The Iraq security forces (ISF) lack “tactical staying power” and are hurt by a “horribly inefficient” Baghdad government, the American officer who oversaw their training said Tuesday.
But Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who last week relinquished the command in Iraq that is building the ISF, expressed long-range optimism for 348,000 soldiers and police.
“My overall assessment is that many units, especially the Iraqi army units, have become increasingly proficient and have demonstrated both their improved capability and their resolve in battle,” he told the House Armed Services subcommittee on oversight and investigations.
Most units are still not able to operate solo, he said, because they lack supply lines and leadership. Baghdad’s central government is still learning how to spend public funds to properly equip the force.
“We’ve learned that the business practices of the Iraqi government are horribly inefficient and ineffective, and that there is no pool of skilled civil servants to overcome them in the near term,” said Dempsey, who is to become the No. 2 officer at U.S. Central Command.
Both Iraq army and police branches are plagued by absentee rates as high as 22 percent. Often the reason is that Iraqis break away from duty after pay day to take money home to families.
Another management problem is that local provincial leaders have collectively hired over 60,000 police officers not screened or trained by Dempsey’s command or the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad.
Of the 188,000 police trained by theU.S., about 32,000 were lost to battlefield deaths, wounds or desertions over the past 18 months.
“We had some real challenges with the national police,” he said.
A bright spot is Mosul, the country’s third largest city. Local police are now in charge of security, with one U.S. Army battalion of about 1,000 soldiers on standby.
“The leaders and the people of Iraq have not given up on themselves,” Dempsey said. “We should not give up on them.”
