Talibani sees the root of training problem in Iraq

NY Times:

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American commanders have poured more than $12 billion into training and equipping Iraq’s security forces and have tied a withdrawal of American troops to success in these efforts. But Mr. Talabani ridiculed them. “What have they done so far in training the army and the police?” he said. “What they have done is move from failure to failure.”

Mr. Talabani, who is Kurdish, said the Iraq Study Group report offered some “dangerous” recommendations that he said were “an insult to the Iraqi people” in that they undermined the country’s ability to control its own army and police.

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American and some Iraqi officials say some Iraqi police and army units are more beholden to Shiite militias than to the government and have helped to drive the cycles of retributive violence by attacking Sunni Arabs. Some Iraqi officials have also said that Sunni Arab officers have abetted the Sunni-led insurgency.

The Americans, Mr. Talabani said, “gathered them from the street regardless of their loyalty to the new Iraq, their capacity, their ability. These mistakes would be repeated if the Iraqi Army would be under the control of foreign officers, and we would never accept it.”

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What the Iraqis need to do is start a screening process that begins with those already in the Army and weed out those who are not loyal to the state and not willing to follow orders. These people are a cancer to the army destroying unit cohesion and morale. Iraq will be better off with a smaller force that is disciplined and follows orders. Throwing bodies at the problem is a mistake. The US should turning the vetting process over to a group selected by Talabani. One of the weaknesses of the ISG solution is that it is one that rushes the recruiting and training process at the expense of getting and retaining quality recruits. Once the army becomes more selective it will have more unit pride and be able to attract a higher quality recruit.