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.