Chiarelli preaches quality of life in Iraq
BAGHDAD — A top U.S. general toured one of Baghdad’s roughest Sunni neighborhoods Thursday to view the effects of a recent operation aimed at reducing sectarian fighting, urging commanders to improve quality-of-life issues for locals and resist feeding into sectarian divisions.
Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli accompanied soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, a Stryker battalion based at Fort Lewis, Wash., in Ghazaliya, a restive Sunni neighborhood known as a flash point for sectarian violence.
The tour included stops at an Iraqi army office, a local police station, a sewage project and a decrepit, shuttered strip mall where shopkeepers outnumbered customers.
At times blunt in his questioning of troops and people they met, Chiarelli said he believes — as he did in 2004, when he commanded the 1st Cavalry Division in Baghdad — that restoring essential services will improve security. To that end, he advised battalion commander Lt. Col. Van Smiley to improve quality of life in the area.
“You can’t do it with security alone,” Chiarelli said. “If you did, you’d have a police state. You’d have so much security people can’t even turn left or right.”
At the Ghazaliya police station — a frequent target because the police force is almost entirely Shiite, and is known to have been infiltrated by the Shiite Mahdi Army militia — Chiarelli listened as police transition team member 2nd Lt. Jeff Salzano described the situation.
Over half of the police station’s cars were rendered inoperable by roadside bombs, attacks or bad driving; the police chief does double-time as a Mahdi Army commander; and police patrols can’t go anywhere without security from U.S. or Iraqi army forces, as the people don’t trust them, he said.
Read the rest at Stars and Stripes
Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli accompanied soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, a Stryker battalion based at Fort Lewis, Wash., in Ghazaliya, a restive Sunni neighborhood known as a flash point for sectarian violence.
The tour included stops at an Iraqi army office, a local police station, a sewage project and a decrepit, shuttered strip mall where shopkeepers outnumbered customers.
At times blunt in his questioning of troops and people they met, Chiarelli said he believes — as he did in 2004, when he commanded the 1st Cavalry Division in Baghdad — that restoring essential services will improve security. To that end, he advised battalion commander Lt. Col. Van Smiley to improve quality of life in the area.
“You can’t do it with security alone,” Chiarelli said. “If you did, you’d have a police state. You’d have so much security people can’t even turn left or right.”
At the Ghazaliya police station — a frequent target because the police force is almost entirely Shiite, and is known to have been infiltrated by the Shiite Mahdi Army militia — Chiarelli listened as police transition team member 2nd Lt. Jeff Salzano described the situation.
Over half of the police station’s cars were rendered inoperable by roadside bombs, attacks or bad driving; the police chief does double-time as a Mahdi Army commander; and police patrols can’t go anywhere without security from U.S. or Iraqi army forces, as the people don’t trust them, he said.
Read the rest at Stars and Stripes
posted by iraqnam at 1:30 PM
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