Quotable: Violence in Iraq is not going to change

The BBC aired an interview yesterday with General Abdul Hussein Al Safee, chief of the Dhi Qhar province police forces in Iraq’s Shiite south. Safee complained that at least one third of his forces are impossible to control because they’re loyal to local militias, and that 300 to 400 of his officers were completely illiterate. ...

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603148_070321_safee_05.jpg

The BBC aired an interview yesterday with General Abdul Hussein Al Safee, chief of the Dhi Qhar province police forces in Iraq's Shiite south. Safee complained that at least one third of his forces are impossible to control because they're loyal to local militias, and that 300 to 400 of his officers were completely illiterate.

The BBC aired an interview yesterday with General Abdul Hussein Al Safee, chief of the Dhi Qhar province police forces in Iraq’s Shiite south. Safee complained that at least one third of his forces are impossible to control because they’re loyal to local militias, and that 300 to 400 of his officers were completely illiterate.

Army Colonel Ed Brown, the British officer in charge of “strategic oversight” of Iraqi police in the province, takes the long view:

There is a level of violence here, but that is life in Iraq. It’s been like this for thousands of years. It’s not going to change.” 

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