Pentagon Signs Up 131,000 Iraqi Security Workers(1 day training for guards

[papau]

police get 3 weeks)

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGADPFF15ND.html

Pentagon Signs Up 131,000 Iraqi Security Workers, Acknowledges They're Not Well-Trained
By Pauline Jelinek Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Questioning Pentagon claims of progress in Iraq, members of Congress and others are asking how the U.S. military has been able to recruit, hire and train more than 60,000 new Iraqi security officers in just six weeks. The answer: by speeding up recruiting and pressing many of the officers into service with minimal training.

The Pentagon announced months ago that it would accelerate the formation of Iraqi security forces to eventually take over from U.S. occupation troops, and officials now say there are more Iraqis in such jobs than there are American troops in the country (the 131,000 include more than 62,000 Iraqi police; 8,500 in civil defense; 12,200 border and customs officials; nearly 48,000 guards protecting public facilities and other infrastructure, and 700 people in the first battalion of the new army).

The positive side is that thousands of Iraqis are taking over guard and patrol duties, freeing Americans and other coalition forces for more difficult work like hunting down insurgents, defense officials say. <snip>

The speed-up means that Iraqi police start work with three weeks of instruction instead of the eight that advisers recommended. The rest of the training is to follow. Guards watching electric plants and other infrastructure may simply be told what to do and be sent out with a day or so of instructions, American officials said. <snip>

The Pentagon has reported head-spinning progress in handing security responsibilities to Iraqis - adding some 10,000 a week since the beginning of October. <snip>
.

[DK666]

1. Holy Cow.....

They got their own department of homeland security.....

Same training and everything......


BTW who is doing the training ?

[jpgray]

2. HOW can this be an effective security force?

Can you say corruption? Can you say warlords? Can you say political considerations before considering the safety of our own soldiers or Iraqi civilians? What a crock.

[dbt]

3. Can you say DESPERATE?

Somebody's in a big hurry to bail out of a quagmire, no?

:evilgrin:
dbt

[karlschneider]

4. Training syllabus: If it moves, shoot it. If it doesn't, paint it.

:eyes:

[Gloria]

5. I am going to post an article I deleted from the WMW last night

when this stuff about international troops in Iraq came out...
It's by Jim Lobe and has a telling quote by Bill Kristol about how these recruits aren't being vetted properly for their former ties to Ba'athists and how we are setting our guys up for sabotage if a lot of these guys slip through..

Haste makes waste....

Posting other article now...

[Gloria]

6. Here is the article by Jim Lobe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=21840

SNIPPET relevant to this thread....but has MUCH MORE ....

New Sound and Fury Hide Fear and Worry
Analysis by Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service

"On the military side, the main worry is over the speed with which recruitment is taking place.

In just the last two weeks, the number of men under arms has doubled to about 118,000. Under these circumstances, as the 'Washington Post' noted Friday, training is virtually non-existent, while screening of recruits for Ba'athist sympathies has necessarily also been reduced.

''How will we know whether the Iraqi recruits can be trusted not to carry out sabotage?'' asked another prominent neo-conservative, 'Weekly Standard' editor William Kristol, in a major attack on Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, called 'Exit Strategy or Victory Strategy?' "

MORE

[papau]

7. Excellent article - AK47 after 1 days training seems wrong - to me! :-)

http://www.ips.org/index.htm

another must have if favorites site

Thanks for posting

:-)

[Barrett808]

8. They will be very useful for infiltration by the insurgency, and

in the mayhem after Bush declares "victory" and withdraws.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Ok so we are being set for failure

of the worst kind

On the bright side, we can accuse Bush of loosing Iraq... after all
his fellow travellers are starting to.

God these people will make a debacle out of just about everything!

[kodi]

10. outstanding strategy, give 130,000 iraqis automatic weapons

.

[Say_What]

11. Cut and run... that's what all this is about... the Bushistas know

that they're f*ck'd. Numbers are headed south in a major way and they're gonna hightail it the hell out of Iraq in order to try to recoup for election. What a bunch of scumbags.