Self-Sufficiency Still Eludes Domestic Security Forces

By Mary Beth Sheridan and Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 9, 2008

BAGHDAD -- Lt. Col. Kadhem Jabar Kadhem, a veteran of Saddam Hussein's army, has the swagger of the top cop in the sprawling Dora market, one of Baghdad's most dangerous areas until U.S. soldiers ousted insurgents last year.

"Ever since we came here, we've controlled the security by ourselves," boasted the corpulent, mustachioed national police commander, surrounded by a dozen Iraqi officers in new gray-blue uniforms.

And yet, even as he spoke, a U.S. Army unit with a crane was lowering concrete barriers into place to protect his police station, at the market's edge. Kadhem looked startled when asked about the prospect of a U.S. withdrawal, which could pick up speed given President-elect Barack Obama's plan to remove most combat troops within 16 months of taking office.

"Personally, I need the American forces to stay," Kadhem said softly, fingering his string of orange worry beads and describing how U.S. forces helped with equipment and services. "The Iraqi government is still weak."

The blast walls around Kadhem's station stand as symbols of continuing U.S. efforts to strengthen the Iraqi security forces so they can keep order by themselves. The U.S. government has spent more than $20 billion on building a new Iraqi military and police force, and both sides report considerable progress. But the Iraqi units still depend heavily on Americans for training, logistics and other assistance.

With violence down dramatically, U.S. forces are trying to boost the confidence and image of the Iraqi security forces by mentoring and training troops and officers, and by mounting public-relations campaigns. The goal is for citizens to seek the protection of the Iraqi forces, instead of militias or insurgent groups, as the Americans depart.

"That's the key -- if people have confidence in the security forces to provide security for them. That the people don't feel . . . they're sectarian. That they're there to support all the people," said Lt. Col. Troy Smith, commander of the 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division.

Smith's squadron has been assisting the Iraqi police in southern Baghdad since March. In his previous deployment in the area, in 2006, Sunni and Shiite insurgents battled each other and U.S. forces with mortars, machine guns and bombs. The police were of no help, he recalled.

"They were horrible. They were the militia in a lot of cases," said Smith, 44, an officer from Woodbridge chomping on an unlit cigar.

This year, Smith said, he has noticed a dramatic change. The Interior Ministry has cleaned house, firing or transferring most top national police commanders and dismissing more than 11,000 officers. Although some corrupt police officers remain, Smith said, "as an organization, they're no longer sectarian."

Many Iraqis, however, think otherwise.

Last month, a car bomb exploded in a market in Abu Dsheer, a Shiite neighborhood in Smith's area, killing 14 people. Officers from a mostly Sunni national police brigade rushed to the scene.

A riot broke out, with residents hurling bricks at the officers and accusing them of siding with Sunni insurgents, witnesses said. The U.S. military dispatched helicopters and troops to help stop the violence.

Smith said the bomb was probably planted by Shiite militiamen, not Sunnis, to ignite a confrontation. The Iraqi police recovered well in ensuing days, attending the victims' funerals and meeting with residents to convince them that the unit was not against Shiites, he said.

"That had a bigger influence on the people than anything I could have done," Smith said. The Iraqi police, he added, "could hold their own pretty much."

But, as Smith sipped sweet tea one recent day with the national police commander in the area, it was clear who the boss was. Smith told Lt. Col. Sabah Mohammed that he would continue a ban on vehicles in the market.

Turning to a reporter, Smith said he was also going to cut off temporarily a U.S. contract to clean up garbage, one of many development projects that give the American military leverage in neighborhoods where local governments remain barely functional.

"I'm going to use the delay to tell the leaders of Abu Dsheer that I'm angry they let a VBIED in there," Smith said, referring to a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device.

The national police are intended to be the cornerstone of Iraq's counterinsurgency force, while the military would be charged with protecting the country from external attack. The forces have added tens of thousands of officers in the past year.

But the national police, with about 42,000 officers, are still well short of the projected goal of about 100,000 and cannot yet cover the country. They do not operate in the autonomous Kurdish region in the north and have failed to reach an agreement to absorb the Kurdish police force, U.S. and Iraqi officials say. Iraq also has tens of thousands of local police officers.

"We don't have air cover to help us to implement our missions. We need more transportation. We need arms. All these things right now are covered by the coalition forces," the chief of the national police, Lt. Gen. Hussein al-Awadi, said in an interview.

Most national police officers have only about three months of instruction, although they are gradually being put through longer courses run by Italy's paramilitary police. Equipment shortages persist.

That was clear on a recent afternoon at a police checkpoint in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora. Staff Sgt. John C. Platt, 34, of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, stopped by for a spot check.

"Do you have a radio?" asked Platt, of Quincy, Ill.

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.

The Iraqi government relies heavily on the U.S. military for air support, intelligence gathering and border security, Iraqi officials say.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said that the military and police had made considerable progress, but that "we do believe that still our security forces need help with supplies and training."

Although Iraq faces no imminent threat of invasion, it has a history of conflict with Iran, and its north is frequently raided by Turkish forces striking Kurdish rebels who launch cross-border attacks. Iraq's predominantly Sunni neighbors, such as Saudi Arabia, have been uneasy at the rise of a Shiite-dominated Iraqi government in place of the Sunni-led rule of Hussein.

U.S. military officials hope to teach the Iraqi security forces, which often used a heavy-handed approach under the dictator, not only good technical skills but also democratic values.

But as the Iraqi forces start taking over, it is unclear how powerful the American legacy will be.

West said he had high hopes for the national police unit with which he works. But the officers sometimes behave differently when they think the Americans are not watching, he said.

For example, during joint patrols, the Iraqi officers drive slowly.

"Then we see them flying by at 80 miles an hour" when they are working alone, West said. "Are they going to act the same way when we're gone? I'm kind of curious about that."