The Iraqi Army....Which is it?

The other day I reported on a Knight Ridder story on the Iraqi Army, Sectarian resentment extends to Iraq's army. In that story they said the Iraqi army was little more than a Shiite and Kurdish militia waiting for the opportunity to eliminate the Sunnis and in the case of the Shiites waiting for the word to turn on the US Troops. A story in the Asia Times, Western-trained, Western-armed, enemies says that in both Iraq and Afghanistan the US may be training and arming it's own enemies.

In Iraq, the Americans and British are trying to build up an Iraqi army, but it is an uphill struggle. An estimated 500,000 Iraqis have signed up for the new army and security forces, but more than half have been dismissed as untrainable or deserted. Among those who remain, their loyalty is frequently questioned. Many reports indicate that the army and police have been penetrated by insurgents.

Shifting allegiances
Desertions in Iraq and Afghanistan are particularly worrying for US-led forces for two reasons. The first is that the lives of allied soldiers are placed directly on the line by disloyal forces. The second reason is that some of these deserters are not simply leaving the army, they are changing sides and joining the resistance with their new-found skills.

But from the pro war pro Bush Washington Times we get this upbeat op-ed, The emerging Iraqi army where Retired Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales tells us everything is going great.

I traveled to Iraq this week with a group of military analysts. From my visit I concluded that the greatest change in the military balance over since last summer has been achieved by the Iraqis Security forces. Their story is only partially told by the recent spike in numbers of Iraqi army battalions from only a few a year ago to 117 today. But soldiers know that the effectiveness of a fighting force is better measured by intangibles such as courage, will to win, skill at arms, leadership, cohesion and allegiance to a higher cause. These are factors that media amateurs and Washington insiders have difficulty comprehending.

So what is the real picture? The 1st Brigade observed by Knight Ridder's Tom Lasseter or the 9th Mechanized Division that Robert H. Scales speaks of in the Washington Times.