THEIR FIGHT NOW:

Colonel walks Baghdad 'to make people believe' (Jim Michaels, 8/21/06, USA TODAY)

The Humvee has barely rolled to a stop, and Iraqi army Col. Talib Abdul Razzaq is already out of the vehicle.

He moves like a politician, stopping on the sidewalk to playfully cuff a young boy on the head and joke with a man selling shoes. He quizzes several people about violence and militias in the neighborhood. Most say the streets have been quiet.

"I'm trying to make people believe in the Iraqi army," Razzaq says at the next stop, where a sidewalk vendor gives him a complimentary sandwich from his cart. "They will feel more safe." Razzaq hands the sandwich to an aide and keeps moving. [...]

President Bush has said the United States will be able to withdraw its forces when the Iraqi government and military can take over responsibility for the country's security. The U.S. military says it has trained and equipped 275,000 security forces: 115,000 in the military and 160,000 police officers.

Whether they will stand and fight, and whether they will win the respect of Iraqis, depends largely on the quality of the men who lead them.

"Equipment and arms are important, but they only go so far," says U.S. Army Lt. Col. John Nagl, an Iraq veteran who wrote a book on counterinsurgency warfare.

MORE:
Iraq security adviser says violence levels falling (Reuters, 8/22/06)

The level of violence in Baghdad has fallen sharply since July thanks to troop reinforcements and the new government's efforts to reconcile warring Shi'ites and Sunnis, Iraq's national security adviser said on Tuesday.

Mowaffaq al-Rubaie insisted that the sectarian and insurgent bloodshed that has seized Iraq was not a civil war, a description U.S. President George W. Bush's administration has strenuously avoided in the face of mounting casualties.

"This is absolutely not a civil war," Rubaie told Reuters in an interview during a visit to Japan. "Al Qaeda tried for that for three years and failed miserably. But it has created a crack between Shias and Sunnis."

Inhofe optimistic on Iraq: It's well on the way toward handling its own security, he says (RANDY KREHBIEL, 8/22/2006, Tulsa World)

"Iraqi security forces now number 275,000 trained and equipped," he said. "The commanders in the field and the Iraqis say when this reaches 325,000, that would equal 10 divisions, and that's what we need to take care of our own security."

Inhofe has visited Iraq 11 times.

"What's happened there is nothing short of a miracle," he said.

Nevertheless, Inhofe said the current international situation makes him "wistful for the Cold War."

"Then we had one powerful opponent, in the Soviet Union," he said. "They were predictable; we knew what they had. This is not predictable."

Except that Communism killed a hundred million people and Islamicism has only racked up a few thousand.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 22, 2006 8:47 AM