Air Force 1 can take him.