WP, pg1, Thomas Ricks: Flaws Cited in Effort To Train Iraqi Forces: US Officers Criticize Program

[DeepModem Mom]

Flaws Cited in Effort To Train Iraqi Forces
U.S. Officers Roundly Criticize Program
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 21, 2006; Page A01

The U.S. military's effort to train Iraqi forces has been rife with problems, from officers being sent in with poor preparation to a lack of basic necessities such as interpreters and office materials, according to internal Army documents.

The shortcomings have plagued a program that is central to the U.S. strategy in Iraq and is growing in importance. A Pentagon effort to rethink policies in Iraq is likely to suggest placing less emphasis on combat and more on training and advising, sources say.

In dozens of official interviews compiled by the Army for its oral history archives, officers who had been involved in training and advising Iraqis bluntly criticized almost every aspect of the effort. Some officers thought that team members were often selected poorly. Others fretted that the soldiers who prepared them had never served in Iraq and lacked understanding of the tasks of training and advising. Many said they felt insufficiently supported by the Army while in Iraq, with intermittent shipments of supplies and interpreters who often did not seem to understand English.

The Iraqi officers interviewed by an Army team also had complaints; the top one was that they were being advised by officers far junior to them who had never seen combat.

Some of the American officers even faulted their own lack of understanding of the task. "If I had to do it again, I know I'd do it completely different," reported Maj. Mike Sullivan, who advised an Iraqi army battalion in 2004. "I went there with the wrong attitude and I thought I understood Iraq and the history because I had seen PowerPoint slides, but I really didn't."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/21/AR2006112100171.html

[tridim]

1. "I thought I understood Iraq and the history because I had seen PowerPoint slides"

Yep.. That's the entire * administration in a nutshell.

I'll say it again, even though nobody will listen. GET THE FUCK OUT OF IRAQ NOW!

[neoblues]

2. Sounds like a second rate effort...

Funny how I would imagine they'd send in expert trainers and have some really sharp organizers running the show.

Of course, too, as much as they need to create trained IRAQI police/security personnel, they're going to need even more thoroughly trained and equipped "Internal Investigations" people--"cops for the cops"--to track down and stop all the infiltrators. Indeed, we need specially trained interviewers/interrogators--IRAQIs--to design and implement very serious interrogation and background checks on all potential recruits (and to go back through even those who've been trained.

And considering how feeble the training effort appears to already have been--it seems hopeless to hope they could actually create an effective means by which to police the police and prevent infiltrations.

Given the fact we should be thinking of getting out of there, actually trying to rectify these kinds of training deficits seems pretty ambitious...

[NOLADEM]

3. PowerPoint eh Champ? We are in some SERIOUS shit

Our Superiority Complex has finally come home to roost. Thinking we are obviously better and know better than everyone else is finally gonna come and bite us in the ass, and take a few thousand of our children with them.

PowerPoint? A FUCKING POWERPOINT presentation made you think you knew Iraq?

Jesus H Christ.

[Kagemusha]

4. Well it's as much a metaphor as anything else

but it's a discouraging metaphor nonetheless.

[greenman3610]

5. read Rick's book, "Fiasco". It's all about the powerpoints.....