US May Have Botched Iraqi Training - private contractors to blame

[Holly_Hobby]

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Training the police is as important to stabilizing Iraq as building an effective army there, but the United States has botched the job by assigning the wrong agencies to the task, two members of the Iraq Study Group said Wednesday. "The police training system has not gone well," said former Rep. Lee Hamilton, who co-chaired the bipartisan commission.

For a second day, a key Republican directly challenged President Bush to do more than pay "lip service" to this and other recommendations on how to resolve the troubled conflict in Iraq. "As a nation we'd be much better off if the executive branch were not so insular," said Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa. "I'd think the executive branch would be well advised to do more than have a meeting and a news conference to give in-depth consideration to what is being proposed here."

According to the report, co-authored by Hamilton and former Attorney General Edwin Meese, the U.S. erred by first assigning the task of shaping the judicial system in a largely lawless country to the State Department and private contractors who "did not have the expertise or the manpower to get the job done."

In 2004, the mission was assigned to the Defense Department, which devoted more money to the task. But department officials also were insufficiently trained for the job, Hamilton and Meese said. As a result, Iraq has little if any on-the-street law enforcement personnel or a functioning judicial system free of corruption, they said.

...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070131/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq

[Kagemusha]

1. As a previous thread noted, Petraus led that 2004-05 effort

on behalf of the Defense Department.

[tanyev]

5. A detail conveniently not mentioned in the article.

:banghead:

[Kagemusha]

6. I checked quick with Google to make sure I was right, too.

Took a couple of minutes.

[Jacobin]

9. oh man

it just gets weirder and weirder.

promoting loyal fuck ups is the hallmark of this administration

[tabasco]

12. And the mafia. Loyalty is the key consideration, not competence.

The Bush administration operates just like a criminal enterprise, which it is.

Our Nation will suffer long and hard because of these years of corruption.

[acmavm]

2. Oh hell yes, a country with a society that has a recognized

history thousands and thousands of years older than ours needs out HELP teaching a police force how to operate. (That's a scream.)

They're operating this way because the thugs in power want them to operate this way.

What a bunch of bullshit.

[LibDemAlways]

3. It's insane, isn't it? Whenever I hear the blowhards in

Congress or the chimp or the media talking about how we have to "train" Iraqis so they can "step up," my blood starts to boil. This thoroughly patronizing bullshit attitude is the problem, not the solution.

[Kagemusha]

8. Umm, historically, police in that region aren't there to fight "crime".

They're there to keep down all those who are not members of the dominant political/ethnic/religious group.

That's how they work historically, that's how they're working now, that's how they were under Saddam Hussein - his tribe was just ascendant at that particular time.

Just pointing this out. I'm NOT saying the US is helping. But the Iraqis don't need any lessons in corrupt policing, no. In ethical policing, they could use a refresher or two, but if that's just not relevant to their real lives, no lesson will stick.

[subterranean]

4. Is Arlen Specter deluded?

Does he still believe this administration will listen to anyone outside their small inner circle? He's a little slow on the uptake, but even he might finally be starting to get it.

"I'd think the executive branch would be well advised to do more than have a meeting and a news conference to give in-depth consideration to what is being proposed here."
:rofl:

[Kagemusha]

7. We're talking Arlen "Magic Bullet" Specter here.

Let's not be unreasonable.

[Nickster]

10. Ahhh, remember Bernie Kerik? What they aren't saying is how people were vetted for

their political loyalty rather than their expertise in anything over there. Lots of talented folks were kept out because they weren't a crony of someone else.

[brentspeak]

11. Yeah, this comes as a major surprise. Private war contractors swindling the taxpayer.

Never would have seen this one coming...:sarcasm: