Revue <strong>de</strong> Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro <strong>de</strong> la Prensa-Basm Öz<strong>et</strong>i Training Iraq's army to battle insurgents u.s. chief plans support and assistance By Dexter Filkins June 28, 2004 BAGHDAD: .On a recent afternoon in his new office in the heavily fortified Green Zone, Lieutenant General David P<strong>et</strong>raeus, a celebrated American field comman<strong>de</strong>r, sk<strong>et</strong>ched his vision for how U.S. forces might one day extract themselves fromthis country. "I know where this ends, ~ said P<strong>et</strong>raeus, SI, who earlier this month took control of a vast project to oversee the training ofIraqi security forces. "It ends with the Iraqis in charge of their country. Our job is to help with a very important part of that." . He ad<strong>de</strong>d, "At the end of the day, you g<strong>et</strong> as many Iraqis as possible to have a stake in the success of the new Iraq to <strong>de</strong>feat the insurgency." . Just a few hundred m<strong>et</strong>ers from his office, the magnitu<strong>de</strong> ofP<strong>et</strong>raeus's challenge loomed in the form of Zhuhair Khamis, an Iraqi Civil Defense officer standing guard at' the entrance to the American compound. "I am not ready to fight Iraqis," said Khamis, 33, standing post outsi<strong>de</strong> the American-controlled Green Zone. "I will throw down my weapon, I will throw down my uniform, and I will give back my badge. I will fight foreigners but I am not ready to fight Iraqis." P<strong>et</strong>raeus, an American comman<strong>de</strong>r who scored some of the army's most notable successes in the previous year here, is now charged with perhaps the most ambitious project that will unfold in the year that begins with the restoration ofIraqi sovereignty on Wednesday: rebuilding an Iraqi security force that collap~ed during April's uprisings, when Iraqi soldiers quit and ran rather Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Til"es lieutenant General David P<strong>et</strong>raeus is charged with rebuilding the Iraqi security foree. break,1ill already impressive military careér. The task. creating a credible army in, a foreign country un<strong>de</strong>r siege, seems likely to require unusual skills for U.S. generals, like offering advice that might be ignored or standing back while Iraqis step to the fore. Major General Paul Eaton, who oversaw the training of Iraqi forces until P<strong>et</strong>raeus took over, said the Americans had tried to do too much too fast, and had missed how the country's various <strong>et</strong>hnicities and religious groups had. failed to coalesce. . "In America. we have this national <strong>et</strong>hos; you i<strong>de</strong>ntify with the Pledge of . Allegiance and th~ flag, the Stars an.d security unit, the civif <strong>de</strong>fense corps, and begun turning it into a branch of a revamped lOO,OOO-manIraqi Army. The locally recruited corps officers will be taken out of their homes and cities, away from their families and mosques, and turned into soldiers who live on bases and train and fight tog<strong>et</strong>her. To make that happen, the Americans have .committed $3 billion to build training site!! and regiorial headquarters and to b<strong>et</strong>ter equip Iraqi soldiers. It will be up to P<strong>et</strong>raeus to carry out these changes, and he says he plans to carry them out as he did before. than fight their own pedple. "What we are going to do now is P<strong>et</strong>raeus's goal, in his own words, is to help crea~ an Iraqi Army that will . Stripes," Eaton saId. "In Iraq, that IS nothing new - it's what we did in Mosul," P<strong>et</strong>ra<strong>et</strong>is said. "We are enabling, have the heart to <strong>de</strong>feat the insurgency overshadowed by tribe, imam, family and ultimately enable U.S. forces to go and <strong>et</strong>hnicity. I talked to countless supporting and assisting Iraqis. We -. . . ma<strong>de</strong> a lot of friends there." . home. Anything less will probably con<strong>de</strong>mn, the Americans to a long-term in- Mu~mmad, and I am a Turkoman' or 'I . sul experiment began to sour last au- young soldiers who said, 'My. name is For all the general's efforts, the Motervention or to a withdrawal that am a Sunni' or 'I am a Shiite.' .. tumn. A number of Iraqis cooperating . would send Iraq spinning into chaos P<strong>et</strong>raeus acknowledges the obstacles with the American-backed government and could jeopardize elections. but says he believes he can transcend have been killed in recent months. MosuI's experience is similar to that of In a war that seems to loom more like them. A 1974graduate of West Point, he a quagmire every day, P<strong>et</strong>raeus said he is a v<strong>et</strong>eran of peacekeeping in Haiti, many other cities in central Iraq, where could see the shape of victory in Iraq. Kosovo and Bosnia. He has a doctorate "But I can't predict when that will be. millions of dollars spent on projects ultimately failed to quell the insurgency. in internatioOàl relations from Princ<strong>et</strong>on University, whel,'e he wrote his dis- To s<strong>et</strong> up an effective Iraqi Army, P<strong>et</strong>- It's not going to be someone flipping a light switch." sertation on the Vi<strong>et</strong>nam War. . Last year, when P<strong>et</strong>raeus was head of raeus said, he believes the most important change is already happening: put- Even.b.efore P<strong>et</strong>raeus arrived, American comman<strong>de</strong>rs had begun overhaul- the elite 100st Airborne Division, his ef- : forts in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul ting Iraqis in charge of the army and the ing the Iraqi security services, based on constituted one of the few bright spots .government. the experience of the April uprisings. . The New York 'firnes in an otherwise troubled occupation. . With the new Iraqi lea<strong>de</strong>rship, they. For P<strong>et</strong>raeus, the new job presents an have taken the most important internal e~ormous risk. pp,e that could make or '.., 84
Revue <strong>de</strong> Presse-PressReview~Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro <strong>de</strong> la Prensa-Basm Öz<strong>et</strong>i -. COUNTDOWN TO JUNE 30 Iraq: will the country's fragile unity survive the handover of sovereignty? The.jôb of gove~ningthe" fqr:mer, Qictatorshlp ,will pass tô, anew àdnîiQistration:this we~k:6Jtit'isj,li~equippe(j", tp,ta'ckléth~'violêhçe,~mf sim,rnering':~thn~çte~siôhs that grip thé ,cöuntry, .',',', " writé'sRoula Khalaf'" ' Iyad,Allawi has adapted quiCldyto , ',lUs "new ,role as Ifaq's flist post. ': ,SaddàmHussem'lea<strong>de</strong>r; Since'his , ,,::, a:ppOm~,I)Üast month ~ prime minister 'of thif interimgovernment; the'form,ér
Change language