September 5, 2003
YOU GONNA TRUST WHAT HE SAID, OR WHAT WE TIMESMEN WRITE?:
Rumsfeld Eager for More Iraqis to Keep Peace (DOUGLAS JEHL and DEXTER FILKINS, 9/05/03, NY Times)
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, arriving in Iraq, said today that his highest priority was to speed up the recruitment, training and deployment of former Iraqi officers to work with the United States to combat disorder and violence here."It is their country, and we want them to play a greater role," Mr. Rumsfeld said. An administration official who outlined the American strategy separately said that Mr. Rumsfeld wanted "to get people stood up quickly, attach them to the U.S. Army and then let them go and fight for their country."
The plans outlined by Mr. Rumsfeld today represented a shift and appeared to reflect the growing realization here and in Washington that the money and manpower so far committed to the American project in Iraq are proving insufficient.
That's strange; it seems to imply the opposite to us, a recognition that this isn't an "American project" but an Iraqi one and a decision to draw down US forces more quickly than had previously been speculated, replacing them with indigenous forces. Posted by orrinj at September 5, 2003 9:09 AM
Well, they'll need plenty of indigenous forces to protect all the blue helmets fixing to skip into Iraq, and to make sure the U.N. doesn't fall on its a** like it has virtually everywhere else.
Actually, maybe the strategy is to set up a scenario where the Iraqis see how bumbling and inept the U.N. is compared to their own freshy-trained indigenous forces. . . .
Posted by: Twn at September 5, 2003 9:24 AM