National Public Radio (NPR): All Things Considered (9:00 PM ET) October 30, 2003
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld says US officials are in the process of accelerating the training and deployment of Iraqi security forces
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
And I'm Melissa Block.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today that US officials are accelerating the training and deployment of Iraqi security forces following this week's deadly attacks in and around Baghdad. The reluctance of other nations to send additional peacekeepers to Iraq adds even greater urgency to this effort to train local forces. But Rumsfeld and other defense experts acknowledge that there are risks in moving too fast. From the Pentagon, NPR's Eric Westervelt reports.
ERIC WESTERVELT reporting:
Since American troops overthrew Saddam Hussein in April, Pentagon planners have talked incessantly about giving Iraqis more responsibility for their own security. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today said the US is now making a series of adjustments to accelerate training for police, border guards, militia and other Iraqi security forces.
Secretary DONALD RUMSFELD (Department of Defense): You add money, you set higher goals, you increase the number of Iraqis who are helping you doing the recruiting, you increase the number of countries who assist you in the training and you adjust your techniques as to where you put your emphasis within those five or six categories.
WESTERVELT: Rumsfeld said commanders on the ground are constantly adjusting the flow of new Iraqi recruits to direct them to the areas where the need is greatest. Right now that mainly involves training new police and border guards. Increasing the number of Iraqi security forces would free up more American troops to go after Iraqi insurgents and to focus on reconstruction. While Rumsfeld supports the accelerated training effort, he also warned that the series of attacks this week show that there are no quick security fixes in occupied Iraq.
Sec. RUMSFELD: You can put up barricades around your building--sure, that'll stop a truck. And then you can hang wire mesh over your building and it'll repel a rocket-propelled grenade. And then they'll attack soft targets going to and from work. Terrorists are out to kill innocent men, women and children and to alter the behavior and terrorize people.
WESTERVELT: There are now more than 90,000 US-trained Iraqi security personnel working on the streets and in the villages of Iraq. In addition, the head of US Central Command, General John Abizaid, wants to accelerate the buildup of the Iraqi civil defense force. Currently, there are just 6,000 of these Iraqi National Guard-style militiamen trained and ready to work. Secretary Rumsfeld concedes there is concern that speeding up training and vetting of Iraqi forces might dilute their quality and effectiveness. US officials in Iraq have said in the past that anything less than eight weeks of police training is insufficient. Analyst Patrick Garrett with GlobalSecurity says you can't go too fast creating a disciplined, cohesive security force.
Mr. PATRICK GARRETT (GlobalSecurity): You can speed up training by quite a bit if you simply just want to deputize a handful of individuals, throw a badge on them and tell them to go stand in a particular spot and wait for something to happen. That's fairly easy. The downside, though, is you have individuals who are not going to be as highly trained as you want them to be. So you have to determine where the balance is.
WESTERVELT: Some Iraqi recruits who've been rushed through the process with far fewer than eight weeks training, Rumsfeld said, would likely be called back at a later date for additional training. One idea to boost the number of Iraqi security forces is to rehire more members of the disbanded Iraqi regular army. Boston University national security analyst Andrew Bacevich worries that without proper screening of those soldiers, US forces could inadvertently hire troops who are spying for the Iraqi resistance.
Mr. ANDREW BACEVICH (Boston University): We're already at a disadvantage with regard to intelligence, meaning that the insurgents seem to know a lot more about us than we know about the insurgents. And my concern would be that if we recruit the wrong Iraqis then we may end up exacerbating that problem.
WESTERVELT: Regardless of how much training they get, it's clear new Iraqi security units will be in harm's way. In the last five months alone, some 85 US-trained Iraqi security personnel have been killed in the line of duty. Eric Westervelt, NPR News, the Pentagon.
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