Iraq these days is a land of queues. People line up to pass through checkpoints, to enter a school or hospital, and even to buy food.
Some of the longest queues are formed by men, aged between 18 and 40, who want to join the Iraq National Defense Force (INDF), the country’s renascent army. Here and there one can even spot young women in the queues. Often tempted by wages of $40 a month, thousands have enrolled in the past eight months.
The recent series of massacres of which over 800 recruits to the new Iraqi Army and police have been victims, does not seem to have affected the length of the queues. Nor do fears that some of the new army’s units may have been infiltrated by unrepentant Baathists undermined the resolve of the new leadership in Baghdad to build a new national military machine.
One of the first moves of L. Paul Bremer, the American diplomat who headed the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) at the time, was to disband the Iraqi Army.
Within weeks it had become clear that Bremer had made a mistake by depriving some 1.5 million military personnel, and their families, of a livelihood. The disbanding of the army also meant that Iraq was left with no native force to defend its borders and secure its infrastructure.
By last September plans were in place to create a new army. Its first division was to be operational with 12,000 men.
But things went awry last October when 300 of the 700 men trained to form the new army’s first battalion walked out in a dispute over pay.
Hundreds of others quit after receiving death threats from insurgents opposed to the coalition.
By the time the interim government assumed power at the end of June the coalition had managed to train only 3,500 men.
The interim government of Prime Minister Dr. Iyad Allawi was determined to hit the accelerator. “Building a national army is one of our top priorities,” says Defense Minister Hazem Al-Shaalan. “We are determined to speed things up. Government plans call for the creation of three infantry divisions composed of nine brigades and 27 battalions, to be deployed by the end of the year with a total of 40,000 men. Three recruiting centers have been active in Kirkuk, in the north, Basra, in the south, and Baghdad since the autumn of 2003. Six others opened in July.
The new army is designed to reflect Iraq’s religious, regional, and ethnic diversity, and would be nonpolitical. It will be under civilian control and denied any role in domestic politics. Its weapon’s systems will be geared to defensive, rather than offensive, action. A special course in human rights provides an important part of the basic curricula for NCOs and officers.
Abandoning Saddam’s doctrine of reliance on heavy weapons, large units and the quest for weapons of mass destruction, the new army aims at light but technologically sophisticated armament, compact and highly mobile units, and a definite “ no” to nuclear, chemical and biological arms.
According to Al-Shaalan, the new army will be entirely voluntary and professional, although a future government could reintroduce conscription if needed. This summer the Allawi government has lifted the ban that Bremer imposed on former officers.
Under new rules each case will be examined individually, allowing associates of the former regime to apply to join the new army.
The hope is that most of the estimated 7,000 officers and NCOs who served under Saddam would be incorporated into the new army. The list of those excluded contains the names of 387 individuals, most of them connected with the now defunct Presidential Guard and Saddam’s security services.
The interim government cites the fact that the Iraqi Army refused to fight in last year’s war as evidence that most officers had broken with Saddam. Several former generals of Saddam’s army are already back.
They include Amer Al-Hashemi and his deputy Daham Al-Assal. Gen. Abu-Bakar Zibari has been retained as chief military advisor. Also advising the new government are several senior officers who had broken with Saddam and joined the opposition in the 1990s. They include Gen. Nizar Al-Khazraji, Najib Al-Salhi, and Wafiq Al-Samarrai.
“Here we are working for Iraq,” says one of the returning officers. “What we experience today is a passing moment in Iraq’s long history. The occupation has officially ended, and the occupiers will go home. Iraq, however, shall remain. And Iraqis shall remain. And they shall need peace and security.”
Other officers of the disbanded army of Saddam echo these sentiments.
“A soldier’s task is to defend his country and help preserve peace,” says Mustafa Toumah, a former Baathist major who has joined the new army. “Those who say we are working for the occupation are either ignorant or vicious. We are working to speed up the end of occupation by showing that the new Iraqi Army can give the nation safety and security.”
The government plans to streamline the nation’s new military structure by merging the various forces created by the CPA over the past 18 months.
The largest of these is the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC) with 15000 men, trained for policing rather than military tasks. There is also the National Border Guard (NBG) of some 5000 men and the Facilities Protection Corps (FPC) that is believed to employ 20,000 men.
All three forces as well as the 66,000-strong new police force have been under the control of the Interior Ministry. Under the new plan their control will pass to the Ministry of Defense. A new force, designed to combat terrorism, is also in the making and is expected to be operational before the end of the year with some 2000 men. Labeled “The Ninjas”, these are being trained by Britain, South Korea and Australia as specialists in fighting urban guerrillas.
NATO’s decision last month to help Iraq rebuild its military is expected to speed things up further. Britain and the United States, meanwhile, are helping set up Iraq’s new military intelligence service (MIS).
Prime Minister Allawi also hopes to incorporate most of the anti-Saddam militias into the new army. There are four major militias, two Shiite and two Kurdish, with a total strength of 100,000. The government is offering each militiaman $2500 to hand in his weapons and return to civilian life, or join the new army as a professional soldier. So far an estimated 4000 former militias have joined the program. Allawi hopes that the entry into the new army of large numbers of militiamen who had fought Saddam would counter-balance the presence of ex-Baathist officers and NCOs. Iraq’s new leaders seem determined to keep the army out of politics to prevent a revival of the tradition of government change through military coups d’etat.
A new National Security Council has been set up under Allawi. Members include Defense Minister Shaalan, Interior Minister Faleh Al-Naqib, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and the government’s security “czar”, Deputy Premier Barham Saleh. Qassem Dawood acts as the council’s coordinator.
Some units of the new army are already attached to American divisions in northwestern areas and Baghdad. The plan is for all units to work with the Americans so as to be able to take over from them within a timeframe to be established next year.
The first area to come under the new army’s control will be Iraq’s borders with Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
The British are also training a new Iraqi naval unit to take over patrolling in the Shatt Al-Arab, an estuary shared with Iran.
According to Shaalan, Iraqi Army units will spearhead the attacks planned against rebels in Fallujah and Ramadai, possibly next week.
The new army will include a revived air force of some 10,000 and a navy of 6000 men. It is not clear where the new air force will get its aircraft from. Over 200 Iraqi warplanes were flown to Iran in 1991 to escape destruction by the US-led coalition that liberated Kuwait. Iran has refused to return them. The new Iraqi regime hopes to get some back, but it is not clear how many are still usable. Military experts describe most of the 280 Soviet-built warplanes in Iraq as “good for the junkyard.” Iraq’s new leaders act coy when it comes to the ultimate size of the military machine they wish to create. But notional targets under discussion in Baghdad are for an army of 120,000 to be created within the three years.
This would require the US-led coalition to maintain a major military presence in Iraq at least until 2007. Nevertheless, visitors to Baghdad are struck by a sense of urgency.
The new Iraqi leaders appear concerned that a change of occupant at the White House next week may precipitate American withdrawal, leaving Iraq defenseless in one of the world’s most dangerous neighborhoods.
“We must prepare for all eventualities,” says security “czar” Saleh without elaborating.
