June 28, 2006
LEAVING BEHIND A MORE CAPABLE ARAB ARMY THAN WE FOUND:
U.S. Military Expects to Meet Training Goal for Iraqi Security Forces (Josh White, 6/28/06, Washington Post)
U.S. military commanders expect to meet their goal of training and equipping more than 325,000 members of the new Iraqi security forces by the end of this year, an important step in developing Iraq's self-defense, Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who leads the training effort, said yesterday.
MORE:
Iraqis capture al-Qaida member wanted in shrine bombing (BASSEM MROUE, June 28, 2006, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Iraqi forces captured a key al-Qaida suspect wanted in the bombing of a Shiite shrine, but the mastermind of the attack that brought the country to the brink of civil war was still at large, a top security official said Wednesday.Posted by Orrin Judd at June 28, 2006 10:02 AMYousri Fakher Mohammed Ali, a Tunisian also known as Abu Qudama, was captured after being seriously wounded in a clash with security forces north of Baghdad a few days ago in which 15 other foreign fighters were killed, National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said.
He also identified the fugitive ringleader in the operation as an Iraqi named Haitham Sabah Shaker Mohammed al-Badri, the head of a gang that included two other Iraqis, four Saudis and Abu Qudama. He said the gang planted bombs in the 1,200-year-old Askariya mosque that exploded on Feb. 22 and obliterated its glistening golden dome, an addition completed in 1905.
Yes, I have been looking a long time for any analysis on the effect on Middle East politics of having a (relatively) well-trained, (relatively) well-equipped Arab army of a democratically elected government in its midst.
Posted by: Rick T. at June 28, 2006 11:14 AMKeep in mind that there has been zero indication that Iraq is being set up with any force capable of "independent operations."
Read the linked article. This whole business is a joke. Korea, Japan and Germany are not set up for independent operations.
Oh wow! The Iraqis are about to be given armored humvees at some point in the future. Let's see, at that rate they might be fixed up with air, armor, space, naval, CS, CSS and C3I in 50 years or so.
Posted by: Lou Gots at June 28, 2006 12:22 PMCompared to the rest of the ME - it'll be enough.....
Posted by: Sandy P at June 28, 2006 12:57 PMAs a colonial force backed by imperial airpower and armor, the new Iraq army may be strong.
However, without armor and at least some of the other things Lou notes, it cannot be an independent force capable of launching offensive actions against Iran or Syria.
Posted by: Bob at June 28, 2006 1:05 PMThat really is a feature, not a bug.
As Lou notes, this is just what we did to Europe: "No airlift capability? Sacre bleu, how did we forget that!"
Posted by: David Cohen at June 28, 2006 1:36 PMRegarding your title: do you really mean to imply it might have been possible to leave them with a less capable one?
Posted by: cp at June 29, 2006 1:28 AMLou, when Iraq is fully up and running, why can't they develop their own capabilities or purchase what they need to make their country safe? They needed be a client state ad infinitum.
Posted by: erp at June 29, 2006 8:35 AMcp:
How quickly we forget that Saddam had the "fifth greatest military in the world!" when folks wanted to dodge removing him.
Posted by: oj at June 29, 2006 8:42 AMerp;
Why can't the Europeans? If nothing else, it will be decades at least before Iraq is wealthy enough to pay for a serious military.
To respond, we simply do not hand over the good stuff to anyone, partly for security, partly to retain control. There are ample exemplars for this paradigm.
"Ad infinitum" has theological implications. In material terms, the world is changing, with the changes driven by technology. Sovereignity does not mean what it once meant.
Posted by: Lou Gots at June 29, 2006 1:13 PMI wasn't aware that “ad infinitum” had religious connotations and I certainly didn’t mean to imply it.
Iraq needn’t have a military comparable to the U.S. to make their country secure from attack within or without their borders.
Europe is a tragic case. It’s unclear whether with heroic effort they can right (pun intended) themselves and preserve the seat of western civilization or whether they will allow 7th century avatars to destroy it.