Iraq's New Police: Scared, but at Least Employed

[Rose Siding]

snip>
Senior American commanders here all say the outcome of this increasingly grim war - and the ability of Americans to leave eventually - depends on standing up Iraqi security forces that can take over many of the policing duties now handled with questionable effectiveness by the 140,000 American soldiers here. The police force will be the largest component.

But these days, the Iraqi police spend as much time protecting themselves as guarding the public. The police are key targets in the insurgents' campaign to cripple the interim Iraqi government, and hospital wards are filling with dazed men lying in blood-drenched blue uniforms.

To listen to Iraq's new police officers is to hear the voices of under-equipped and under-trained men, often unnerved by the danger but determined to work. They hope that if they can feed their families and calm their country, their lives may get better. They say they are committed to building a new Iraq, but many are skeptical about the Americans who insist they were sent here to do the same thing. Some even say they are willing to turn their guns on the soldiers.
............
But like Captain Hadi, many police officers and potential recruits say the violence does not shake their resolve to serve. For sure, it does not shake their need to bring home a paycheck. Iraq's unemployment rate is 50 percent, and police officers earn a relatively high average salary, equivalent to $228 a month. So the number of people applying for jobs has not dropped, Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said.

http://nytimes.com/2004/10/03/weekinreview/03wong.html

[Kagemusha]

1. Hunger and desperation interpreted as loyalty. Sure...

Yeah this is cause for optimism...