[NYTr] Iraq Security Forces Gettin' Better All the Time... But Not Betterer Enough Yet: General

Mon Nov 26 17:55:45 EST 2007

[When Dubik retires and starts collecting his pension maybe we'll
find out THEN what he REALLY thinks NOW. -NY Transfer]

Reuters via Yahoo - Nov 26, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071126/ts_nm/iraq_dc

Iraq forces better but not ready yet: U.S. general

By Paul Tait

Iraq's security forces are improving but will not be ready to take
control of as many provinces by the end of the year as the U.S.
military had hoped, a top U.S. general said.

Iraq has experienced a rare lull in violence in the past few months,
allowing U.S. forces to plan and begin a gradual drawdown of troops
that will see 20,000 leave Iraq by July 2008.

The speed of withdrawals has been tied to improvements in Iraq's
security forces, which Lieutenant-General James Dubik, the U.S. general
in charge of training the nation's soldiers, described as good but
mixed.

His predecessor, Lieutenant-General Martin Dempsey, had said in June
that Iraqi forces should be ready to be in control of 14 of Iraq's 18
provinces by the end of the year.

"I don't think we'll make that," Dubik told Reuters in an interview
late on Sunday.

"We're not on a timeline at all. The conditions in each province will
dictate when we do that."

Ahead of the end of the U.N. Security Council's mandate for the
multinational force in Iraq, the White House said on Monday it had
agreed with the Iraqi government to start formal talks next year on the
future relationship between the two.

The mandate is expected to be renewed for 2008, after which bilateral
agreements will decide the U.S.-Iraq relationship, including the size
and shape of the U.S. troop presence.

President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki agreed
to an agenda that lays out a "common sheet of music with which to begin
the negotiations," said Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, White House deputy
national security adviser.

"The basic message here should be clear, Iraq is increasingly able to
stand on its own, that's very good news, but it won't have to stand
alone," he said.

PROVINCES HANDED BACK

Eight provinces have so far been handed back to Iraqi security forces,
the last in Kerbala last month. The southern oil-producing hub of Basra
is expected to be the next province to return to Iraqi control next
month.

Dubik said Iraqi commanders had been told where the drawdowns would
happen and was confident they had taken steps to fill the looming gaps.

He said Iraq's 490,000-strong security forces -- 160,000 soldiers and
about 330,000 police -- had shown great improvements in the past six
months but lack of leadership, sectarian infiltration and logistics
remained key problems.

After an almost year-long security crackdown, attacks across Iraq have
fallen by 55 percent since the deployment of 30,000 extra troops became
fully operational in mid-June.

The growing use of U.S.-backed neighborhood police units, organized by
mainly Sunni Arab tribal sheikhs, have also been credited for the
declining violence. Iraqi civilian and U.S. military deaths both fell
sharply in the past two months.

Despite the fall in violence, Shi'ite militias in volatile parts of
Baghdad continue to receive support from Iran, a U.S. commander said on
Monday.

Army Col. Don Farris, commander of U.S. troops in the Sadr City and
Adamiya areas of Baghdad, said the number of attacks in his sector had
dropped 75 percent since May. But there has been no decline in the
operations of Shi'ite extremist groups or the support they receive from
Iran in weapons, funding or training, he said.

CRIMES COMMITTED

The crackdown was designed to buy time for Iraq's political leaders to
push through key legislation aimed at reconciling majority Shi'ites and
minority Sunni Arabs who were dominant until the U.S.-led invasion in
2003 toppled Saddam Hussein.

Progress on the "benchmark" laws has been slow. On Sunday, a bill that
would ease curbs on former members of Saddam's Baath party joining the
military and civil service was read to parliament but a row quickly
erupted and debate was postponed.

It was the first time parliament had taken up any of the major bills,
which also include a key oil law that will determine how revenue from
Iraq's vast oil reserves will be distributed, constitutional reform and
provincial elections.

Objections from a Shi'ite faction and procedural arguments stopped the
draft law on former Baathists from being read out in full, underscoring
the deep divisions that remain in Iraq despite pressure from Washington
to pass the laws.

About 77,000 Iraqis have signed up to the predominantly neighborhood
police units.

The U.S. military has been paying their wages but U.S.
Brigadier-General Edward Cardon said the Iraqi government, at first
ambivalent toward the initiative, wanted to pay the "concerned local
citizens" groups.

A government spokesman said he was not immediately aware of any Iraqi
plan to pay the wages. Such a move would signal growing support from
the Shi'ite-led government. Some Shi'ites fear the groups will become
de facto Sunni Arab militias.

(Additional reporting by Dean Yates and Alaa Shahine in Baghdad,
Tabassum Zakaria and Kristin Roberts in Washington; Writing by Stuart
Grudgings; Editing by David Wiessler)