Iraq army at full strength by end of 2006

NY Times:

The American general in charge of training Iraqi security forces said Tuesday that the new army would be formed and at full strength by the end of the year. But he cautioned that the new military in Iraq still faced a shortage of qualified officers and the infrastructure required to carry out independent operations.

The officer, Lt. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, said the threat of armed militias could be resolved only by negotiations with religious leaders commanding those illegal groups, and by taking away their foot soldiers by offering them the choice of a role within government-controlled security services, an opportunity to disarm — or punishment.

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General Dempsey said that without a national reconciliation plan that reaches out simultaneously to Sunni insurgents and Shiite militia members, neither side would disarm out of fear of the other.

The general's training efforts are the foundation of the Bush administration's plans for withdrawing troops as indigenous security forces grow in number and competence, and he spoke as Washington was boiling with debate over timetables for American troop reductions in Iraq.

"The Iraqi Army will be built by the end of this calendar year," General Dempsey declared at a Pentagon news conference.

General Dempsey said that by the end of the year, the army would be "fully capable of recruiting, vetting, inducting, training, forming into units, putting them in barracks, sending them out the gate to perform their missions."

But he expressed concerns about the ability of the Iraqi ministries to carry out military operations independent of American support, and about "leader development."

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The building of the Iraqi military was neccessary because of teh dicentigration of Iraqi forces during major combat operations. While some have criticized Ambassador Bremer's decision to do away with the old Iraqi army, the chances are remote that the old army could have been reassembled and be as good as the current army which has had proper training and learned th eart of leadership.

The old army was a corrupt organization that fell apart under stress. The new army has shown itself to be durable and productive. It has also enhanced our ability to get intelligence on the enemy activties. Since it has started taking part in operations the number of tips containing actionable intelligence has increased substantially. It has already taken complete charge in about one third of the country. Its major weakness is logistics.