Iraqi police years from taking charge

[deadparrot]

Source: Associated Press

NUMANIYAH, Iraq - A smoke grenade is tossed and Iraq's most elite paramilitary commandos storm an apartment building. The raid goes off without a hitch.

The problem is that it's just an exercise — part of the Pentagon's four-week drills for the Iraqi National Police. In reality, Iraqi commanders say it could be years before the force is competent enough to control Baghdad on its own.

Or like "trying to build an airplane while you're flying it," said Col. Chip Lewis, the chief U.S. training officer for the National Police.

The slow pace of police training highlights just one of the conundrums taking shape amid calls for an American troop withdrawal timetable: How to begin an exit strategy without leaving behind a crippled state that's easy prey for al-Qaida or homegrown militias?

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iraq_struggling_police

[Lord Balto]

1. My Predictions

Iraq will be dismembered. The southern portion will be absorbed into Iran. The central portion will become the Sunni People's Republic of Iraq, and the northern portion will become the Kurdish Republic until it is invaded by Turkey, upon which it will become the Kurdish Autonomous Province of Turkey. The U.S. will pull out of Iraq within 6 months of the election of a Democratic president in 2008. George Bush will become the first president in American history to have a Monument of Infamy erected in his memory. "Cheney" will become a dirty word the mention of which on the airwaves will lead to the pulling of a station's license. Karl Rove will be buried (alive) in an unmarked grave somewhere in Utah. Everyone who can be proved to have voted for George Bush in 2004 will have their heads examined and be barred from voting ever again.

[jmc247]

2. Western Iraq has already been named by the insurgency

The Islamic State in Iraq.

[Igel]

3. I don't know that Iran could handle absorbing the

Shi'ite bits of Iraq.

Khuzestan is not a happy place.