US turns to former Saddam officers

[directfiesta]

Bring back the old regime... replacing Saddam by George....

The United States is about to appoint a large number of senior officers from the former army of Saddam Hussein to top jobs in the new Iraqi security forces in an attempt to prevent a repetition of last week's mutiny by several hundred Iraqi soldiers.
The newly trained Iraqi battalion refused to join the US Marines' attack on Falluja, saying its job was to defend the country, not to kill other Iraqis. The action cast doubt on the US aim of building up Iraqi forces to let US troops withdraw from the front line.

The appointment of officers from the old regime was advised by British officials last summer after the entire Iraqi army was disbanded by Paul Bremer, the top US administrator in Iraq, a move which sparked anger and discontent.

The US secretly changed tack early this year and sent a group of six major-generals, and about 20 other senior officers, for training in the US.

"I was invited by the Americans three months ago to come to a meeting in Baghdad with a view to being trained abroad," said one high-ranking officer in his mid-50s who wished to remain anonymous. "There was a list of 27 men, the intellectual cream of the Iraqi forces, and most of them graduates of top staff colleges abroad, like Sandhurst and Cranwell. They were clean, honest, and not involved in repression."

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story...192227,00.html

New type of Liberation???