Fight Or Flight: Can Iraqis Do The Job?
(3 of 4) U.S. officials are running out of patience with the Iraqis’ failure to step up. “If you do not defend your beloved country, it will not be saved,” Bremer said in an address to the Iraqi public last Friday. And yet some of the blame for the impotence of the Iraqi security and police forces lies with U.S. mismanagement. Military officials say the Pentagon’s decision to disband the Iraqi military last May was a disaster, in part because it deprived the new forces of any central command. In its rush to get the Iraqis onto the streets, the U.S. never settled on who should train the new forces; instead, responsibility was divided among the military, the Coalition Provisional Authority and the State Department. The Pentagon has since decided to place all Iraqi forces under Centcom, but military experts say thousands of Iraqis have already been pushed into duty without adequate training. Meanwhile, U.S. Army officials canceled the $327 million contract to supply Iraqi forces with equi
U.S. officials are running out of patience with the Iraqis’ failure to step up. “If you do not defend your beloved country, it will not be saved,” Bremer said in an address to the Iraqi public last Friday. And yet some of the blame for the impotence of the Iraqi security and police forces lies with U.S. mismanagement. Military officials say the Pentagon’s decision to disband the Iraqi military last May was a disaster, in part because it deprived the new forces of any central command. In its rush to get the Iraqis onto the streets, the U.S. never settled on who should train the new forces; instead, responsibility was divided among the military, the Coalition Provisional Authority and the State Department. The Pentagon has since decided to place all Iraqi forces under Centcom, but military experts say thousands of Iraqis have already been pushed into duty without adequate training. Meanwhile, U.S. Army officials canceled the $327 million contract to supply Iraqi forces with equipment, su
