Good News From Iraq

U.S. Defense Secretary: ‘Military not the solution to problems in Iraq’

BAGHDAD (July 13, 2006) –The solution to ending violence in Iraq will be the development of the national ministries and a reconciliation plan that includes all ethnic groups, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said during a visit to Iraq July 12.

Terrorists' hope to start civil war, make Iraq a failed state they can take over, and gain more economic power in the country by affecting the political process, Rumsfeld explained to a group of servicemembers at a town hall meeting at Logistics Support Area Anaconda in Balad.

The solution to this problem is not military, he said, but can be found in the development of a sound government that includes all Iraqis. Rumsfeld said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is reaching out to the country's Sunni community "in an attempt to fashion a reconciliation process that will bring together the elements of this country."

At a news conference here following Rumsfeld's meeting with Maliki and his Cabinet, Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul Qader echoed Rumsfeld's sentiments, saying that security in Iraq is the responsibility of all citizens and will come from a political solution. The Iraqi government, along with its Coalition partners, is working on developing political plans that can be backed up by military action, Qader said.

Rumsfeld told reporters on the plane headed to Iraq that he does not know what the reconciliation plan will look like, but the United States will give full support to the Iraqi government as it develops the plan.

"They're going to have to persuade as many people as possible that it's in their interest to support the government and participate in the political process," he said. "Anyone that doesn't want to, they're going to have to go find and do something about."

The security situation in Iraq now depends largely on the reconciliation process and the strength of the national ministries, Rumsfeld said on the plane. Iraq does not yet have a large army, navy or air force to keep insurgents at bay, so developing a strong national infrastructure is critical, he said. Iraq still needs to develop its ministries of planning, finance and oil, and develop a strong justice system, he said.

"The success in these areas will determine the success from a security standpoint," he said.

Rumsfeld acknowledged Iraqi leaders have a challenge ahead in developing political structure for Iraq. But, he said, they have made a good start and will have U.S. support as they forge ahead.

Following a meeting with the secretary of defense, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., Commander, Multi-National Force Iraq, said the Iraqi government will announce July 13 that for the first time, Iraqi security forces will take over security control of a province.

The transfer of responsibility will take place in Muthanna province, which borders Saudi Arabia, Casey said at a news conference.

Although Muthanna will be the first province where Iraqi security forces assume control of domestic law and order responsibilities, other provinces will soon follow suit, Casey said.

The Iraqi army also is progressing well, an important step toward that objective, the general said. He said that four Iraqi divisions, 20 Iraqi brigades and more than 70 Iraqi battalions are in the lead in their respective areas.

During the July 12 meeting, Casey updated Rumsfeld on the security situation in Baghdad and advances among Iraqi security forces. The defense secretary said he was "continually amazed and impressed" by the progress being made in Iraq.

Illegal arms groups that act as death squads, killing innocent civilians, pose a major challenge to the security situation in Baghdad, Casey said. This problem has escalated lately due to sectarian violence. Shiite groups are retaliating against Sunni extremist groups flaming that violence by attacking civilians in the wake of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death June 7, he said.

Casey said he plans to adjust the Iraqi security forces to target the death squads, and operations against the Zarqawi terrorist network continue.

"All of you know that the security situation in Baghdad is difficult, and we're working very hard with the new government ... to take care of the terrorists and the death squads that are undermining the security situation," Casey said.

After his meeting with Casey, Rumsfeld met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, his Cabinet and his national security team.

BAGHDAD: NATO IN IRAQ- The NATO mission in Iraq is little known, but it's an important one for the long-term future of the country, NATO officials said here recently.

"We're not engaged in combat operations," said Italian Army Maj. Gen. Ernesto Alviano, the deputy commander of the NATO military mission in Iraq. "We are much more concerned with institution building and rehabilitating the Iraqi military."

Alviano and his British chief of staff, Army Col. Paul Brook, spoke about the mission and how the small number of NATO troops is helping to make a large contribution to stability in the country. The NATO mission is to perform strategic training for the Iraqi military, they said. The effort complements Coalition efforts that emphasize tactical and operational command.

The Coalition trains individual soldiers and their units. NATO trains commanders and works on establishing a command and control decision-making structure within the government.
NATO military personnel work closely with Iraqi officers to develop the doctrine they'll use in the future. "We are helping them to develop the doctrine and processes for high-level decision-making, particularly in a democratic setting," Brook said.

Senior civilian and military leaders need to know how to make decisions, what information they need, where to get it and how this all fits in with a democratic government.

"It is a new experience for them," Alviano said. "What NATO brings to this is a wide range of experience from a number of nations, many of which have already been through this process."
Many of the Soldiers at the NATO mission are from countries that a few short years ago were under Soviet domination. "There is a huge pot of experience with us," Alviano said. "We are small in number, but very large in experience."

Brook said an Estonian soldier with the mission represents a country only 14 years away from totalitarian domination, but now the country wants to contribute. "They have something to say, and the experience to back it up," Brook said.

NATO also is working to train senior and mid-level Iraqi officers through the senior and junior courses at the Joint Staff College in Rustimiyah, Iraq. "At the Joint Staff College, we are giving the upcoming leadership of the army a broad-ranging training in global issues and military operations in the context of a public mandate and democratically elected government," Brook said.

"We are building for the generations to come," Alviano said. "It is a very interesting job, but it is very challenging for us and all the nations involved." Training young officers will move under NATO's purview when the Iraqi Military Academy shifts soon.

The general said NATO's work is on two levels. "At the lower level, it is taking energetic, impressionable young men and hopefully in the future, women, who have a real appetite for embracing this kind of democratic approach," he said. "At the senior level, we find that much of the work is breaking down old habits and giving people the confidence and new individual skills."
NATO works to change a mind-set, also. "In Arab culture, the elder is the font of all knowledge," Brook said. In the old military, many junior officers were afraid to report anything that was less than perfect, because that, in itself, questioned the leader's judgment.

NATO has been in Iraq since the Istanbul Summit in 2004. In the first months, NATO was involved in defining the parameters of the mission and setting up the infrastructure for the mission in Baghdad. Then the effort morphed into training Iraqis to teach other Iraqis.
"And now we are reaching a position where we can have enormous influence using a relatively small number of people," Brook said. "That is where our mandate sits: encouraging the Iraqis to pick up the speed (of change) themselves."

Alviano said that now is the moment to finalize and reach the goal of security forces maintaining order in a democratic Iraq. "It's a big challenge, but it is possible because that is what the Iraqis want," he said. "Therefore, it is not as if we are going along and telling them they must have something. It is as much a pull on the NATO expertise as it is a push."

The NATO experts act as a yeast to the Iraqi mixture, Alviano said. "The example of a multinational organization working here says much to the Iraqi military," he said. "The fact that the NATO countries all get along and work together shows them it can be done."

And some more facts: The U.S. Embassy and the Government of Iraq continue to address the issue of Iraqi unemployment. Today about 1.5 million Iraqis are employed under reconstruction efforts, working on schools, clinics, roads and numerous other infrastructure projects, and the overall national unemployment dropped in 2005 to 28% (as reported by COSIT) or 12-18% (as estimated by MNF-I)

Tags:Afganistan
Iraq
MNF Iraq
Al Qaeda
War on Terror
Iraqi Army
101st Fighting Keyboardists

.