WASHINGTON — The United States has embedded scores of trainers to
help Iraqi military procurement and logistics.
Officials said about 70 international trainers have been placed in each
of the Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry. They said the trainers have
helped Iraqi officials develop a procurement and
logistics system designed to sustain the nation's military and security
forces.
"Priority No. 1 is always going to be training the trigger pullers,"
Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. "Priority
No. 2 is training those who support the trigger pullers, and that's coming."
[On March 16, Iraq's new parliament held its first session, Middle East Newsline reported. The
parliament has 60 days from that meeting to form a government.]
The Iraqi military has been rapidly expanding. Officials said the Iraq
Army has deployed 110,000 soldiers in more than 100 battalions, 30 brigades
and eight divisions. They said Iraqis provide most of the training while
coalition advisers serve as mentors.
So far, officials said, U.S. and other coalition soldiers and civilians
have been organizing a finance section, personnel command, and training and
doctrine command in the Iraqi Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry. They
said the United States and its coalition partners were laying the groundwork
for policies when the new Iraqi government selects its defense and interior
ministers.
Pace said the development of an Iraqi logistics organization would
ensure
the sustainment of the Iraqi forces. He said Iraqis were being trained in
drafting tenders as well as procurement and logistics options.
"The train-up of those folks should be done by the end of the year,"
Pace said in a briefing on March 26. "We have already begun [establishing]
the truck companies and mechanics, [training] all the guys and gals that
turn the wrenches and sustain the force in a way that they can sustain
themselves in the field."
Officials said the success of the Iraqi procurement and logistics
organization depends on the defense and interior ministers. They said the
new government in Baghdad must have ministers who can make and implement
decisions as well as allocate resources.
"That's another reason why the stand-up of the government right now is
so important," Pace said. "Because who they pick to be prime minister, the
minister of defense and the minister of the interior will have a significant
impact on the ability of those institutions to function properly."
Officials said corruption and insufficient expertise at the Interior
Ministry and Defense Ministry have hampered the nation's armed forces. They
said virtually all of the Iraqi defense procurement budget for 2006,
reported at $1.2 billion, was wasted or embezzled in 2005.
"We expect progress in developing the ministries to accelerate with a
four-year government in place," an official said.
