Iraqis purge informants from ranks - The Washington Times: World - November 14, 2004
The Iraqi armed forces, meanwhile, have taken charge of their own recruiting. They often employ methods that, while falling short of U.S. civil rights standards, are proving effective, Capt. Bradley said.
In April, when fighting broke out in various parts of the country, many Iraqi soldiers and police ran for their lives or handed their weapons to the attackers.
Iraqi authorities have raised the recruitment age from 17 to 20 and instituted new rules to keep anti-government sympathizers out of the ranks.
Each recruit must now bring a letter of approval from his local community council, and each military base now dispatches committees to new recruits' neighborhoods to check on their "moral background," Maj. Ala al-Khifajey of the Iraqi national guard said.
What's more, nepotism is now the rule: Every new recruit must have a relative already in the service to vouch for him.
"We know our people," he said. "We know who to recruit and who to reject."
That marks a sharp departure from the methods used by the Americans, who ran the recruiting program the way they were used to doing at home, Maj. al-Khifajey said.
"The American way was, you fill out a three-page application form, they check your name against their list of terrorists, and after a medical and fitness test, you had the job."
But privacy rules and fair-hiring practices simply didn't work in a country surrounded by bloodthirsty enemies, infiltrated by suicidal Islamic extremists and ravaged by decades of poverty and war, he said.
"Maybe 10 years down the line we'll have the kind of society where a man can just walk in off the street and sign up for the army," Maj. al-Khifajey said, "but definitely not now."
The Iraqi armed forces, meanwhile, have taken charge of their own recruiting. They often employ methods that, while falling short of U.S. civil rights standards, are proving effective, Capt. Bradley said.
In April, when fighting broke out in various parts of the country, many Iraqi soldiers and police ran for their lives or handed their weapons to the attackers.
Iraqi authorities have raised the recruitment age from 17 to 20 and instituted new rules to keep anti-government sympathizers out of the ranks.
Each recruit must now bring a letter of approval from his local community council, and each military base now dispatches committees to new recruits' neighborhoods to check on their "moral background," Maj. Ala al-Khifajey of the Iraqi national guard said.
What's more, nepotism is now the rule: Every new recruit must have a relative already in the service to vouch for him.
"We know our people," he said. "We know who to recruit and who to reject."
That marks a sharp departure from the methods used by the Americans, who ran the recruiting program the way they were used to doing at home, Maj. al-Khifajey said.
"The American way was, you fill out a three-page application form, they check your name against their list of terrorists, and after a medical and fitness test, you had the job."
But privacy rules and fair-hiring practices simply didn't work in a country surrounded by bloodthirsty enemies, infiltrated by suicidal Islamic extremists and ravaged by decades of poverty and war, he said.
"Maybe 10 years down the line we'll have the kind of society where a man can just walk in off the street and sign up for the army," Maj. al-Khifajey said, "but definitely not now."
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