A further report channeled through Eric Umansky:
Posted by DeLong at November 15, 2004 02:38 PM | TrackBackEric Umansky: Iraqi Police: Calling in Sick: Wanna know how Iraqi security forces are doing nowdays? Read, this buried NYT piece:
"It's clear that our expectations for them are way above their concept of duty and performance," said Lt. Col. Justin Gubler, commander of the First Battalion of the Army's 503rd Infantry, garrisoned at a camp called Combat Outpost near downtown Ramadi. "The Iraqi police are clearly intimidated to the point where they don't want to come to work."
Colonel Gubler said things had gotten so bad that when the Americans attacked Falluja, the Ramadi police were told not to come to work "just so we could differentiate them" from revenge-minded insurgents posing as police officers, he said. A sure way to know a car is packed with a suicide bomb, he added, is when the Iraqi police refuse to inspect the vehicle. "Somehow, they know."
The American troops get regular warnings about the Iraqi police before driving their armored Humvees into the dangerous streets of Ramadi. In the briefing for the mission to visit Al Farouk substation, for example, a young lieutenant told soldiers that it is "game on" if an Iraqi policeman pulls out a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. "If an IP shoots, we shoot back," he said.
Not that soldiers need the advice: one week ago an Iraqi policeman - or an impostor with a police uniform and car - wounded 15 troops riding in an open-backed seven-ton truck just outside the main gate of Combat Outpost. The bomber had been directing traffic at an intersection near the base for about 20 minutes, his police car parked nearby. After spying the truck, he hopped in and detonated his bomb.
From his experience, Colonel Gubler said, the Iraqi National Guardsmen in the region are only slightly better, though one Iraqi National Guard officer he knew stood out: the lieutenant colonel in charge of a national guard battalion near Falluja, 30 miles east of Ramadi. That commander, Colonel Gubler said, "was very good, but he was captured in Falluja and his head was cut off." He said he believed that the commander's subordinates had probably been complicit in the murder, committed in August.
So there was one ING officer who was really determined to uphold the cause, and his own men killed him?
Sell the country to the Kurds and the Shia and let them rule the middle. Serve those arabs right, it would.
Posted by: AllenM at November 15, 2004 04:38 PMIs there anybody that doesn't see this as a lost cause for the US government? What could possibly make all this worth it?
I wonder if there will eventually be a wave of Iraqi immigrants into the US much like post-Vietnam.
Posted by: sculpturearts at November 15, 2004 07:40 PM"What could possibly make all this worth it?"
Making the world safe for Halliburton.
Posted by: Dubblblind at November 15, 2004 10:14 PM"What could possibly make all this worth it?"
Uhhhmmmmm, the world's second-largest reserve of high-quality crude, mayhaps? Follow the money. It's about the oil, has been all along.
The big question is when the US will cut and run. It is obvious that even calling up 55 year-old men to redo their military service is not going to do the trick, not to mention replacing all the equipment being ground down by the incessant dust and sand of that desert. It seems to me that we are looking at two options: running the Iraqi election this winter and getting the hell out of there, or declaring a new national emergency -- war with Syria and Iran -- as the pretext for re-instating the draft in order to obtain the troops required to sustain the Occupation. Given the likely makeup of the new Administration, the latter option seems distinctly possible. It is starting to look like economic meltdown is our only hope now.
Posted by: Knut Wicksell at November 16, 2004 05:34 AM
We've heard several times now of Iraqi troops or police captured and killed, often in groups of onsiderable size. I think that this is possible because they are not trusted with weapons except when they're under military discipline, for fear they'll desert. Probably quite rightly, except that soldiers like that aren't worth much in any circumstance.
>are way above their concept of duty
I just love this crap. Little brown people can't be trusted to be real men.
How about the good Lt. Col. take a moment and imagine himself, under the command of, say, the Chinese, "pacifying" Cincinnati.
His own concepts of duty might waver a bit, no?
Posted by: a different chris at November 16, 2004 07:06 AMIs there any chance that Diem--whoops, I mean Allaoui--would win top position in a fair election?
Posted by: Jackmormon at November 16, 2004 08:22 AM>A sure way to know a car is packed with a suicide bomb, he added, is when the Iraqi police refuse to inspect the vehicle. "Somehow, they know."
Huh. Fancy that. Maybe the two sides communicate using strange codes such as Farsi or Arabic. If only we knew how they manage it.
Less sarcastically, the IP may well be getting tips or signs, since the insurgents may not wish to detonate IP who will stand down if required.
Posted by: Mark at November 16, 2004 08:52 AMYeah, it would have been much better if Saddam was still in power.
Stability matters most.
I think this has become the official position of the so called "progressive" world these days.
The political world just did 360 in the last couple of years. The Neocons have adopted liberal (Truman/Kennedy) like positions while "progressives" are busy defending Kissinger style "realistic" order.
Hello:
sculpurearts had a good comment
that many Iraqi citizens will transplant here after the forever war. Since most of the transplanted Vietnamese turned out to be good, loyal and oustanding citizens
...I hope the Iraqi refugees that settle here - settle down up north in the blue states or either coast. We got enough f'd up backward thinking, hog-chasing festival people in the red states. If you've ever been to a hog-chasing festival...they grease the hog and contestants chase the slippery pig under a tent. How could Kerry ever appeal to these people?
Poor warmi can't count the costs. Hit weren't worth it, boah. You bought a lemon.
Stop trying to justify your purchase. Learn your lesson, and next time think before you buy.
D
I'm a blue state person and I really like the idea of chasing a greased pig around. Unless you catch him, or course. Little kids chasing a greased piglet is even funnier.
Can't help it, I'm rural on my father's side. Was my father raised in a barn? No way, posh folks were raised in a barn. Dad slept in a converted chicken coop, and was gratefull.
Mom's a city girl, though.
Warmi, I nominate your kids to be the 1st to head off to Iraq.
Posted by: weinerdog43 at November 16, 2004 09:35 AMGiven that a desperate military is now activating people as old as their late 40's it's possible Warmi could *join* his kids in Iraq.
Posted by: Dubblblind at November 16, 2004 10:01 AMYes, but... didn't you see the pictures of them pulling down the statue? Democracy in the Middle East, they hate us for our freedom, mission accomplished. Negative media, never writes about the good things in Iraq.
Would someone remind me - exactly what are the "good things" about Iraq?