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October 30, 2005
Iraqi Armed Forces: Changing The Balance Of Power
There's a great article at Strategy Page on the tipping point occurring in the composition of the new Iraqi military and police forces--and the subsequent effect on the balance of power (via Instapundit).
The author explores the way in which the Iraqi Shia Arabs and Kurds have rapidly stepped in to fill officer and NCO positions, stepped in much more rapidly than anyone expected. These are the critical leadership positions that require lots of experience and guidance, and they were formerly held almost exclusively by Sunnis. With the help of small US teams of advisors attached to each Iraqi battalion the Shias and Kurds are learning the arts of leadership, organiziation and logisitcs. The auther also says this is a very bad development for Sunnis who hoped to run the Americans out of Iraq and then resume their familiar dictatorial ways.
Here's what I think is a key point--the Kurds and Shias now have a very vested interest in learning and performing well:
The American have brought in a radically new way to deal with these problems, and it has taken the Iraqis some time to get used to it. But the Kurds and Shia Arabs want to succeed, because they know that if the Sunni Arabs regain control, many, many Kurds and Shia Arabs will die, particularly those who are now commanding army and police units.
Emphasis mine. We've all read stories that question whether the Iraqis will show the motivation to defend their own country. I think the evidence is mounting that the answer is "yes".
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Comments
Kurds today enjoy the power the have always fought for. Today Kurds are receiving significant amount of money, intelligence from Israel. The help is to aide the kurds to fight the sunnis and the shites. This is one way to keep the moslims off of Israel. I hope kurds understand this and not fall for it. Despite the fact we need them, but it's best to use them and fight the Arabs. We want our own nation. Arabs have not allowed us to live the way we wanted. Live long Israel in helping the brother kurds fight the Arabs.
Posted by: kurds and jews at October 31, 2005 12:35 AM
