Training Iraqis May Pose Risks For U.S.(embedding)

The newest program for training Iraqi security forces, embedding 11- to 15-member U.S. transition teams in Iraqi battalions, represents a "high-risk assignment" for the American officers and men involved, according to top military training officials.

The concept is considered so dangerous that a group of potential replacements stand ready at Fort Riley, the U.S. Army base directing the program, for immediate shipment to Iraq if members of a deployed team are killed or wounded, Maj. Gen. Carter F. Ham, who runs the training program, told House members last week.


While the U.S. training of Iraqis is considered key in determining the future of the American presence in Iraq, it remains a work in progress three years after it began, according to present and former senior U.S. Army and Marine officers involved in the process.

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The result of the hesitant U.S. training effort, the Iraq Study Group reported Wednesday, is that Iraqi army units are of questionable loyalty to the Baghdad government, the police units cannot control crime, and some, according to the report, "routinely engage in sectarian violence." The facilities protection service is "incompetent, dysfunctional or subversive.

more:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/09/AR2006120900862.html?nav=hcmodule