Army to focus on improving security forces
The Army is expanding training for advisers who will try to improve Iraqi security forces.
Following a disappointing performance by many Iraqi units and complaints that earlier efforts to train American advisers had been handicapped by bureaucratic inertia, the Army has handed the mission to Maj. Gen. Carter F. Ham, who had a previous stint as a commander in Iraq.
Along with nearly 1,000 soldiers from his First Infantry Division, General Ham has sought to improve the training of the advisers as the Army has moved to upgrade the quality of these teams.
The revamped effort began with little fanfare this summer, but has gained prominence in recent weeks as experts inside and outside the government have recommended that the military expand the advisers’ ranks as part of a renewed push to strengthen the Iraqi security forces.
The Army is “transitioning from an endeavor that has been less than a high priority to one that is of the highest priority,” said Jack Keane, a retired four-star general who served as the Army vice chief of staff during the first months of the war. “And it is long overdue.”
Senior American military commanders calculate that strengthening the Iraqi forces, paired with efforts at political reconciliation by the Iraqi government, will enable the Iraqis to take more responsibility for their security and allow the United States to eventually begin withdrawing its forces.
But to date, the Iraqi Army has had trouble providing all the reinforcements American commanders have requested for the stepped-up security operation in Baghdad, even as the level of sectarian violence there soars. At the same time, Iraq’s government has yet to confront the country’s militias, some of which have significant sway over police units. It remains far from clear whether increasing the number and caliber of American advisers can provide enough of the security gains the United States is seeking.
There are currently more than 4,000 American troops organized into more than 430 teams to advise the Iraqi Army, police forces and border guards. General John P. Abizaid, the head of the United States Central Command, said recently that the United States planned to increase the size of the teams, which generally have 11 members, so that they can better train Iraqi battalions, which can have more than 700 soldiers. General Abizaid also said that the plan was to attach the advisers not only to Iraqi battalions but also at lower levels, to companies and possibly even platoons. Those ideas, however, have yet to be incorporated in the advisers’ training program.
General Ham worked with senior officers from two of his brigades to organize the program, which lasts a jam-packed 60 days. Soldiers practice a variety of combat skills, including how to counter the ever-present roadside bombs. They also receive some cultural training and, for those headed to Iraq, 50 hours of Arabic language instruction — enough to provide only the most rudimentary skills but more training than most advisers had previously received. There is additional training in Kuwait and at the sprawling American military base at Taji, Iraq.
According to General Ham, the advisory teams include more active-duty soldiers than during the early days of the program, when reservists were more commonly used. As a matter of Army policy, staffing the teams is now a higher priority for Army personnel officers than filling the empty slots in units on alert to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to current plans, Fort Riley will train the majority of the Army teams that are sent to advise the Iraqi Army, national police and border guards. The rest of the Army teams are to be drawn from units in Iraq. (The Marines train their own advisers separately.)
nytimes
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