US military's role to shift to training Iraqi forces: general
17/1/2005 11:35
The American military's main mission in Iraq after the Jan. 30 elections
will be to train Iraqi military and police forces to take over security duties,
the general who will take over next month as American ground commander in Iraq
said in an interview published Sunday.
Lieutenant General John R. Vines told
The New York Times that battling insurgents and reducing the violence would
still be high priorities, but that the No. 1 job after the elections would be to
improve the training of Iraqi security forces, whose performance is the linchpin
of America's strategy for withdrawing from Iraq.
"The most desired course of
action is that there be rapid progress in training and preparing Iraqis to
assume responsibility for security in every province," Vines said.
To do
that, as many as 10,000 American military advisers could be assigned to work
directly with Iraqi units to hone the leadership skills and confidence of newly
trained Iraqi officers, Vines said. At present, a few thousand American advisers
are assigned to Iraqi units.
General Vines, who served with Special
Operations Forces in Somalia and commanded an airborne-assault battalion in
Washington' s 1989 invasion of Panama, will take command of ground operations in
mid-February, replacing Lieutenant General Thomas Metz as part of a regular
force rotation.
As for when the Pentagon might significantly reduce its
forces in Iraq, General Vines said that depended on conditions and discussions
with the Iraqi government. "We won't dictate the terms of when we will draw
down," he said. "Mutual assent is the mechanism."
Xinhua News
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