Every military family in America, indeed every family in America, should look long and hard at the massive corruption of the Iraqi police and the substantial corruption of contractors who have abused the trust of American troops and American taxpayers.
The core of the President's policy has been that as Iraqis stand up, Americans stand down. Why haven't more Iraqis stood up? Why have we now had one major increase in troop strength, with another major increase almost certain to be announced after the election?
In the Washington Post, Page 1, part of this question is answered in the story titled: "Heralded Iraq Police Academy A 'Disaster'".
The $75 million dollar project to build the police academy, once billed as one of the most important fulcrums of American policy in Iraq, has been so mismanaged and so subject to fraud and waste that what little has been done, may be soon be torn down.
This is the truth: the Iraq police academy is such a disaster that feces and urine pour down on the students in barracks. The floors have cracked apart and are not even nailed to the ground. Water regularly pours down from the ceilings. The Inspector General of the U.S. government now says this most important project for civil security in Iraq is a disaster. Contracts have been abused and the entire project is now under major investigation that now requires a criminal grand jury.
What has gone wrong, with the Iraqi police force, is an outrage and at the heart of what has gone wrong with the President's policies. The broader issue of police recruitment and training has been a failure and disaster; the Iraqi police range from ineffective to corrupt to infiltrated by enemies who work from within the police to kill American troops. Meanwhile, extreme militias have grown far more powerful than the police, while they kill fellow Iraqis, kill American troops, and pursue their sectarian wars against each other and against us. And American military commanders are gravely worried that the Iraqi civilian authorities are unable and unwilling to build an Iraqi police force and confront and remove the militias.
American troops are risking their lives, suffering grave wounds and being killed in action to do the job of Iraqi police. While the Iraqi police are filled with internal corruption. While the contractors make obscene profits for lousy or corrupt work, while our troops suffer low pay at great hardship while bloated contractors with high pay stand right next to our troops, which only hurts morale even more.
What the President's policy has done, is punish brave and loyal troops, while it rewards corrupt Iraqi police, corrupt Iraqi politicians and corrupt contractors.
Even the most important and vital civil security project in Iraq is a catastrophe and fiasco and this "stay the course" policy only convinces the corrupt to continue the corruption, while our troops continue the casualties trying to do the work of Iraqi police, who are absent without leave, stealing from the till, or shooting our troops.
The truth is, the best single result of voters electing a Democratic Congress is that these abuses, rather than being hidden away and covered up for so long, will be investigated and ended.
Right now, more than 60% of Iraqis support the killing of American troops.
More than 60% to 70% of Iraqis want our troops to leave within the year.
And the Administration now hires more public public relations firms, at great cost to our taxpayers, to monitor media coverage at home and try to buy good coverage in an Iraqi media, when the Iraqi people by majority support the killing of our troops and want our troops to leave within the year.
If nothing else there must be a criminal grand jury to charge anyone who has stolen and ripped off huge amounts of taxpayer money for these corrupted projects.
And American military families should make it clear that it is not acceptable for our young men and women in uniform to pay the price, while Iraqi police refuse to stand up, while the Iraqi police are filled with corruption, while the Iraqi police includes criminals who shoot our troops, and while the Iraqi government refuses to stop the militias which are daggers in the heart of the "stay the course" policy.
This must be ended, NOW. We cannot accept bullets and bombs aimed at Americans doing the job that Iraqi police will not do, so long into this war, with such great cost to our troops.
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