Statebuilding updates

The Chicago Tribune has two stories today reflecting on U.S. efforts at statebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan. Aamer Madhani reports on the uneven progress in reconstituting Iraq’s security forces by examining the town of Muqdadiyah. The highlights:

By the U.S. military’s current expectations, the joint patrol by American and Iraqi troops was a success–only about a third of the Iraqi soldiers hid their faces out of fear of being seen with the Americans. But Lt. Joaquin Meno of the 1st Infantry Division had even higher hopes as he led the patrol recently into an area where U.S. soldiers have been hectored for weeks. The Iraqi troops bounded out of their trucks and set up a right flank, just as they have been trained. Minutes later Meno did a double take: Several of the Iraqis had tugged their bandanas and kaffiyehs up to their eyes…. The small city and its surrounding area have been largely calm in recent months despite flare-ups in nearby Baqouba, the restive metropolis about 20 miles to the south. Col. Dana Pittard, commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division, which has a base in Muqdadiyah, said the peace is due largely to improvements in the Iraqi security forces. In a matter of months, the Iraqi National Guard has gone from a ragtag group led by a purportedly corrupt commander to a force with a semblance of professionalism, 1st Infantry officials say. The commander, who allegedly was skimming a third of the guard members’ salaries, was arrested and awaits trial. The troops have started training with American soldiers in intensive 15-day boot camps. U.S. military and local Iraqi officials insist the Iraqi guardsmen are making great strides…. In meetings last week with Pittard and battalion commander Lt. Col. Peter Newell, the city’s mayor and police chief praised the Americans. U.S. military officials and Iraqis repeated the story of a recent solo patrol by the Iraqi troops that they said was emblematic of how far the security forces have come in Muqdadiyah. “The people asked the soldiers if they were Iraqis,” said Mayor Hussein Alwan al-Timimi. “They wouldn’t believe that such a professional force could be Iraqi. They thought they must be Americans dressed up in Iraqi uniforms.” But there are indications from U.S. soldiers, as well as Iraqi officials, that there has been less progress in Muqdadiyah than sometimes meets the eye. Meno, the platoon leader who directed the recent joint patrol, noted that only one of the 24 Iraqi soldiers on the patrol had a flak jacket. He added that he had come across checkpoints where Iraqi troops or police officers have been sleeping on the job. A few weeks ago, Meno and his platoon were on guard duty with the Iraqi National Guard at the recently opened joint command center. During the watch, he said, they faced gun and rocket fire. As soon as the attack began, the Iraqi troops abandoned their posts, Meno said.

Read the whole thing. UPDATE: Christpher Dickey has a Newsweek story on the interim Iraqi government’s efforts to restore order (link via Josh Marshall):

As I drove into Baghdad from the airport on Sunday, Iraqi cops were all over the streets. In some parts of town there seemed to be a road block on every corner. They stopped cars. They searched the trunks. They searched what was in the trunks—and in the glove compartments, and in my computer bag. No smiles. No pleasantries. These guys had new uniforms, but their pot bellies, their moustaches, and their AK-47 assault rifles were just the same as in the old Saddam Hussein days. I never thought I’d be glad to see them. But I was. And so are most of the Iraqis I’ve talked to. “Things are more quiet these last weeks,” a young baker explained to me this afternoon. He spread his hands as if he were smoothing the sheet on a bed. “I hope this is not the calm before the storm.” I hope so, too. And if it’s not—if it really is a turning point toward peace and prosperity for Iraq—then there’s a simple reason: The quasi-sovereign government installed June 28 is playing politics Iraqi style. Sure there’s a lot of bluster and a fair dose of brutality. No doubt there’s plenty of corruption, too. But there’s also a feel for the mood on the street that the U.S.-run Coalition Provisional Authority, now defunct, never even began to have.

Meanwhile, the Tribune also runs an AP story by Stephen Graham documenting U.S. efforts to ensure a successful presidential election in Afghanistan. Particularly interesting was the sidebar reporting the results of an Asia Foundation survey conducted in Afghanistan back in February/March of this year. Some of the results:

DIRECTION OF THE COUNTRY Right direction: 64% Mixed/ don’t know: 24% Wrong direction: 11% HAVE A FAVORABLE VIEW OF . . . Hamid Karzai (Afghan president): 85% the United Nations: 84% the United States: 65%

The unfortunate caveat: “Pollsters didn’t reach four of the nation’s 34 provinces.”