It’s about time we got serious about training the Iraqi army

Posted on December 8, 2006
Filed Under General |

For the last 18 to 24 months, we have been told that training the Iraqi army and police is the key to getting US troops home. Today, I read the Wall Street Journal and find out that we have only 4,000 troops dedicated to training and the training occurs using 10-12 soldier teams. The most important mission and we have less than 3% of our people focused on it. No wonder things are getting worse. It is UNBELIEVABLE that we have had so few resources dedicated to such an important mission.

I was also disappointed that the journalists focus on the fact that there is debate about increasing this to 10,000 troops using 20-25 soldier teams. We should be screaming about why haven’t we had this kind of commitment to training before now. And why not even more commitment of resources to training. I think the Iraqi Study Group wants 20,000 of our best troops dedicated to training.

If we want to succeed in Iraq, it will take doing the right things and doing them well. The US military is capable of just about anything if we give them the right mission, guidance and resources. If our civilian leaders are not up to the task of allocating sufficient resources to the most important missions, the press should be hammering them for it.

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