--- title: Are Iraq's Security Forces Ready for the Job? | TIME description: When the U.S. military withdraws from Iraq, will the country's security forces be fully prepared to keep it from falling into chaos and civil war? canonical: https://time.com/video/LURCEndy/ og:title: Are Iraq's Security Forces Ready for the Job? og:description: When the U.S. military withdraws from Iraq, will the country's security forces be fully prepared to keep it from falling into chaos and civil war? og:url: https://time.com/video/LURCEndy/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/LURCEndy/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Are Iraq's Security Forces Ready for the Job? twitter:description: When the U.S. military withdraws from Iraq, will the country's security forces be fully prepared to keep it from falling into chaos and civil war? twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/LURCEndy/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Are Iraq's Security Forces Ready for the Job? > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Are Iraq's Security Forces Ready for the Job? [Watch (HLS stream): Are Iraq's Security Forces Ready for the Job?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/LURCEndy.m3u8) (5:00)  _Published 2010-03-16. When the U.S. military withdraws from Iraq, will the country's security forces be fully prepared to keep it from falling into chaos and civil war?_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:21 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Iraq's Parliament Calls for Expulsion of U.S. Troops](/video/SRHTg0TF/) ### Iraq's Parliament Calls for Expulsion of U.S. Troops [Iraq's Parliament Elections: Fragile Democracy](/video/oEbgYrPO/) ### Iraq's Parliament Elections: Fragile Democracy [Iraq's Parliamentary Elections: Fragile Democracy](/video/dkIHrE6S/) ### Iraq's Parliamentary Elections: Fragile Democracy --- ## Transcript >> Today, these US soldiers from a Stryker Brigade are teaching a group of Iraqi policemen how to unload a rifle of the American. A young policeman forgets one of the most important safety feature, taking his finger off the trigger. This bad habit could explain why Iraqi policemen are notorious for shooting themselves in the foot. >> You wanna squeeze the trigger, when that front sight post is right on the center mass of that body. >> Okay. >> This is a training operation in Abu Ghraib, the town associated with one of the US military's worst torture and prisoner abuse scandals is now the place where American soldiers are teaching Iraqi security forces to protect themselves and their country. >> What's funny is when we first started doing the whole pulling the magazine out and clearing the weapon and doing all that shit on the line, they had trouble locking the bolt of the rear and everything. But now, they look like our guys. >> While most military experts agree, the Iraqi's have come a long way, they still face so many challenges. >> They're lacking in air force, heavy weapons, artillery. They have some armor but not on the scale of let's say conventional army. There are still some gaps in terms of reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, communications. >> It's been a rough road. We've had some trouble as far as support logistically with personnel, with fuel, with equipment. >> Americans stop providing fuel for Iraqis several months ago to force the government of Iraq to become self- sufficient and fuel shortages remain a problem as well as the lack of basic supplies. They also still have to grow the numbers in their force. >> It's a gradual increase from almost zero. The new army was formed from virtually nothing by bringing in some officers and starting it out. Now, to build a military force from nothing is very tough, it takes a long time. >> After the US invaded Iraq in 2003, the army and police were disbanded and they had to rebuild from scratch. Many of the officers and soldiers are new recruits who are still learning how to march in formation. One of the biggest challenges for Iraq's ministry of interior however is corruption particularly among the police. >> We have to constantly weed out corruption, corrupt- corrupt officers, the ministry of interior, in his recent visit told me that he had to get rid of more than 60, 000 police. >> Out of a total of? >> A total of maybe 250 or 300, 000. But that's still considerable, it is a lot. >> In many places, you see the police are very politicized and they're perceived to be an arm of a local militia or some national movement that maybe at odds with some of the other local inhabitants. So because of that, many Iraqis strongly distrust the police. >> It's getting better the more that we work with them but it's just- it's a long road to legitimacy because the people here live in a world where you can't pick up the phone and call somebody for help and expect someone to be here. You can't call for medical assistance and hope for an ambulance to show up and people here are so distraught. It's a long road coming to help gain their trust. >> It's a process of reeducation and reorientation as the philosophy of New Iraq is radically different from the philosophy of Old Iraq. The New Iraq has a military which is entirely defensive externally and is oriented towards human rights and the protection and security of its civilian internally. It's a different philosophy. It is led by the institutions of the state not by a single dictator. >> Despite problems, most members of the military agree that the Iraqi security forces are moving in the right direction. The question is, will they be ready to stand on their own once the US soldiers leave? >> We are some ways yet but we are well on the way. We have our formations in place, a lot of training has taken place but we still need a few more years in order to arrive at the point where Iraq can defend itself from any credible threat from outside its border. >> This is Bobby Ghosh for time. com ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Are Iraq's Security Forces Ready for the Job?","description":"When the U.S. military withdraws from Iraq, will the country's security forces be fully prepared to keep it from falling into chaos and civil war?","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/LURCEndy/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2010-03-16T21:29:55.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/LURCEndy.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/LURCEndy/","duration":"PT5M","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/LURCEndy/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```