A fantastic, well-researched, balanced James Fallows article (too lengthy to paste) is available here: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200512/iraq-army In a nutshell, the insurgency will continue as long as the US is there (not unlike the intifada - kill one create two more), therefore the answer is to create a functional Iraqi army - which is proving to be difficult. Signs of hope, but a daunting task, etc. Bottom line is that it's a good article and should read if you have time. (Edit: blah, if you're a subscriber I read the print version and forgot about this) Edit 2: Here's an online cached copy: http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache..."Why+Iraq+Has+No+Army"+Fallows&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Wow, that was really good. Here's the conclusion of the article: "In sum, if the United States is serious about getting out of Iraq, it will need to reconsider its defense spending and operations rather than leaving them to a combination of inertia, Rumsfeld-led plans for "transformation," and emergency stopgaps. It will need to spend money for interpreters. It will need to create large new training facilities for American troops, as happened within a few months of Pearl Harbor, and enroll talented people as trainees. It will need to make majors and colonels sit through language classes. It will need to broaden the Special Forces ethic to much more of the military, and make clear that longer tours will be the norm in Iraq. It will need to commit air, logistics, medical, and intelligence services to Iraq and understand that this is a commitment for years, not a temporary measure. It will need to decide that there are weapons systems it does not require and commitments it cannot afford if it is to support the ones that are crucial. And it will need to make these decisions in a matter of months, not years before it is too late." This is basically a call to reorganize the entire military, something that has begun since 9/11, but is a slow and painful process for a bureaucracy. This is especially true for the military, where entire careers are married to certain weapon systems or schools of war. We've known for decades that this is the style of warfare that would survive post-Cold War. Yet the government has not caught up. It would be great if these sort of changes were to happen, but the article argues quite persuasively that the current administration is not motivated to make winning in Iraq a priority.
The USA doesn't want Iraq to have an army. The USA wants a pro-US government. An army would just complicate matters for the US. The US claims to be trying to instill democracy, yet when the majority of Iraqis want the US to leave, they ignore them. Interesting.
Yeah, the only problem is that you can't have ANY government unless you have order. Saddam kept order with an iron fist. The US is having to do the same thing, without the raping and the corruption mostly. In order to meet our goal of a US-friendly government, we have to teach the Iraqis to police themselves, which requires an army. Catch-22, bigtime.
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