One of Ours

...The coalition’s campaign to recruit so many Iraqi police officers so fast on the heels of the demise of Saddam’s brutal reign has inevitably led to the infiltration of police ranks by thugs and terrorists. That was made abundantly clear in early March, when four Iraqi police officers were Tarrested in connection with the ambush and murder of two U.S. officials and their interpreters. Meanwhile, in the town of Kufa on April 4, much of the U.S.-trained police force reportedly joined the side of Moktada al-Sadr’s militias in a firefight with coalition forces...

...While much of the public ire and media heat has been directed at the Iraqi police, the focus of U.S. military commanders in Iraq remains on the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps. In the words of one senior U.S. commander in Baghdad, “I’m going to keep briefing the importance of the ICDC to our plans because, ultimately, these guys are our ticket out of here.”...