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Self-Sufficiency Still Eludes Domestic Security Forces
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The Iraqi officer shook his head.
"If you have an emergency -- what's your plan?" Platt demanded.
The officer pulled a slim black cellphone from his pocket and smiled.
The national police have recruited thousands of Sunnis to what was an overwhelmingly Shiite force. But many people still fear that the police, who provided cover in past years for Shiite death squads, have sectarian affiliations.
Another member of Platt's platoon, Sgt. 1st Class Jonathan West, 35, of Sligo, La., was chatting with merchants in Dora one recent evening. He asked how the national police treated the residents, who are mostly Sunni.
The officers are all right -- for now, replied a wide-eyed man wearing a dishdasha, a traditional robe.
Picking up on the cue, West smiled and said: "They'll be good when we leave."
A draft security agreement that would take effect Jan. 1 would give Iraq much more control over domestic military operations. U.S. forces would no longer be able to detain suspects without Iraqi warrants and would largely lose their ability to operate unilaterally. The agreement would replace a United Nations mandate that authorizes the U.S. presence and that expires Dec. 31.
The accord, whose approval by Iraq's parliament is uncertain, would require U.S. troops to withdraw from cities by mid-2009 and leave the country by December 2011.
But Iraq may not be able to defend itself from external attacks at that point, said U.S. and Iraqi military officials. Iraq has no jet fighters or artillery and will not get its first large naval vessel until next year. Many former air force pilots who have been rehired are close to retirement age and haven't flown for years.
"Everyone knows the Iraqi security forces are not going to be self-sufficient by 2011," said John Nagl, a retired Army officer who helped draft the military counterinsurgency manual used in Iraq. He noted that Iraq plans to buy American M1 tanks and F-16 fighter jets.
"There are going to be Americans helping Iraqis keep their F-16s in the air for at least a decade," while Iraqis learn how to do so, he said. Obama's plan would leave U.S. military advisers and counterterrorism forces in place after withdrawing combat troops.
