Memo by U.S. Official in Iraq.....
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| Tue, 04-27-2004 - 9:09am |
Text of Redacted Memo by U.S. Official in Iraq Posted.
>"Car dealerships continue to open around the city. Traffic police go through the motions, but remain too fearful to enforce regulations. "<
>"It is now starting to get hot. I hope that the Ministry of Electricity will be ready for the summer. You can’t run an air conditioning unit on a household generator, and the demand this year will be greater than ever before because of the influx of new appliances. If we are basing our goal on last year’s figures, we are going to come out flat."<
>"CPA is ironically driving the weapons market: Iraqi police sell their “lost†U.S.-supplied weapons on the black market; they are promptly re-supplied. Interior ministry weapons buy-backs keep the price of arms high."<
>"The U.S. Government has spent millions importing sport utility vehicles which are used exclusively to drive the kilometer and a half between the Convention Center and the Palace. We would have been much better off with a small fleet of used cars, and a bicycle for every Green Zone resident. "<
>"We have people in OSD who speak Farsi and/or Arabic but who are preventing from even visiting."<
>"Our failure to promote accountability has hurt us. If we fail to fire corrupt ministers, we promote an air of unaccountability. Bremer’s less than subtle threats have aggravated the situation."<
>"We need to use our prerogative as occupying power to signal that corruption will not be tolerated. We have the authority to remove ministers. To take action against men like would win us applause on the street, even if their GC sponsors would go through the motions of complaint. The alleged kickbacks that is accepting should be especially serious for us, since he was one of two ministers who met the President and has his picture taken with him. If such information gets buried on the desks of middle-level officials who do not want to make waves, then short-term gain will be replaced by long-term ill."<
>"In retrospect, both for political and organizational reasons, the decision to allow the Governing Council to pick 25 ministers did the greatest damage. Not only did we endorse nepotism, with men choosing their sons or brothers-in-law; but we also failed to use our prerogative to shape a system that would work."
Quotes from................
http://aan.org/gyrobase/Aan/viewArticle?oid=oid%3A134346


The administration has made so many mistakes and are so disliked and untrustworthy, it is doubtful that security will be attained.
When sovereignty does not mean security
By Aaron Glantz
BAGHDAD - A United States military helicopter flies over the municipal building in the predominantly Shi'ite Baghdad neighborhood Kadamiya. A US-trained Iraqi soldier stands guard.
The guard says he signed up in the new Iraqi army to keep Baghdad safe from looters and thieves, but that if the Mahdi Army of Shi'ite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, who has taken on the US, tries to take the municipal building, he will abandon his post. He even carries a photograph of Muqtada and his father Ayatollah Mohammed Sadik al-Sadr in his wallet.
Such is the widespread problem the US faces in trying to recruit a reliable security force. Indeed, US Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted as much on Monday, saying that the still undefined interim government due to take power in Iraq on June 30 would have to give back some sovereignty to US-led forces.
"I hope will understand that in order for this government to get up and running - to be effective - some of its sovereignty will have to be given back, if I can put it that way, or limited by them," Powell told the Reuters news agency. "It is with the understanding that they need our help and for us to provide that help we have to be able to operate freely, which in some ways infringes on what some would call full sovereignty," he said.
Full article at
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FD28Ak01.html
>"Bremer clearly has a long way to go in constituting a new Iraqi army. Even before this month's defections, the Iraqi army numbered only about 6,000, with 32,450 serving in the paramilitary Iraqi Civil Defense Corps. That is fairly small compared to the 350,000-member military Bremer dismissed when he arrived in Baghdad last May. "<
How many of the 350K are actively fighting against the US now? Although I'm sure all Baathists weren't Saddam supporters. From what I understand one had to belong to the Baath party to be able to work.
Edited 4/27/2004 12:21 pm ET ET by cl-libraone