With U.S. Consent, Iraq's New Army Looks a Good Deal Like Its Old One

[ECH1969]

TAJI, Iraq, Nov. 20 -- Clad in the olive-green uniform of old, his heart rising to the sound of the lilting march to which he once went to war for President Saddam Hussein, Sgt. Bashar Fathi, a veteran of Iraq's once-elite Republican Guard, watched Iraqi tanks trundle across a parade ground recently -- just as they once swept across the sands of Kuwait.

"This ceremony -- this same music -- it makes us remember the old army," marveled Fathi, standing on the top tier of a reviewing stand south of Baghdad. Next to him was Capt. Khudhair Alwan, whose contact with U.S. forces began by trying to kill them as they invaded the southern city of Basra in 2003.

"The vast majority of officers were in the previous army," said Lt. Col. Frederick Wellman, spokesman for the U.S. command overseeing the reformation of Iraq's security forces. "People asked us why we didn't call back the old army," he added. "And the answer is, well, we have."

"It's better now," agreed Fathi, the former Republican Guardsman. "If they put all the former army officers and soldiers back in the new army, it would be even better."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/20/AR2005112001054.html

[ECH1969]

1. Saddam's torturers have been invited back by the US

[54anickel]

2. These guys don't think they'll be ready for us to leave before the

'06 elections.

There was a point in time we were really trying as hard as we could to build the security forces fast," Dempsey said. Now, "it's not that we're trying to build a security force fast -- we're trying to build one that's good and capable." Growing pressure in the United States, with more lawmakers pressing for American troops to turn security over to the nascent forces and leave, cannot "be the factor that informs my decisions," Dempsey said.

In Taji, Alwan, the Sunni army captain, was ready to set a timeline for significant U.S. withdrawal. "Two years," Alwan said. If the Americans pull out before that -- before the government is steady, the constitution set and the army trained -- it "means we would go to civil conflict," he said.

[ECH1969]

3. Yes, I saw that

[54anickel]

5. Think Bush will pull out in time for the elections anyway? Or will this

be the reason to stay? Which will win out? His Machiavellian tendencies of political expediency, the pure greed of his circle of cronies, or his need to prove Poppy wrong?

[daleo]

4. Bush should just put Saddam back in charge and leave

Because, that seems to be where this is going.

[chknltl]

7. While uttering the famous last words of Rosanne-Rosanna-Dana

"Never Mind"

[obreaslan]

6. Rape Rooms are fine as long as they are our Rape Rooms I guess...

:(

[chknltl]

8. What ever happened to: " You break it you own it" by C. Powell???

...What a great bumper snicker that would be right about now.

Hey georgie, remember these words?: "You break it you own it"

Hmmm... Someone should remind our Democratic Leadership of that line so they can remind the shrub of it.
c

[Rose Siding]

9. For now, training focuses on "keeping up payroll, supply chains", etc

Army training for the time to come will focus on building an army that can maintain itself -- keeping up payroll, supply chains and everything else, U.S. generals said.