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

[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.........

[mike_c]

1. if the Iraqi gov't can't reform its own military then the U.S. will never...

...be able to do it. This is Vietnam all over again. Didn't we learn that lesson from the ARVN?

[Vincardog]

2. So now the Iraqis are offering us terms of surrender?

[rodeodance]

3. Bush lectures them and they lecture us.

[fairfaxvadem]

4. Well, aren't they going to be in tip-top shape by June '07?

Isn't that what Maliki said? So, hey, the troops should be able to come home by that '08 deadline. I just don't know what everyone is worried about...Iraq is well on its way to handling their own security. The PM said so. And we know he wouldn't just pull a date out of his ass to try to bolster US public support, now would he?

Always moving the damn goal post. I don't want our troops taking one more bullet, one more day. And yet, when realists say, "don't kid yourselves, we're stuck in Iraq for the next 10 years trying to fix this mess" I don't doubt it for a minute.

And as soon as Bush announces he's scraped together 20,000 more troops in January, my bets are on the level of violence going up in quantum leaps.

I'm going to go hide now.

[amandabeech]

5. Anybody know if al-Hashemi is Shia or Sunni and what

party he belongs to?

These reports really should help readers out by including that info.

Perhaps its in the whole story?

[kenny blankenship]

6. I know what!

We'll send them ALL home (since we can't be sure who's a militia infiltrator) and start over with a brand new bunch. That way we should be ready to leave Iraq in not much more than 8 years from today! Who's with me?