Iraqi President Calls U.S. Security Training a Failure

NYT

BAGHDAD, Dec. 10 — President Jalal Talabani said Sunday that the American program to train Iraq’s military and police, a cornerstone of the American enterprise in Iraq, was a failure.

He also rejected proposals to increase the number of American combat troops in advisory positions within the Iraqi Army, saying it was tantamount to surrendering control of the military to the Americans.

“What have they done so far in training the army and the police?” the president said during a news conference here. “What they have done is move from failure to failure.”

Mr. Talabani did not offer specific criticisms of the American training program, except to blame the Americans for inadequately vetting recruits of the Shiite-dominated police for sectarian loyalties. American and some Iraqi officials say some Iraqi police and army units are more beholden to Shiite militias than to the government and have helped to drive the cycles of retributive violence by attacking Sunni Arabs.