U.S. must reform Iraqi forces before leaving: Hashemi [View All]

[rodeodance]

well, bush is getting an earful that is for sure.


U.S. must reform Iraqi forces before leaving: Hashemi

By Arshad Mohammed Thu Dec 14, 6:16 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Iraqi official criticized the United States on Thursday for disbanding the Iraqi army in 2003 and said it should not withdraw without reforming Iraqi security forces heavily infiltrated by sectarian militias.


Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi said he and
President Bush on Tuesday discussed the idea of forming a political coalition better able to end sectarian violence than Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government.

Highlighting the threat from sectarian death squads, gunmen in camouflage uniforms kidnapped about 30 Iraqis in a daylight attack in Baghdad on Thursday. Most were later released unharmed in the predominantly Shi'ite Muslim Shaab neighborhood, an Interior Ministry source and police said.

..........."The United States has (a) duty to reform the Iraqi government forces because it was the United States forces which mistakenly dissolved the previous Iraqi military and security forces -- so there was, more or less, an obligation -- and created this security void now being filled with ... sectarian militias, terrorists and organized crime gangs," he added.........