When attempting to convince the American friends that Germany is really on their side, German diplomatic elites often point to Germany's miniscule training program for Iraqi police. Well, it turns out that the program itself is so pathetic that even the Iraqis see little point in continuing. Here are excerpts from a report from Deutsche Welle, a source actually sponsored by the German government:
Iraq Stops Sending Police for German Training
Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Baqer Sulagh has criticized the training of Iraqi police recruits by German experts in the United Arab Emirates and said they would no longer participate in the program.
In an announcement whose timing may be more than mere coincidental, Sulagh said he expressed his dissatisfaction to Germany's ambassador to the UAE and added that they were seeking "training programs which were more serious and more effective."
"We aren't convinced by the level of training of the Iraqi police officers by the German experts, nor by their barely seriously manner," the minister said Tuesday during a press conference in Abu Dhabi, according to the UAE news agency Wam. (...)
In February, then German Interior Minister Otto Schily visited the Al Ain military camp in the United Arab Emirates to see for himself how German police officers were training a first batch of 30 Iraqis.
Schily was surprised see a number of recruits at the course who would evidently derive little benefit from training in hand-to-hand combat because they were physically unsuited to it.
"There are weaknesses in this program," Schily said. "But we know that Iraqi policemen lead dangerous lives and we can only admire them for taking on such a job."
In the meantime Schily has left the German government and the complaint about ineffective German training methods will land on the desk of his successor Wolfgang Schaüble.
Isn't the German government's commitment to the American friends just overwhelming? They can't even manage to train groups of 30 Iraqis without the program breaking down. The article actually suggests the German authorities may have caved to terrorist demands in ending the program as well. With "allies" like this who appease the Islamofascists at every turn...who needs enemies?
The same thing happened in Afghanastan. Limited to the city of Kabul, the German police training program never effectively got off the ground and, in order to avoid an "incident", the US just quietly took charge of the program.
Posted by: Jake | December 23, 2005 at 08:47 PM
What, pray tell, does "they were physically unsuited to it." mean? They were disabled? fat? too small? to big? There's not much information in that statement.
Posted by: Mike H. | December 23, 2005 at 08:48 PM
They can't even manage to train groups of 30 Iraqis without the program breaking down
<-Querdenker/ordinary German mode->
This is another blatant exaggeration. Please note there were 30 Iraqis in January. By now there are surely about 90 Iraqis being trained. I hope DMK will make the appropiate correction, but I won't hold my breath considering the right-wing bias of this site (also confirmed by Stern). That's all I have to say about this slanted criticism of the German contribution to the fight against terrorism.
<-End Querdenker/ordinary German mode->
Posted by: WhatDoIKnow | December 23, 2005 at 08:48 PM
90 trainees in a country of 28,000,000 people. Es ist kein program.
Posted by: PacRim Jim | December 23, 2005 at 11:55 PM
Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas!
Posted by: Querdenker | December 24, 2005 at 01:11 AM
Deutsche Welle is certainly no Stern, Der Spiegel or the (used to be somewhat credible) BBC. I hope someone in Germany reads it (the website). For example:
Imagine the hollywood action-drama movie style cover Stern/Spiegel could do - EUROPA IST KAPUTT!!?
Posted by: gizmo | December 24, 2005 at 02:11 AM
To offer poor training is to subvert Iraqis' efforts toward freedom and independence. This is beyond a scandal. It is immoral.
Posted by: Nickie Goomba | December 24, 2005 at 04:28 AM
Yeah, we saw how good the German police were in MUNICH 1972!
No thanks.
*
Posted by: Jeffrey | December 24, 2005 at 04:36 PM
Somehow, I think the Iraqis will survive and find a way to cope with the disappointment. Twenty or thirty years from now, Iraq will be like France or Germany – they won't like us, either, but at least they won't be launching attacks. We can live with that.
Posted by: Mitch | December 27, 2005 at 03:09 AM
In that old joke about European Heaven and European Hell, Hell had German policemen. It wasn't supposed to be hellish because of lax training programs and unserious German adherence to rules. Oh well, I guess it's just a different kind of joke now.
How demoralizing must it be for the professionals in the police to be rejected by a fledgling Iraqi government for incompetence in police training! Herr Schroeder must be proud of his legacy in Iraq.
Posted by: TM Lutas | December 27, 2005 at 06:04 AM