Council on Foreign Relations Weighs in on Readiness of Iraqi Security Forces

The Council on Foreign Relations has published a new Backgrounder that analyzes the readiness of Iraqi forces to take over security responsibilities from U.S.-led coalition forces. The report, titled "The Preparedness of Iraqi Security Forces," was authored by Greg Bruno and was released on September 4, 2007.

According to the backgrounder, nearly $20 billion has been spent as part of the effort to train and equip Iraq's army and police forces. The money has been spent to provide counterinsurgency training to more than 600,000 Iraqi army, air force, navy, and police personnel. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, though, there are serious questions about whether the effort has succeeded in providing Iraq with an effective security force. Problems encountered in the effort include "Broken promises, sectarian infiltration, and the inability to track trained personnel and equipment...." The backgrounder quotes the Rand Corporation, a respected "think tank," as saying, "Not only do Iraqi security forces fail to provide security; they have become part of the problem."

The report notes that only 65 percent of trained Iraqi security forces are available at any particular moment, according to estimates provided by the U.S. Department of Defense. The primary reason for this, according to the backgrounder, is that Iraq's decrepit banking system requires soldiers and policemen to travel to their homes to deliver their pay in person, causing them to be away from their units.

Another problem noted in the report is the infiltration of security forces by Iraqi militias whose primary loyalty lies with a clan or a tribe, or an individual like cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The report uses as an example the Iraqi Facilities Protection Service, which has been reported by the Washington Post to be "...a band of over one-hundred thousand armed militiamen, with no central command or oversight."