Iraqi forces desert posts as insurgent attacks are stepped up

[RamboLiberal]

http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/25/wirq25.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/04/25/ixnewstop.html

Iraqi army and police units are deserting their posts after the recent escalation in insurgent attacks, according to reports from around the country yesterday.

The end of a relative period of calm after the election has posed the first real test for the embryonic security forces since coalition troops started cutting back on their military operations in February.

<snip>

On the Syrian border, US troops in the Sunni city of Husaybah report mass desertions. An Iraqi unit that had once grown to 400 troops now numbers a few dozen who are "holed up" inside a local phosphate plant.

Major John Reed, of the 2nd Marine Regiment, said: "They will claim that they are ready to come back and fight but there are no more than 30 of them on duty on any given day and they are completely ineffective."

In Mosul, which has been a hotspot since insurgents fleeing Fallujah effectively overran it last year, residents have complained to newspapers that police now rarely patrol and only appear in response to attacks.

[Barrett808]

1. Gen. Petraeus: Less than one-fourth are "combat capable"

Gen. Petraeus: Less than one-fourth are "combat capable"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1417846&mesg_id=1418840&page=

[saigon68]

9. They are like the CHIMPANZEE and CHENEY. --- Awol & Draft Dodgers,

COWARDS like their NeoCon Masters.

[Pachamama]

11. So is that number even lower now? Or higher (if the % of combat capable is

calculated based on the number of total troops)?

Watch the Bush Cabal try to sell the higher number as an example of "democracy on the march"...

Or is "Democracy on the March" refer to the deserting troops and police? :shrug:

[Barrett808]

12. It's probably futile to try to come up with a number

Even an order-of-magnitude estimate. What is clear is that the US-trained forces are incapable of defending Iraq. Which, in the opinion of many Iraqis, serves the interests of the occupier.

[minkyboodle]

2. but but...

freedom is on the march.... this article makes my liberty hurt..

[Botany]

3. Can you blame them?

2 times in the last 72 hours Iraqi troops have been set up
by inside jobs pulled from the road and executed as many
people looked on.

bush you gutless pig ..... why do not you go over there a fight?
you wanted this war.

[stillcool]

4. and Bush said in his radio address on Saturday.......

that there are more Iraqi forces than Coalition forces....maybe nobody told him.

[sundancekid]

5. yup, the Clueless in Chief

[leftchick]

6. reported yesterday: 155,000 Iraqi Soldiers!!!!!

:eyes:

[pokercat999]

21. fan-fucking-tastic let them take over NOW and bring our troops HOME.

[wookie294]

7. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED ! n/t

[David__77]

8. Of course few are willing to fight and die for an unjust cause...

...if they can help it. If Iraq was sovereign perhaps. But whow wants to be a puppet soldier?

[kodi]

10. sounds like "Vietnamization" all over again

for those of us old enough to remember

[Jacobin]

13. I remember it well

And you are right. It is exactly the same. Asking Iraqi's to die to defend a puppet government won't work any better now than it did back then.

[Zorra]

23. Or old enough to Google:

Statistics on the insurgency in South Vietnam, although neither thoroughly trustworthy nor entirely satisfactory as criteria, indicate an unfavorable shift in the military balance. Since July 1963, the trend in Viet Cong casualties, weapons losses, and defections has been downward while the number of Viet Cong armed attacks and other incidents has been upward. Comparison with earlier periods suggests that the military position of the government of Vietnam may have been set back to the point it occupied six months to a year ago. These trends coincide in time with the sharp deterioration of the political situation....
snip---
In addition, the Viet Cong during the last half of 1963 have shown increased daring, planning, and coordination in their attacks. This has been evidenced by an attack against a United States helicopter base, and by simultaneous actions against two or more strategic hamlets and even against two district capitals. Until this period, towns had not been attacked since September 1961, when the capital of Phuoc Thanh province was raided by a large Viet Cong force.
snip-----
Until June 1963, statistics on South Vietnamese desertion included all military and security personnel who had been absent from duty without official leave for any reason or for any length of time. Moreover, there was apparently no attempt to adjust these all-inclusive statistics to account for persons who had returned to duty. Including "awols," the 1962 monthly average of deserters was .7% of the combined strength of the military and security services. On this basis, there was no change in the monthly average during the first five months of 1963. Beginning in June, however, statistics on deserters excluded "awols" although they were still not adjusted to cover returnees. Even so, on the new basis, the monthly average of deserters increased from .6% in June 1963 to .8% in August 1963. Complete statistics are not yet available for September.

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon2/doc147.htm

[Jacobin]

25. And that was 1963

From 1965 to 1972 we bombed the bejesus out of them and had up to 550,000 troops deployed.

So if I hear any dem suggest that we need to drastically increase the number of troops in IraqNam to 'win the peace' I'm going to vomit

[NNN0LHI]

14. I wonder who's side they are on now? And did Boosh arm them well? n/t

[leftchick]

22. not only armed. The US is still paying a lot of awol soldiers

They sign up to collect the checks!

[Moderator]

15. kick to combine

[UpInArms]

16. Iraqi forces desert posts as insurgent attacks are stepped up

http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/25/wirq25.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/04/25/ixnewstop.html

Iraqi army and police units are deserting their posts after the recent escalation in insurgent attacks, according to reports from around the country yesterday.

The end of a relative period of calm after the election has posed the first real test for the embryonic security forces since coalition troops started cutting back on their military operations in February.

On average 20 Iraqis and two coalition soldiers have died every day this month.

<snip>

On the Syrian border, US troops in the Sunni city of Husaybah report mass desertions. An Iraqi unit that had once grown to 400 troops now numbers a few dozen who are "holed up" inside a local phosphate plant.

Major John Reed, of the 2nd Marine Regiment, said: "They will claim that they are ready to come back and fight but there are no more than 30 of them on duty on any given day and they are completely ineffective."

...more...

[tabasco]

17. It's a shame the US corporate media won't report this.

We are stuck in a bloody quagmire thanks to George Bush.

[Wright Patman]

18. But it's not another

Vietnam. Just ask Gen. Clark.

"We" are not in a quagmire. I do not wish to be associated with a massive, ongoing war crime. "They" are in a quagmire.

And most of "them" still support their glorious chimperor.

[The_Casual_Observer]

19. NPR reported the opposite today. According to the ministry

of information, the Iraqi national guard is doing a great job, we will be out of Iraq in no time flat!

[maddezmom]

20. from Myer's 4/26: "the strength of the insurgency has not changed in

"the strength of the insurgency has not changed in the last year"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1746033&mesg_id=1746033

[bemildred]

24. Must not be paid enough or something.

Getting between the "insurgents" and the US military doesn't
sound like a very attractive job to me either.

[DoYouEverWonder]

26. These poor guys are "holed up" inside a local phosphate plant?

I could think of a lot better places I'd want to hole up in the middle of a war. I hope none of them are heavy smokers.