Training the killers

You have trained us to kill very well Americans.
Now we will kill Sunni.

Army Expands Training for Advisers Who Will Try to Improve Iraq’s Security Forces

By MICHAEL R. GORDON
Published: November 25, 2006

FORT RILEY, Kan., Nov. 18 — This wind-swept stretch of Kansas has become the hub of a major new push by the United States Army to overhaul its effort to advise Iraq’s fledgling sectertian forces

Following a refusal to follow US orders by many Iraqi units and complaints that earlier efforts to train American advisers had been handicapped by bureaucratic inertia, the Army has handed the mission to Maj. Gen. Carter F. Ham, who had a previous stint as a commander in Iraq.

Along with nearly 1,000 soldiers from his First Infantry Division, General Ham has sought to improve the training of the advisers as the Army has moved to upgrade the quality of these teams.

The revamped effort began with little fanfare this summer, but has gained prominence in recent weeks as experts inside and outside the government have recommended that the military expand theadvisers’ ranks as part of a renewed push to strengthen the Iraqi death squads

The more training we give the Iraqi forces, the more power we give to Sadr and his militias. People have this idea that the Sunnis are some kind of efficient military machine. The Shia have never fully mobilized the forces they could if things got tight. The vast majority of Ba'athist were Shia, the vast majority of the Army were Shia. Most have avoided taking up arms.

That might be ending.