Some of our allies in Iraq are our enemies

The Iraqi army and police forces, on whom we place all our hopes that the Iraqi state can become self-sustaining, are sometimes our enemies. This is from today’s New York Times:

BAGHDAD, July 13—In a rare battle between American and uniformed Iraqi forces, United States troops backed by fighter jets killed six Iraqi policemen and seven gunmen during a predawn raid in which they captured a rogue police lieutenant, the military said Friday.

And check out this story from USA Today about how Iraqi police seemed to know in advance about a planned attack on a U.S. base and did nothing:

Before the night erupted in violence, it was unusually quiet in the Karbala government compound where American troops and Iraqi police were encamped Jan. 20, according to a previously undisclosed Army investigation.

That night, insurgents wearing U.S. uniforms managed to get past Iraqi police, storm two buildings and abduct four soldiers, whom they later killed. The ease with which the insurgents entered the base jarred the U.S. military. Last week, Pentagon officials accused the Iranian government of training the attackers….

Iraqi police usually filled the compound. But that evening, mysteriously none was there, according to Army investigators. Iraqi vendors had suddenly closed up shop and gone home early. Investigators now suspect Iraqi police secretly cooperated with an Iranian-trained assault force.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 14, 2007 11:05 AM | Send