OxBlog

Wednesday, November 05, 2003

# Posted 12:08 AM by Ariel David Adesnik  

BREMER'S SECRET POLICE: Under pressure to clamp down on Ba'athist insurgents, Paul Bremer has agreed to the training of an Iraqi paramilitary and intelligence-gathering force under the auspices of the Ministry of the Interior. Supposedly, the local knowledge of the Iraqi force will enable to track down insurgents more effectively.

To Bremer's credit, he is deeply worried about the implications of establishing such a force, initially opposed it, and wants to ensure that there will be a rigorous screening process so that the ranks of the new counterinsurgency force don't become filled with criminals in uniform. Bremer also wants the force to undergo police training, not military education.

Frankly, I don't think Bremer is going to get what he wants. The United States has never been good at teaching foreign military forces to respect civilian government, human rights or anything else. When we are successful at promoting democracy, we are successful because we side with the civilians against the military.

It is also worth pointing out that the US has a pretty bad record of training counterinsurgency forces, even if one leaves human rights issues aside. In El Salvador, for example, a massive of amount of American funding and manpower did little more than entrench the corruption and incompetence that plagued the Salvadoran military. Bottom line: On this one, I'm siding with the pessimists.
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