UK-trained Iraq soldiers graduate

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

The first Iraqi soldiers to be trained for the country's new security force by the British Army in the UK have taken part in a passing-out parade.

Thirty-five National Guardsmen spent the last three months at the Infantry Battle School in Brecon, mid Wales.

They have been trained in military planning and strategy in the hope that Iraqis will eventually take over the Allies' peacekeeping role.

(...)

The course was "a first", although Iraqi soldiers were trained in the UK before Saddam Hussein came to power, said MoD spokesman David Stevens.

He said it was "likely" more courses would be run in army training centres across the UK.

"They are not being trained to fight terrorists, they are being trained to think for themselves in the British manner, not the old Saddam way of not thinking for themselves," he added.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4158318.stm

The theory is that each of these converts to the British way of engaging the enemy will pass on what he has learnt to another 10 men at a time.

Those men in turn do the same. So 35 becomes 350. Then 350 becomes 3,500 and so on.

It is the first step in building a professional, accountable defence force 170,000 strong, according to Lieutenant General Nasier Al Abadi, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iraqi armed forces.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/4159898.stm

[Larkspur]

1. Thinking for themselves is great, but will they have the equipment to

perform security tasks or will they be worse off than our troops, who lack armor, etc.?

[Kipling]

2. I don't know if that's such a good wheeze.

The British Army is, in the experience of my brother (a Nimrod pilot), tough but undeniably vicious in places. According to him, one officer or sergeant can pollute an entire regiment leading to torture or even murder. Now imagine the abusive tendancies being passed on by one trainer, to two Iraqis, to twenty, to two hundred. That could get nasty.