[Dean's World] Dave Price: Increasing Chances of Civil War, Or Growing Forces For Civility?

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Dave Price:
Increasing Chances of Civil War, Or Growing Forces For Civility?
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1141751288.shtml


   Ralph Peters [1]writes from Iraq on the success of the oft-maligned
   Iraqi security forces in containing recent violence, and media
   misreporting of Iraq=E2s alleged descent into all-out sectarian warfare.

     * The Iraqi army deployed over 100,000 soldiers to maintain public
     order. U.S. Forces remained available as a backup, but Iraqi
     soldiers controlled the streets.
     * Iraqi forces behaved with discipline and restraint - as the local
     sectarian outbreaks fizzled, not one civilian had been killed by an
     Iraqi soldier.

   Ralph=E2s not a completely objective voice on this issue, but of course
   neither is the mainstream media, their protestations to the contrary
   notwithstanding. So on the whole, it seems things are, as usual,
   gradually muddling forward despite the violence.
   I found this passage especially interesting, as it augurs well for
   Iraq=E2s future:

     Sitting behind his desk in a Spartan office in Baghdad, Bolger
     exploded another myth - that the new Iraqi military's been
     infiltrated by militia members. "It's actually hard to penetrate
     the army," he said. "They're not garrisoned locally, but mixed into
     truly national units and deployed around the country." In the
     recent flare-up, sectarian issues had not been a problem in a
     single Iraqi unit.
     =E2=A6
     SITTING in his office in the Defense Ministry - an ornate building
     whose marble halls and crystal chandeliers predate Saddam - Qadir
     beamed with pride at the performance of his troops over the
     previous 10 days.
     "Not one unit had sectarian difficulties," he stressed. "Not one.
     And when we canceled all leaves after the mosque bombing - we
     expected trouble, of course - our soldiers returned promptly to
     their units. Now it is as you see for yourself: Iraqis are proud of
     their own soldiers."

   As I've noted before, conflicting loyalties is an issue as ancient as
   armies themselves, and it=E2s silly to think the U.S. military would not
   be aware of and employing millennia-old devices for dealing with the
   problem in the course of developing the ISF.

References

   1. http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/64752.htm