The new Iraqi army

All I had heard to date was that half of the trained Iraqis quit. Which I thought was a pretty big deal, considering they might be expected to take their newfound American training and knowledge of American techniques with them to an anti-American insurgency.

But, here's some background that I didn't know:

The Vinnell story began with the occupation's administrators, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), disbanding the Iraqi Army. Even though the U.S. military had waged a 12-year propaganda campaign following the Persian Gulf War encouraging Iraqi soldiers to not fight against any American military action—and inferring they would be rewarded for doing so—the CPA decided to create a new Iraqi Army from scratch. Many trained Iraqi soldiers felt let down, if not betrayed, and did not join the new military force.

"We broke our side of the bargain, because we dismantled them and didn't have a plan," said Peter Singer, a Brooking Institution expert on private military contractors. This past summer, Vinnell [of Alexandria, Va., owned by politically connected Northrop-Grumman] won a one-year contract to train 9 battalions of 1000 men each for the new Iraqi army.

...Daniel Winter, president of Northrop-Grumman's Mission Systems segment told Defense Week in November that the money the Bush administration will spend on retraining the Iraqi Army was a "wild card" and all but boasted that they went to the Pentagon with a proposal and contract in hand.

"We sort of have to tell you we anticipated there would be needs of this nature, so we had been looking at it," he said. Add to that Northrop-Grumman's $8.5 million in federal campaign contributions from 1990-2002, and you can see how the politically connected company could gain access to military officers with contract-making powers.

Vinnell's top selling point was it had trained elements of Saudi Arabia's National Guard for 25 years. Indeed, the Saudi apartment complex housing Vinnell workers was attacked last spring in an attack killing 35 people. Vinnell's record sounded good in Washington —here's a company with knowledge and a track record of working with Arabic-speaking soldiers. But defense and intelligence analysts who have worked in the Persian Gulf were quick to say otherwise. Vinnell's assignment in Iraq, they said, was different from its role in Saudi Arabia, where it interacted with high-level officers and helped with war games and big-picture operational planning. Vinnell started recruiting soldiers for the new Iraqi Army in August. In December, when its first battalion was slated to assist U.S. forces with basic tasks, the Army admitted that 480 of the 900 men in the unit had deserted.

...By early December, senior officials based in Baghdad decided a new approach was needed, even though Vinnell had been paid $24 million—half its contract—and had subcontracted some of that work to other American private military companies.

"They abandoned the Vinnell approach," said a Washington Post defense reporter who has been in Iraq. "They realized they needed to stand up a larger force more quickly. They said you can do some of it, but use the Jordanians to train the officers and others [private subcontractors] to do the NCOs (non-commissioned officers). They just let Vinnell keep their contract."

Singer said. "The model we are following is Afghanistan and I mean that in a negative way. We went in, toppled a regime, and left. We made a big to-do about creating an Afghan Army. Two years later, it's the weakest army on the ground."

Singer believes the United States is "in the process of making compromises to declare victory."

...A retired senior CIA analyst went even further, saying the hasty introduction of the Jordanians to train Iraqi soldiers was "proof-positive the Bush people want to get the hell out by next summer, no matter what."

..."It's not a bad thing," the Washington Post defense reporter said, referring to Jordan. "They did these contracts quickly. Grab the people you know. Throw money at them. My hunch is you will find they threw $50 million down the toilet, quickly getting it to Vinnell. Upon a month or two or reflection, they will try another approach."  article

As for that bit I emphasized at the beginning of the excerpts - I keep being surprised that there are still people who don't realize that we can't be trusted to keep our word. You would think we'd proved that enough times already.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.