AP: 1,500 Policemen Fired in Iraqi Province (Diyala)

[Eugene]

1,500 Policemen Fired in Iraqi Province
By Associated Press

January 28, 2007, 3:26 PM EST

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The mayor of Baqouba and 1,500 police officers in Diyala province
have been fired in a bid to end the raging violence in that region northeast of
Baghdad, the provincial police chief said Sunday.

Ghanim al-Qureyshi, who took command of police operations in the violent province
after his predecessor was sacked last month, said Mayor Khalid Al-Senjeri, a Sunni
Muslim, was dismissed over suspicions he was collaborating with Sunni Arab insurgents.

Last week, the mayor was reported kidnapped by insurgents who blew up his office and
stole several new police vehicles in Baquoba, the provincial capital. He was released
a few days later.

Al-Qureyshi said the 1,500 policemen were fired because they fled rather than fight
when insurgents attacked in Baqouba in November. The chief said he was determined
to create a police force free of corruption.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-iraq-police-fired,0,4600675.story

[Stella_Artois]

1. They will hire a new police force

Consisting of Shia no doubt.

They will be useful in the coming ethnic cleansing of the Sunni, when the US leaves.

[Tin Man]

2. So are we to believe that, just because they were fired, they are no longer actors?

Did their weapons, training, and partisan loyalties suddenly vanish when their paychecks were discontinued?

[mikeytherat]

3. Yes. Yes, they did vanish.

Just like the 400,000 members of the Iraqi military. When we disbanded that 'ol thing, those soldiers' training, weapons and grudges/loyalties/wacky religious notions/brutal secular notions etc. all disappeared in a pretty pink cloud of Freedom!

mikey_the_rat

[Tin Man]

4. Ahhhh, the sweet elixer of freedom. Cure-all for whatever ails you.

...I kinda like that (budding) analogy: the NeoCabal as snake-oil salesmen.

I'd always believed this to be the case, but never specifically applied the analogy to it. Actually, I really like the imagery... The NeoCabal peddling their "Freedom Oil" as a cure to Middle East unrest and terrorism, and dumb 'ol W stepping-up to buy a whole case of the stuff.

[High Plains]

5. A couple of things:

First, I wonder what those 1500 dismissed officers will do now. I hear the insurgency is hiring.

Second, just who dismissed the mayor? I'm assuming he was elected. Did the governor of the province fire him? Was it the Americans? And what does that say about democracy in Iraq?