More on the Iraqi Army

A number of things to point out about this Post article on the ongoing work to form an Iraqi army.

First, kudos to the Post. They continue to be the only national outlet doing consistent reporting on the quality of the Iraqi forces that is based on, you know, actual  reporting, by which I mean the sending of a reporter out to investigate the actual Iraqi forces.

Second, that said, I'm still unclear why none of these articles appear to be reported by the Post's Arabic speaking reporters. They have a huge advantage in this regard over other outlets, and they don't seem interested in using it.

Third, in the "heads I win, tails you lose" category, ever since the Iraqi army was disbanded by Paul Bremer, that decision has been roundly and universally condemned. It has been so universally condemned that it's one of those things that the press doesn't bother sourcing any longer -- or referencing with any qualifiers. Yet now that it's clear that the new Iraqi army includes many members of the old Iraqi army (although presumably since they were brought in in onsies and twosies and single units, there was at least a chance at vetting them) the tone of the article is deeply skeptical, even hostile, towards the use of these men. Even as it rehearses all the arguments about the disbanding of the army, and is hostile towards that. So the way the article reads, there was a decision made to disband the army, and that was a disaster. But now those officers are being brought back, and that's kind of ironic, but is that really the best idea either?

One last note, the very, very last paragraph of the story is this:

In Taji, Alwan, the Sunni army captain, was ready to set a timeline for significant U.S. withdrawal. "Two years," Alwan said. If the Americans pull out before that -- before the government is steady, the constitution set and the army trained -- it "means we would go to civil conflict," he said.

Now, that's fascinating, to find out what an Iraqi soldier, and a Sunni no less, thinks about when we should go. That's a question I'd love to see the Post pose to more Iraqi soldiers.