Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: AFP
Byline: n/a
Date: 24 October 2006
LONDON, Oct 24, 2006 (AFP) - Iraq's police force is not likely to be ready
to take over responsibility for security in the country within a year, The
Times reported on Tuesday citing unnamed American soldiers and officials in
Baghdad.
The report comes a day after Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said
that nearly half of the country's provinces will be under Iraqi control by
the end of this year, and a British official said at the weekend that Iraqi
soldiers and police will be ready to take over security from coalition
troops within a year.
"Iraqis are on their own timetable," an unidentified high-ranking American
officer overseeing police training in the Iraqi capital told The Times.
"They are fighting a war, but I'm not always sure they are fighting it. We
train them to do checkpoints, patrols, cordon and knock searches, but it
fails in the execution.
"There's probably twenty of them at a checkpoint but you'll only see three
actually working it," he said.
Meanwhile, another unnamed US officer told the newspaper that there was not
enough time to train the security services, because they were needed to
combat the insurgency in the country.
"It's a Catch-22 ... They've never been given the time actually to train.
You just have a bunch of guys and get them to a checkpoint. It's on-the-job
training," he said.
Another unidentified American official told the newspaper that it would be
"very difficult" for the Iraqi security forces to take over in a year.
"The Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defence don't work together ... We
in the military see it as one fight. I don't know what the Iraqis see it as.
You could call it machismo, but it's all about power," the official said.
"That's a challenge that needs to be addressed."
British junior foreign minister Kim Howells said at the weekend that Iraqi
soldiers and police should be ready to take over security from coalition
troops within a year.
Byline: n/a
Date: 24 October 2006
LONDON, Oct 24, 2006 (AFP) - Iraq's police force is not likely to be ready
to take over responsibility for security in the country within a year, The
Times reported on Tuesday citing unnamed American soldiers and officials in
Baghdad.
The report comes a day after Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said
that nearly half of the country's provinces will be under Iraqi control by
the end of this year, and a British official said at the weekend that Iraqi
soldiers and police will be ready to take over security from coalition
troops within a year.
"Iraqis are on their own timetable," an unidentified high-ranking American
officer overseeing police training in the Iraqi capital told The Times.
"They are fighting a war, but I'm not always sure they are fighting it. We
train them to do checkpoints, patrols, cordon and knock searches, but it
fails in the execution.
"There's probably twenty of them at a checkpoint but you'll only see three
actually working it," he said.
Meanwhile, another unnamed US officer told the newspaper that there was not
enough time to train the security services, because they were needed to
combat the insurgency in the country.
"It's a Catch-22 ... They've never been given the time actually to train.
You just have a bunch of guys and get them to a checkpoint. It's on-the-job
training," he said.
Another unidentified American official told the newspaper that it would be
"very difficult" for the Iraqi security forces to take over in a year.
"The Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defence don't work together ... We
in the military see it as one fight. I don't know what the Iraqis see it as.
You could call it machismo, but it's all about power," the official said.
"That's a challenge that needs to be addressed."
British junior foreign minister Kim Howells said at the weekend that Iraqi
soldiers and police should be ready to take over security from coalition
troops within a year.