Still no Iraq military to hand off to

[Cruzan]

Just another sign that things are really lost there. Out of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi soldiers and police the Pentagon has repeatedly trumpeted about training, they can't get 4,000 to come to Baghdad.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Only a quarter of the Iraqi Army forces that had been designated more than a month ago to work on security improvements in the capital have arrived, a sign of continuing problems with the government of Iraq's ability to command and move its troops.

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. James Thurman, who is in charge of military forces in Baghdad, said Friday that he had requested 4,000 additional Iraqi soldiers to help secure Baghdad, but had only received 1,000 of those soldiers.

''Some of these battalions, when they were formed, were formed regionally,'' Thurman said in a video news conference with Pentagon reporters from Baghdad. ''And some of the soldiers, due to the distance, did not want to travel into Baghdad.''

[...]

Iraqi army units have refused deployment orders before, sometimes complaining of the travel involved, but other times expressing concerns that they would be thrust into uncomfortable sectarian confrontations.

In August, 100 Iraqi soldiers in southern Maysan Province refused to redeploy to Baghdad. U.S. officials explained at the time that the unit's Shiite leaders felt that the troops were needed in Maysan. They also did not want to be sent to Baghdad, where they believed they would need to fight Shiite militias.

U.S. officials also said Kurdish units had refused to be redeployed from Northern Iraq to Ramadi, in violent Anbar province.

But the problems may go beyond regional or sectarian loyalty and reflect crucial readiness problems. The Iraqi Army is not considered to be very mobile and lacks the armored transport vehicles or planes that would allow them to quickly deploy large groups of soldiers around the country.

Source: http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/09/23/a2.int.warlat.0923.p1.php?section=nation_world

[Cruzan]

1. Kick

Well I think it's important.