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作者：Anonymous 在 罕见奇谈 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org
U.S. to Form New Iraqi Army
Occupation Officials Also Plan Stipend for Ex-Soldiers
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___ Postwar Iraq ___
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By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, June 24, 2003; Page A01
BAGHDAD, June 23 -- The U.S. occupation authority will start recruiting Iraqis next week for a new 40,000-member army intended to eventually take over responsibility for guarding borders and key installations, a U.S. official said today.
Walter B. Slocombe, the top security adviser for the occupation authority, also said former Iraqi soldiers will receive a monthly stipend, reversing an earlier ban on such payments after decommissioned troops protested and threatened to attack U.S. forces. Taken together, the decisions to form an army so quickly and to overturn the policy on stipends are an attempt to keep former soldiers from turning against the occupation authority and engaging in armed resistance.
Although the U.S. military did not report any serious acts of violence against its troops in Iraq today, an explosion ripped through an oil pipeline near the Syrian border. It was not immediately clear whether the blast was the result of sabotage. On Saturday, saboteurs were suspected of having set off an explosion that cut a large natural gas pipeline west of Baghdad.
The continuing attacks and the scope of the U.S. political and economic reconstruction program prompted three visiting senators to warn that American troops may have to remain in Iraq longer than planned.
"I think we're going to be here in a big way, with forces and economic input for a minimum of three to five years," said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He and two Republican members of the committee, Richard G. Lugar of Indiana and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska spent the day in Baghdad on a fact-finding mission.
Lugar, the committee chairman, urged President Bush to describe in detail the cost and personnel required to rebuild Iraq. "There now needs to be real truth-telling by the president," he said.
"I don't think we've fully informed the American people about just what an undertaking this is," Biden said, noting that the reconstruction effort would require billions more dollars than Iraq's oil industry can generate.
"The administration has got to really come forward and explain the breadth and depth of our commitment here," Hagel said. After spending the day in Baghdad, he said he had concluded that the occupation was "going to take a lot of money and a lot of time, and we're going to lose more lives."
The three senators also urged the Bush administration to increase international participation in the postwar occupation. "We need to internationalize this as quickly as we can," Hagel said.
A U.S. official serving in the Pentagon-funded occupation authority acknowledged that the government would have to devote a "significant commitment" of personnel and financial resources to the reconstruction over the next few years. But the official said the authority was trying to move quickly to give Iraqis greater responsibility for their governance and security.
A key part of that effort, officials said, is the new army. "They will perform military duties of the kind the coalition forces are providing now," Slocombe said. "They will be a military force, not a police force or a security force."
Slocombe, a senior Pentagon official during the Clinton administration, said recruiting centers would be set up next month and training would begin shortly thereafter. He said he expected the first battalion would be trained in about 21/2 months and the first division, a light infantry unit of 12,000 soldiers, would be ready within a year. Eventually, he said, the army will have three infantry divisions.
The training will be directed by Maj. Gen. Paul D. Eaton, former commander of the U.S. Infantry Center at Fort Benning, Ga. The training will be performed by a private contractor that has not been selected and paid for with Iraqi funds, Slocombe said. He said no decision had been made on whether to incorporate into the force Kurdish militias that fought against former president Saddam Hussein's government.
All former Iraqi officers and enlisted personnel, except those who held high-ranking positions in the Baath Party or are linked to human rights abuses and terrorism, will be eligible to join, he said. Lower-ranking party members also will be admitted, Slocombe said, if they renounce their Baath affiliation. "People in a society make accommodations in life, and we recognize that," he said. "It is the senior people who got to the top ranks we think have the potential to be the most dangerous."
With the new army limited to 40,000 soldiers, "most people who were in the old army will not be able to have continuing military careers," Slocombe said.
Between 200,000 and 250,000 former active-duty military personnel will be eligible for a monthly stipend of between $50 and $150, which Slocombe said was "comparable but lower" than their previous salaries. Estimates list almost 400,000 military forces under Hussein.
Members of the Special Republican Guard, the elite force assigned to protect Hussein, and other security services associated with the Baath Party will not receive the monthly payments, he said.
The occupation authority earlier had rejected the idea of paying former military officers. Concern had been expressed about rewarding members of a repressive institution, while many unemployed Iraqis would not receive similar treatment.
But over the past few weeks, the former soldiers have been growing agitated. At a demonstration last week in front of the occupation authority's headquarters, several former soldiers threw rocks at U.S. troops and vehicles entering the compound, prompting the U.S. troops to fire at the crowd, killing two protesters.
"We believe this payment is the right thing to do," Slocombe said. He said Iraqi political leaders were consulted on the issue and agreed.
Sabih Azzawi, who led protests by former military officers in the capital, praised the policy change. "From a human point of view, it's a very good decision," Azzawi said. "It's not only for the people in the army but for their families." Azzawi said the new system also makes good political sense. "It will stop people from trying to take advantage of U.S. mistakes," he said. "The people who are with Saddam and who hate the American army were trying very hard to recruit people from the army to fight the Americans. This will stop that recruitment."
Correspondent Peter Finn contributed to this report.
?2003 The Washington Post Company
作者：Anonymous 在 罕见奇谈 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org |
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