The U.S. military has set strict criteria to
determine the capability of Iraqi security forces to operate independently of U.S. forces.
The Multi-National Security Transition Command in Iraq has set a range
of requirements for Iraqi military and police battalions to be deemed Level
1, or completely independent of U.S. support. Officials said the number of
Level 1 battalions would help determine the extent of the U.S. troop
withdrawal from Iraq in 2006.
So far, the Iraq Army has failed to achieve fully independent
operations. Out of 115 army and police battalions, only one was
deemed Level 1. In June 2005, three such battalions had reached that level, Middle East Newsline reported.
"When we were assessing these guys, you're assessing manning, you're
assessing training, you're assessing leadership, you're assessing
equipment," Gen. George Casey, commander of the U.S.-led coalition, said.
"So you're looking at all those different categories."
Officials said the capabilities of battalions have been affected by a
change in command or logistics. They said the resignation or death of an
Iraqi commander usually prompted a decline in the combat readiness of his
entire unit.
"Maybe one of the battalion commanders was relieved and the transition
team with him decided that the unit needed a little more training because of
that," Casey added.
Gen. David Petraeus, outgoing commander of MNSTC-I, said the U.S.
military's standard for Level 1 has been high. He said a Level 1 battalion
must reach an unspecified manpower level and have a high standard of
readiness.
Level 1 units must also be equipped with command and control
capabilities, including hardware as well as software. The troops must
also be trained to operate such equipment.
"Training is an assessment of their training levels in what are called
mission-essential tasks," Petraeus said in a briefing on Oct. 5. "Just like
in the U.S. Army, they have a list of mission-essential tasks, and each of
these have, again, to be a Level 1 you need to be at this level and so
forth. So there's an attempt to make this relatively objective, although at
the end of the day some of it is going to be subjective."
Another requirement was whether an Iraqi unit could sustain operations.
This involved the level of readiness and authorized equipment as well as a
leadership evaluation.
Petraeus said the transition from Level 2 units -- capable of leading
operations with U.S. support -- to Level 1 depended on Iraqi leadership. He
said the training and mentoring of capable military leaders remained a
difficult task.
Another key issue was the logistics for Iraqi military operations.
Petraeus said the Iraqi military has been struggling with spare parts and
transport of troops.
"The base support element, that piece of it, again a challenge,"
Petraeus said. "They actually were doing good with the contract for life
support, but the incidentals and that type of thing, small spare parts, just
very difficult. I mean, it's a very bureaucratic system and so there are
challenges in that regard. So again, those are the categories, if you will,
that feed into these reports that determine whether they're three, two or
one."
