Building Iraq's Army: Mission Improbable -WP

[Rose Siding]

By Anthony Shadid and Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 10, 2005; Page A01

BAIJI, Iraq -- An hour before dawn, the sky still clouded by a dust storm, the soldiers of the Iraqi army's Charlie Company began their mission with a ballad to ousted president Saddam Hussein. "We have lived in humiliation since you left," one sang in Arabic, out of earshot of his U.S. counterparts. "We had hoped to spend our life with you."
...
....Frustrated U.S. soldiers question the Iraqis' courage, discipline and dedication and wonder whether they will ever be able to fight on their own, much less reach the U.S. military's goal of operating independently by the fall.

"I know the party line. You know, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Army, five-star generals, four-star generals, President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld: the Iraqis will be ready in whatever time period," said 1st Lt. Kenrick Cato, 34, of Long Island, N.Y., the executive officer of McGovern's company, who sold his share in a database firm to join the military full-time after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "But from the ground, I can say with certainty they won't be ready before I leave. And I know I'll be back in Iraq, probably in three or four years. And I don't think they'll be ready then."

"We don't want to take responsibility; we don't want it," said Amar Mana, 27, an Iraqi private whose forehead was grazed by a bullet during an insurgent attack in November. "Here, no way. The way the situation is, we wouldn't be ready to take responsibility for a thousand years."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/09/AR2005060902245.html

[Jacobin]

1. With respect, the Iraqi army seems to be fighting very well against

the American occupiers. With nothing but improvised devices, scavenged weapons, and a lot of pluck, they are winning against 150,000 well armed soldiers with tanks, helicopters, 'precision' weapons, jets and sophisticated communications.

We do not have the moral high ground. It is ghastly to see our soldiers put in this position. Bush's war is an abject failure on every front.

[Supersedeas]

5. democracy at gunpoint is hard werk

[Pirate Smile]

2. WP: Building Iraq's Army: Mission Improbable

Building Iraq's Army: Mission Improbable
Project in North Reveals Deep Divide Between U.S. and Iraqi Forces

By Anthony Shadid and Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 10, 2005; Page A01

BAIJI, Iraq -- An hour before dawn, the sky still clouded by a dust storm, the soldiers of the Iraqi army's Charlie Company began their mission with a ballad to ousted president Saddam Hussein. "We have lived in humiliation since you left," one sang in Arabic, out of earshot of his U.S. counterparts. "We had hoped to spend our life with you."

But the Iraqi soldiers had no clue where they were going. They shrugged their shoulders when asked what they would do. The U.S. military had billed the mission as pivotal in the Iraqis' progress as a fighting force but had kept the destination and objectives secret out of fear the Iraqis would leak the information to insurgents.

"We can't tell these guys about a lot of this stuff, because we're not really sure who's good and who isn't," said Rick McGovern, a tough-talking 37-year-old platoon sergeant from Hershey, Pa., who heads the military training for Charlie Company.

The reconstruction of Iraq's security forces is the prerequisite for an American withdrawal from Iraq. But as the Bush administration extols the continuing progress of the new Iraqi army, the project in Baiji, a desolate oil town at a strategic crossroads in northern Iraq, demonstrates the immense challenges of building an army from scratch in the middle of a bloody insurgency.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/09/AR2005060902245.html

[grytpype]

3. RECOMMEND!!!!

Every time you think the news couldn't get any worse, it gets worse.

[Supersedeas]

4. does it sound like democracy at gunpoint works to you?? will our troops

be there for "a thousand years"


While George is sipping wine coolies on an island off the Bahamas that serves as a tax shelter, your kids will be moderating Iraqi freedom.

[killbotfactory]

6. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't iraq already have an army?

Until BushCo fucking disbanded them?!

[Jacobin]

7. It's working quite well, actually

The Iraqi army is doing what it is supposed to be doing....fighting the occupying forces.

The quislings being hired by Americans to attempt to uphold the puppet government...that's the one they are having trouble with. What patriotic Iraqi would be willing to give his life to support a foreign occupation of his own land?

This will not work. It is doomed. It is stupid, naive, silly, and only a plan that could have been thought up by MonkeyNuts and his neo-con dweebs.