Monday, December 04, 2006

Not Ready For Prime Time


What do you do if they don't want to stand up? That must be on the mind of American commanders in Iraq after the Iraqi Army's 9th Mechanized Division's combat debut on Friday.

A mainly Iraqi force and their American trainers were in the process of raiding a Sunni enclave in Baghdad when they found themselves in an ambush. This turned into an 11-hour battle that ended when American attack helicopters were called in and American trainers shot their way out. The Americans were anything but impressed at their students' performance:

"Fear took over" among the Iraqis, Staff Sgt. Michael Baxter said.

"They refused to move. We were yelling at them to move," he said. "I grabbed one guy and shoved him into a building. I was saying, 'God get me out of this, because these guys are going to get me killed.' "

"The U.S. military is ramping up its training program to add 30,000 Iraqi troops by mid-2007 to make up for soldiers who have abandoned their posts or died.

"The new recruits are also intended to supplement the small number of Iraqi troops willing to travel away from their home bases despite dangerous conditions or the possibility of being ordered to fight against members of their own sect.Most soldiers in the 9th division, for example, are Shiites, and U.S. and Iraqi officers said they doubted the troops would obey if ordered to fight in Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad such as Sadr City."

The New York Times story adds that Iraqi formations commonly are able to muster only about two-thirds of their strength and often are unable to account for from a third to half of the equipment and weapons issued them.

If US forces are really waiting for the Iraqis to stand up so they can stand down, it looks like they're going to be on their feet for a long time to come.

No comments: