Ironduke

New Iraq army battles deserters, disgruntled troops

By Mariam Fam
Associated Press


KIR KUSH, Iraq — The day before their recent deployment, some troops in Iraq’s new army excitedly sounded the siren of their new ambulance. Two tightened bolts on a cargo truck. One meticulously wiped dirt off his assault rifle.
“I am cleaning my weapon to be ready. I am prepared for any assignment,” said 1st Lt. Moustafa Himdan, 23.

Not everyone was so enthusiastic. A symbol of Iraq’s reconstruction effort and a key to handing power over to Iraqis, the army’s first battalion had a bumpy start when about 200 people deserted. Some complained they should get paid more.

On Dec. 14 — the day that Saddam Hussein’s capture was announced — some troops grumbled about low pay, while others feared for their families. Others claimed some Iraqi officers were disrespectful.

“I have a family of 12 people in addition to my wife and three children. Is this salary supposed to be enough for rent or food or for ourselves?” said soldier Maitham Abed, 27, who takes home $60 a month. “If I were a garbage collector, I would have made more money.”

U.S. training officers downplayed the setback to U.S. efforts to revive a country emerging from decades of dictatorship amid a persistent anti-U.S. insurgency. The Iraqi soldiers who graduated from a nine-week course at the base in Kir Kush, 50 miles northeast of Baghdad, man checkpoints and run patrols alongside U.S. units.

Marine Col. Allen E. Weh, chief of staff of the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team, said meager salaries were “the largest single reason” behind desertions.

“Frankly, the pay is too low and we all know it. It was arbitrarily set,” he said.

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, said earlier this month that the coalition would reconsider the pay scale for Iraqi soldiers.

On Tuesday, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority administering Iraq announced new “hazardous duty pay” that more than doubled the salaries of some soldiers and police. Abed’s $60 salary will be augmented by a new danger allowance equivalent to $75 monthly.

Maj. Richard Caya of the 4th Infantry Division, who is responsible for Iraqi troops after basic training, said the number of soldiers in the so-called Freedom Battalion dropped from about 650 to 406 because of the desertions.

“Now that it happened, and now that I understand why it happened, they did us a favor by telling us that they have a problem that we need to fix,” Weh said.

Some Iraqi troops received threats from suspected insurgents who have carried out deadly attacks on Iraqis working with the coalition.

Others complained that old ways from the former army linger. Soldiers swap stories of Iraqi officers yelling at them for watching television, insulting them or meting out physical punishment.

Hussein Hamed, a 19-year-old soldier, said four Iraqi officers beat up a friend who asked for a vacation, leaving him with a bruised eye. “The injustice and oppression are just like before. There’s no respect,” he said.

Caya said the officers involved were under investigation and that at least one had been punished. “Some of these people that have been in the old Iraqi army, it’s a mentality switch for them, and we’re working on those,” he said.

Caya also listens to more mundane complaints: The uniforms shrink. The boots are uncomfortable. The gloves tear easily.

About three-quarters of the recruits in the first battalion were also soldiers of the 400,000-man former army, which was overwhelmed in the U.S.-led invasion in March. But the new all-volunteer army is envisioned as an example of tolerance and diversity, in contrast to Saddam’s Sunni-dominated military.

The only punishment that dropouts got was being banned from serving in security sectors or from being directly hired by the government.

L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator, formally dissolved the old Iraqi army in May, and a U.S. plan calls for building a 40,000-man force of light infantry battalions by next October, after which a sovereign Iraq government can decide on the eventual size and makeup of its military.

In Kir Kush, Iraqi soldiers received instructions from a civilian trainer from Fairfax, Va.-based Vinnell Corp., a U.S. defense contractor.

“Your weapon should be on your shoulder,” he told about 140 soldiers through a translator, his words punctuated by gunfire from a nearby range. “Your heads and eyes should be straight. You should be able to get in this position in two or three minutes, not in 15,” he yelled.

“Yes sir,” they answered in unison.

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f...25-2503710.php