08 February 2006
Rumsfeld, General Point to Progress on Iraqi Forces Training
House panel receives update on Iran, Iraq
Washington -- Questions about Iran and Iraq figured prominently in Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s appearance before the House Armed Services Committee February 8.
Having met with the Senate Armed Services Committee on February 7, Rumsfeld’s opening remarks to the House committee covered the same subjects about current and future U.S. military requirements. During the question and answer session, however, new topics were raised.
Representative Ike Skelton of Missouri asked about the Defense Department's plans to keep Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, and prevent Iran from interfering in Iraq.
President Bush and the State Department are using diplomacy, working with the European Community on the issue of Iran's nuclear program, "attempting to persuade [Iranians] that it's in their interest to cooperate and to not move towards nuclear weapons," Rumsfeld said.
Concerning Iranian influence in Iraq, Rumsfeld said Iraqis "are aware of this and sensitive to it." Iraqi security forces, he added, will be responsible for seeing that Iranian influence in Iraqi affairs "is kept to a dull roar." The secretary added, "[M]y impression, at least, is that the Shi'a in Iraq are more Iraqi than they are oriented to Iranian Shi'a. They see themselves as Iraqis."
Testifying with Rumsfeld was Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Representative Robert Andrews of New Jersey questioned them about Iraqi security forces and U.S. efforts to train them.
Rumsfeld said there are about 227,000 trained and equipped Iraqi security forces in the ministries of Defense (military) and Interior (police) combined. Pace, said the total broke down to 106,000 military forces and 121,000 police forces. The secretary added that another 5,000-to-10,000 Iraqis are being trained at any given time as well.
Their degree of experience varies, said Rumsfeld, as those just finishing training are “green as grass,” while those who completed training a year or more ago are “tested and capable and ready.” He said he had more confidence in the forces of the Defense Ministry because the U.S. military has been more involved with them.
“[W]e currently have trainers embedded with them where we can watch them, help them, mentor them if there are weaknesses in leadership or weaknesses in equipment [and] get it fixed fast,” Rumsfeld said.
As for the Iraqi police, Rumsfeld noted that they successfully had provided security both for the constitutional referendum in October 2005 and for the national elections in December 2005.
“I would say today they're doing a quite good job,” he said.
Pace said that by year’s end, the Pentagon hopes to have 325,000 trained and equipped Iraqi security forces, both military and police combined.
The number of Iraqi battalions (500-to-700 soldiers) has grown in a little more than a year from “only a handful” to more than 130, Pace said. In that same period, he said, the number of Iraqi brigades (composed of three battalions) has increased from zero to 31. As for the next-largest grouping, Iraqi divisions have grown from none to eight, with plans to increase the number to 10, he added.
“So the progress that they've made over this last year has been enormous, and their capacity on the battlefield has been solid,” Pace said. “We have not had an Iraqi battalion driven off the battlefield since before the January 2005 elections, and I believe that's partly because the January 2005 elections told their soldiers and their policemen they do have a government, they do have something to be loyal to. And since that first election they have been staying on the battlefield,” he said.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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