Iraqis still need US help

Washington Post:

Lt. Col. Kadhem Jabar Kadhem, a veteran of Saddam Hussein's army, has the swagger of the top cop in the sprawling Dora market, one of Baghdad's most dangerous areas until U.S. soldiers ousted insurgents last year.

"Ever since we came here, we've controlled the security by ourselves," boasted the corpulent, mustachioed national police commander, surrounded by a dozen Iraqi officers in new gray-blue uniforms.

And yet, even as he spoke, a U.S. Army unit with a crane was lowering concrete barriers into place to protect his police station, at the market's edge. Kadhem looked startled when asked about the prospect of a U.S. withdrawal, which could pick up speed given President-elect Barack Obama's plan to remove most combat troops within 16 months of taking office.

"Personally, I need the American forces to stay," Kadhem said softly, fingering his string of orange worry beads and describing how U.S. forces helped with equipment and services. "The Iraqi government is still weak."

The blast walls around Kadhem's station stand as symbols of continuing U.S. efforts to strengthen the Iraqi security forces so they can keep order by themselves. The U.S. government has spent more than $20 billion on building a new Iraqi military and police force, and both sides report considerable progress. But the Iraqi units still depend heavily on Americans for training, logistics and other assistance.

With violence down dramatically, U.S. forces are trying to boost the confidence and image of the Iraqi security forces by mentoring and training troops and officers, and by mounting public-relations campaigns. The goal is for citizens to seek the protection of the Iraqi forces, instead of militias or insurgent groups, as the Americans depart.

"That's the key -- if people have confidence in the security forces to provide security for them. That the people don't feel . . . they're sectarian. That they're there to support all the people," said Lt. Col. Troy Smith, commander of the 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division.

Smith's squadron has been assisting the Iraqi police in southern Baghdad since March. In his previous deployment in the area, in 2006, Sunni and Shiite insurgents battled each other and U.S. forces with mortars, machine guns and bombs. The police were of no help, he recalled.

"They were horrible. They were the militia in a lot of cases," said Smith, 44, an officer from Woodbridge chomping on an unlit cigar.

This year, Smith said, he has noticed a dramatic change. The Interior Ministry has cleaned house, firing or transferring most top national police commanders and dismissing more than 11,000 officers. Although some corrupt police officers remain, Smith said, "as an organization, they're no longer sectarian."

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"We don't have air cover to help us to implement our missions. We need more transportation. We need arms. All these things right now are covered by the coalition forces," the chief of the national police, Lt. Gen. Hussein al-Awadi, said in an interview.

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There is much more.

Where was this story before the election? Most of the stories out of Iraq before the election were about the Iraqis wanting us out the way Obama wanted us out, and now after he is elected we learn the truth that they are not ready for us to leave.

Even though this is a post election story that is not about politics I am sure it was being worked on before the election and could have been presented to balance the stories about the Iraqis wanting us to leave.

Certainly the facts in it were either known or knowable before the election and those facts were relevant to the issues in the election. What we have here is a non biased story that was delayed to prevent voters from knowing that Obama and the Democrats were dead wrong about their withdrawal scheme from Iraq.