Paula Broadwell writes in the Boston Globe, with thanks to Hugh Fitzgerald.
IN SEPTEMBER 2003, the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs constructed the Jordan International Police Training Center outside of Amman to train Iraq law enforcement personnel. Sixteen nations provide a total of 352 police trainers for the center. The camp has a capacity to train 3,000 Iraqi police recruits in an eight-week basic police skills course and graduate 1,500 new police every month. New Iraqi police come away with a coveted paycheck ($150) and sufficiently trained and equipped to counter foreign intelligence operations, pandemic lawlessness in an anarchic society, and insurgents who target US troops or collaborators.In April 2005 I had the chance to visit the center, the world's largest international police training camp. I am a military officer and have been deployed throughout Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, but this was one of the nicest training posts I have ever seen. However, the comprehensive training I witnessed was disheartening. The Iraq coalition constituency deserves to know why this mission is likely to fail.
There are three main reasons why these forces will never be ready to defend their country: The wary, uncommitted recruits are immature and lackadaisical about the mission; the parsimonious training is inadequate; and accountability once recruits return to Iraq is inconsistent at best and lacks the return on investment that one would expect.
The recruit pool. According to international instructors at the camp, the troops are often recruited from among intimidated teenagers or disillusioned, desperate unemployed men left with few job prospects in their chaotic country. We aren't always getting the highest quality ''volunteers" because many of those have already joined the insurgency. Others are understandably concerned about their life expectancy if they join the police. In spite of most of the high-quality, experienced instructors, I learned that a clan relative of the Jordanian terrorist mastermind Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi was also an employee at the camp, adding an interesting element to operational security.
Return on Investment. Purportedly, about 40 to 60 percent of these graduates never actually join the Iraqi police force when they return from Jordan. They defect, taking their coveted pay and their new skills to the insidious insurgency, according to liaison officers in Iraq. Some are forced to give up the weapons they were issued at this camp to corrupt local police chiefs; these often end up on the black market. Others lose their firearms in insurgent raids on police stations. Sadly, too many are targeted immediately upon return to Iraq. Forty-six newly returned graduates on a bus were executed point-blank by insurgents this spring; more than 1,500 of those who have made it into the police force have died just this year...
"more than 1,500 of those who have made it into the police force have died just this year"
Most of those attacks on the police could only have happened with assistance from within the police force. Buses are stopped in remote locations and the recruits are pulled off and executed. Who had knowledge of where the buses were going and when?
The people training the recruits admit that many of the "recruits" are jihadist infiltrators. It doesn't take more than a few subversives in each police station to completely render them completely ineffective.
Another factor not mentioned in the article is the lack of historical precedent for a non-corrupt police force in an Islamic nation. Unlike the West, the Qur'an does not support a system of laws that apply to all people equally regardless of social status or religious affiliation. Instead, their history is to rely on tribal elders to enforce the law as they see fit. The resulting "law" is based on tribalism and personal animosity.
The Qur'an also supports corruption; taking the property of non-Muslims (including Muslims who are not Muslim enough) is justified by several passages:
Qur’an 4:94 “Believers, when you go abroad to fight wars in Allah’s Cause, investigate carefully, and say not to anyone who greets you: ‘You are not a believer!’ Coveting the chance profits of this life (so that you may despoil him). With Allah are plenteous spoils and booty.”
Qur’an 8:40 “If people are obstinate, and refuse to surrender, know that Allah is your Supporter. And know that one fifth of all the booty you take belongs to Allah, and to the Messenger, and for the near relatives (of the Messenger).”
Tabari VIII:12 “When cities were conquered Muslims used to say, ‘Conquer for yourselves whatever seems good to you because all treasures were given to Muhammad.’”
Making the assumption that Islamic cultures follow the same goals and have the same aspirations as Judeao-Christian cultures will lead to fiascos such as this.
This article points out the near-hopelessness of the situation. It is cruel to force the entire weight of the Administration's misunderstanding of both Islam and Iraq onto the soldiers, the officers and men who are supposed to train "Iraqi" police and an "Iraqi" army when there is no such feeling for "Iraq" -- not at least outside a handful of people, the very handful of unrepresentative Iraqis whom, outside Iraq, and inside, the Americans have met and assumed were the "people of Iraq." But Rend al-Rahim Francke, Ahmad Chalabi, Kanan Makiya and all the rest had spent decades abroad. They were mostly well-off and well-educated and whether Sunni or Shi'a, largely secular. For their own good and sufficient reasons, they wanted the Americans to depose Saddam Hussein. This the Americans did. But these completely unrepresentative "Iraqis," the way they offered prospects of things to come in a Light-Unto-the-Muslim Nations Iraq, and did so plausibly and pleasingly, are not Iraq. The real Iraq, the Iraq that the soldiers have to deal with, is much more primitive, much more determinedly hostile to Americans (except insofar as they can be temorarily bought off, like a tribal leader here or there, by infusions of American cash -- are we to keep transfusing that cash to the endlessly corrupt "Iraqis" and if so, what will we really be getting in return, save for a temporary cessation of hostilities in this or that small area of a large country?).
The author of the article for some reason does not mention, in her discussion of the treacherous nature of the recruits, so many of whom take the cash, and the weapons, and the training all supplied by the Americans, and then promptly join the most violent enemies of those same Ameicdans, the intractable problem of Kurd mistrust of Arabs, of Shi'a mistrust of Sunnis (and both with good reason, solidly based on experience over a long period). Perhaps she had not been thinking on those lines. If she has the leisure to think at the Kennedy School this year (despite the Kennedy School, not becasue of it) perhaps she will take a moment to read Bat Ye'or on The Dhimmi, and even more relevant to Iraq, Elie Kedourie's "The Chatham House Version." One needs officers in the army to educate themselves about Islam and about Iraq -- it is too bad it has to happen so late in the day.
Making the assumption that Islamic cultures follow the same goals and have the same aspirations as Judeao-Christian cultures will lead to fiascos such as this.
Can we get this framed and sent to Rumsfeld and company?
f.g.
A poster on another JW thread states that we may need to remain in Iraq till 2008..
The Vietnam era needs to be recalled here.
The draft would no doubt have to be resurrected with the resulting disintegration of military morale; continued decimation of equipment and treasury exacerbating matters;
another 2-3 thousand U.S. dead tolerated; and the concommitent civil strife absorbed at a time when our nation needs to be united against its' true enemy.
recommended "A Bright and Shining Lie" by
Neil Sheehan
Oriana Fallaci has met with the Pope secretely
Here is the link:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050830/en_afp/vaticanpopereligion_050830191423
Now, expect the Jihadists to declare war on Vatican
stefania posted an article with the following quote:
"But [Pope Benedict XVI] has since rejected the clash-of-civilisations scenario and this month met a Muslim delegation at the Catholic World Youth Day celebrations in Cologne."
There is a difference between advocating a "clash-of-civilisations" and recognizing that it is already taking place. People seem to confuse the two. If you mention that Islam has declared war on non-Muslims, you are criticized for provoking the Muslims.
Sadly, too many are targeted immediately upon return to Iraq. Forty-six newly returned graduates on a bus were executed point-blank by insurgents this spring; more than 1,500 of those who have made it into the police force have died just this year...
and yet they keep signing up. alot of people are underestimating the iraqi's and saying they can never have a democracy. i think which ever way iraq goes, the iraqi's won't forget those who foght for them, or against them.
Bella Stefania,
You comment about jihad being waged on the Vatican was disccussed here last Friday under the title Islamic forum: Vatican has entered the war.
As the article states, the Vatican remains a target, but just under a different excuse. We see the excuse for constant jihad against a single target changes frequently. The article also states that, according to Abdouh, the Vatican has losts its neutrality in the jihad against the West.
In the prior thread, this was also observed:
The Vatican has been in consultation with the foreign minister of Iraq. The Iraq foreign minister, as reported here, has recently visted with Benedict XVI seeking His Holiness' help with the establishment of the Iraqi constitutional governement and protection of religious minorities. Now it is clear why the Vatican is no longer neutral but has joined the war against Islam. Read the full article: Iraq reassures Vatican on religious freedom.
And how many recruits are al Quaida moles?
"the iraqi's won't forget those who foght for them"
-- from a posting above
No, the Iraqis will be just as grateful, no doubt, as the Egyptians have proven over the past 25 years during which they have received $60 billion from the American taxpayers, or as the "Palestinians" have proven to be for the billions they recieved (and somehow managed to misplace, so pretty please send us more right away to make Gaza bloom, because otherwise we might have to get nasty and that would be bad for the road-map and the two-state solution and...."). They have already forgotten what the Americans did for them, are doing for them.
Oh, I'm not saying all Iraqis are like that. There is Kanan Makiya. That's one. There's Rend al-Rahim Francke. That's two. There's Ahmad Chalabi. That's three. Gosh, I could go on all night, and I bet if I put my mind to it I could name all -- what, 20,000 Arabs in Iraq, oh -- the Kurds are another matter -- who are genuinely grateful, and seem to understand the West and appreciate its ways. Why of course they do -- they've all spent at least 25 years in that West. but what about the rest of the Muslim Arabs in Iraq, the 20 million or so (deducting for the Kurds). Out of those 20 million, let's not stick to 20,000, but make it 50,000. No, let's go wild -- let's say there are 100,000 Muslim Arabs (i.e. not counting the Kurds, and not counting the Christians who worked as the house staff -- cooks, drivers, etc. -- for Saddam Hussein and then did the same for the American generals and high civilians in the Green Zone) who are truly grateful.
Well, that just isn't enough. That just is not enough on which to base a policy. There are some very nice Iraqis, and the Americans in Washington and in Baghdad have met every single last one of them. That's what they have to realize. Emerson wrote something called "Representative Men." Well, the problem with the Iraq policy is partly that it was based, and continues to be based, on "Unrepresentative Men." And women too -- like that girl who hugged the dead Marine's parents at that Washington soiree. Sentimental, a crowd-please, and the most unrepresentative Iraqi you could possibly find. Fun for the crowd, cruel for the spectators at home, who were being offered the equivalent of a Potemkin-village Iraq.
Lets Let Iraq Fall Into Civil War...
I suppose I am in the minority on this one. But I supported Iraq 100%, and was actually pissed that we didnt do this the first time.
However, We have given Iraq its chance at a Secular Democracy. Instead they have chosen Islamic theocracy all Taqiyya-ed up to resemble a democracy.
Why dont we just pull out, and let the Sunni (backed by Syria and Saudi Arabia) and the Shia (backed by Iran) go at it???
After the dust settles we attack the winner...Is that so wrong?
"After the dust settles we attack the winner...Is that so wrong?"
-- from a posting above
Not wrong, but not necessary. The dust will not settle. The Sunni-Shi'a split will remain, the fault line not along the Iran-Iraq border, but within Iraq. Let the Sunnis and the Shi'a receive outside help. The Shi'a help is likely to consist of basijis, True Believers, whom those who hate the Islamic Republic of Iran will be glad to see go, as cannon fodder, making their own task of undoing the Islamic Republic easier. In the mess, the Americans can concentrate on destroying or heavily damaging Iran's science project -- which must take precedence over everything else.
The dust will not settle, and there will be no winner to "attack." But resources of all kinds, and upheavel of all kinds -- and we want upheavals, we should welcome upheavals, all over the Muslim countries, one damn upheaval after another, until the Infidels or enough of them have taken their crash courses in Islam, and a new understanding of what needs to be done can be shared between North America and Western Europe. The spectacle of intra-Muslmi warfare, with the traditional ways of that warfare (no more American kid-gloves, Geneva-convention stuff -- that's for Infidels), will do much to spoil the Da'wa pitch made to vulneraable Infidels in the West, casting about, either on a spiritual search, or on a search for some ready-made vehicle to express their alienation, even hatred, of their circumambient society -- and along comes Islam to fit the bill.
No, the dust won't settle. It can't. But American troops right now are being asked to move heaven and earth to creae an "Iraqi" army, and an "Iraqi" police, and to move heaven and earth to make sure that Sunnis and Shi'a create a democratic Peaceable Kingdom. Why? Why would that help us contain Islam? What is the sense in this? It is machiavellian in reverse. How ignorant of Islam and of Iraq must some of the policymakers be, and how blind to the possibilities (blind because wilfully timid) of other, more effective, less profligate, policies?