1,300 Iraqi troops, police dismissed

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government has dismissed about 1,300 soldiers and policemen who deserted or refused to fight during last month's offensive against Shiite militias and criminal gangs in Basra, officials said Sunday.

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said 921 police and soldiers were fired in Basra. They included 37 senior police officers ranging in rank from lieutenant colonel to brigadier general.

The others were dismissed in Kut, one of the Shiite cities where the fight had spread.

Last month, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the security forces to confront armed groups in Basra, Iraq's second largest city.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080413/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[Ian David]

1. Hard work! Making progress! My Pet Goat! n/t

[Bonhomme Richard]

2. I wonder if they took their weapons?

Probably not.

[ckramer]

3. Iraqis don't kill Iraqis

What part of that sentence Iraq government doesn't understand?

[ohio2007]

4. Actually, if they are from the same tribe then yes, Iraqi's don't kill Iraqi's

Tribal militias have been around for centuries. traditions are not going to go away that easy as putting it to a vote

[aquarius dawning]

5. "28 criminals from Basra...were executed in Baghdad on Sunday"

mass executions... on sunday no less. What a wonderful place.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Iraq Dismisses 1,300 After Basra Offensive: "implicit admission of failures"

Source: New York Times

By STEPHEN FARRELL
Published: April 14, 2008

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government announced Sunday that it had dismissed 1,300 soldiers and policemen for refusing to fight or performing badly during last month’s offensive against Shiite militias in the southern city of Basra.

Maj. Gen. Abdul-Kareem Khalaf, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said that 500 soldiers and 421 policemen were fired in Basra, including 37 senior police officers up to the rank of Brigadier General. Police officials said the remainder were fired in Kut, where fighting also spread.

“Some of them were sympathetic with these lawbreakers, some refused to battle for political or national or sectarian or religious reasons,” General Khalaf said in Basra.

The dismissals were an implicit admission of failures during the government offensive, which was widely criticized as being poorly planned. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s forces failed to disarm Shiite militias, in particular the Mahdi Army militia loyal to the cleric Moktada al-Sadr. However, they claim to have restored order to the streets, and the nearby ports vital to Iraq’s oil industry....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/world/middleeast/14iraq.html?hp

[Botany]

7. But Petraeus and Crocker just told me that things were getting better

.... all they needed was more time, money, and men but some of
the progress was uneven .... Gee, have they been less than honest
before?

[Bush_MUST_Go]

8. Not dismissed.... Iraq is withdrawing troops.

[Botany]

10. Iraq is Vietnam w/ sand

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3266850

[Fozzledick]

13. It's looking more like Cambodia to me

No functioning national government, U.S. invaders hunkered down in a heavily fortified garrison in the occupied capitol, the rest of the country a lawless "free-fire" zone, and millions of people just waiting for our forces to leave to take revenge on anyone who collaborated with them in slaughtering their families.

[Botany]

16. Iraq is Vietnam w/ sand to me because the "Army" when called on to fight ....

..... didn't. Although many S. Vietnamese troops faught w/ honor and
hard the idea that there was a command and control structure to
the military that was under the control of Saigon at many times was
a joke. The officers in ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) often
would make the troops buy bullets before going into combat.

I might be wrong but I think Basra was out "Tet" with out all
the bloodshed .... it should be a wake up call that it is time
to get out.

http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=670

Basra Battles: Barely Half the Story

[BunkerHill24]

9. There are news reports there might be an amnesty in the works

I doubt the Iraqi government is dared to disband 1,300 trained Iraqi army and police officers. We know what happened last time when we disbanded whole lot of the Iraqi army.

[Bush_MUST_Go]

11. Amnesty or extortion.....

will the US now have to dig deeper in our pockets to pay Iraqis to defend their own country??

[BunkerHill24]

12. Call it what you want

but there has to be a way to limit all out civil war....and sending unemployed 1,300 trained army men out on the street isn't the right solution.

[gratuitous]

14. Wasn't this a resounding success three weeks ago?

Is Chimpy still running around telling everyone how Basra was "proof" of the "success" of the "surge"?

[wellst0nev0ter]

15. Hope Those Fired Didn't Keep Their Guns (n/t)

[40ozDonkey]

18. Or even worse, their uniforms and security badges.

Good idea Iraq, repeat Paul Bremer's mistake.

[War Pigs]

17. but the Fucktard said this was a turning point. DOH!!!

:spank:

[ohio2007]

19. 1,300 paycheck taken out of mookies hands

Al-Sadr Tightens the Screws

Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr threw down yet another challenge to the Iraqi government, demanding that policemen and soldiers Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki fired for refusing to fight al-Sadr's militia be reinstated "after honoring them." On Sunday. Maliki's government announced the dismissal of more than 1,300 security personnel who deserted last month when fighting broke out between Iraqi government forces and the Mahdi Army in Basra.

snip
Sadr's exact whereabouts remain unclear, though he is rumored to have recently returned to Najaf after spending the past several months undertaking intensive religious studies in Iran.

The demand, which came before another burst of Sunni insurgent violence north and west of Baghdad, is unlikely to be heeded by Malik.i

snip
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1731022,00.html?xid=rss-world

another long distance call from Iran making demands for his funding to be reinstated. Those 1300 union dues payers of his won't be drawing pay from the Iraqi govt.