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Iraqi National Police is 85 percent Shiite
Former Washington D.C. police chief Charles Ramsey, the lead police expert on the Jones commission, knows all about community suspicion of the boys in blue. Yet, he told Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the distrust he saw directed at the Iraqi National Police was stunning. Maybe that shouldn't be surprising: corrupt and brutal, and responsive to an Interior Ministry that the commission describes as a "11-story powder keg of factions," the 25,000 member force, Ramsey disclosed, is a stunning 85 percent Shiite and only 13 percent Sunni.
The commission recommends disbanding the Iraqi National Police and reconfiguring it under the Interior Ministry. But commission members didn't really address how any improvement in the police force is possible absent a drastic overhaul in the Interior Ministry, which the Maliki government rejected today. Of course, the ministry is the way it is because Shiites and Sunnis remain unreconciled, so we're back to the central problem of sectarian reconciliation. Until that's magically fixed, it looks like you occupy a country with the Iraqi National Police you have, not the Iraqi National Police you might want or wish to have at a later time.
Comments (16)
elle loco wrote on September 6, 2007 2:48 PM:Isn't this hed rendered considerably less stunning when we recall that Iraq's population is something like two-thirds Shiite? Besides which, one might guess that Sunni-majority areas are lightly policed by the national force, inasmuch as they are noncooperative with the Baghdad government in general....
Redshift wrote on September 6, 2007 3:13 PM:Hey, but Paul Bremer says:
jerri wrote on September 6, 2007 4:11 PM:Moreover, we were right to build a new Iraqi Army. Despite all the difficulties encountered, Iraq’s new professional soldiers are the country’s most effective and trusted security force. By contrast, the Baathist-era police force, which we did recall to duty, has proven unreliable and is mistrusted by the very Iraqi people it is supposed to protect.
I do not see a problem. Pre war the sunnis made up about 20% of the population. Since the war 4 million have left and only bush know how many have died....so 13% is probably representative of current sunni iraqis.
Mafalda Hopkirk wrote on September 6, 2007 5:10 PM:Redshift, police and army - two different things. This is police. And interestingly, recent articles have said that the police need "reforming." Wonder what that means...
alex wrote on September 6, 2007 5:22 PM:Well then, we gots to train those 85 percent shiite soldiers not to be shiite - shiite, how hard could that be?
Th wrote on September 6, 2007 5:23 PM:I'm guessing that the Kurds have their own private police force and army not counted in any of this and not answerable to anyone in Bagdad.
jeff wrote on September 6, 2007 5:28 PM:Even more stunning is that means less than 2% of the national police are Kurd, which is at least 1/3 of the population (or maybe 2/5?).
T2 wrote on September 6, 2007 5:45 PM:The issue of a segment of population vastly over-represented in a Police Force is hardly unusual. Many cities have many more whites than blacks on the force, for instance. The difference here is that the Shiite faction actually want to kill the Sunni citizens the first chance they get. That's why it doesn't work too well.
T2 wrote on September 6, 2007 5:47 PM:The issue of a segment of population vastly over-represented in a Police Force is hardly unusual. Many cities have many more whites than blacks on the force, for instance. The difference here is that the Shiite faction actually want to kill the Sunni citizens the first chance they get. That's why it doesn't work too well.
NH Dem wrote on September 6, 2007 6:03 PM:Yeah, but 85 percent of ANYTHING is ... oh. Sorry. Missed the extra "i."
NH Dem wrote on September 6, 2007 6:06 PM:Yeah, but 85 percent of ANYTHING is ... oh. Sorry. Missed the extra "i."
The Confidence Man wrote on September 6, 2007 6:54 PM:Um, ah, so ... with the revelation this week that we're essentially shifting our political backing to Allawi and his slow-motion, Barbour-puffed Sunni coup ... uh ... that means we're trying to re-install Saddam's Sunni regime on top of a Shi'ite national police force?
Shortest. Coup. Expected lifespan. Ever.
jimcee wrote on September 6, 2007 8:08 PM:You pull an "i" and an "e" out of the last word in the headline and you're %100 percent Correct!
Anonymous wrote on September 6, 2007 11:10 PM:My only wish is that someone is writing a very specific planning book derived from the successful (has anyone seen One successful thing we have accomplished in Iraq... not including the ability to kill lots and lots of people, of course) and failures (such as power, water, infrastructure, democracy in practice, oil production, retention of doctors, engineers... anyone capable of reconstructing a country, buildings which are not falling down during construction, etc.) since we have brought freedom to Iraq.
It would be nice to have some concrete solutions to follow next year when we decide to free another country...
Anonymous wrote on September 7, 2007 1:01 AM:Our learned leaders continue to forget that these people are not attacking each other because they hate one another. Most of the killings involve total strangers. What they are doing is attempting to exterminate another sect. It has nothing to do with having or not having a democracy or a dictatorship or anything. As long as there are enough weapons and opportunities, this behavior will likely continue.
The Sunnis had their chance... now the Shiites are retalliating. The 21st century, if it continues as it is now, will probably be known as the "Get Even" century. Iraq got even with Kuwait... the USA got even with Iraq. Al Qaida got even with the USA... the USA is getting even with Al Qaida and Iraq. The Kurds are getting even with the Turks... the Turks are beginning to respond. We have decided to repeat the cold war and put missiles by Russia... Russia starts up their Air survaillance. We respond by putting nuclear missiles on our B52s.
Because we are only seven years into the new century, and because we have been spending $400 billion a year on new ways to destroy living beings, we might be digging a hole nobody will be able to get out of, but I guess important folks have decided "getting even" is more important than the survival of this planet... IMHO
Pietr wrote on September 7, 2007 5:21 PM:Test