U.S., Iraq Hoping For Successful Election

By Benny Martinez - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

In nearly two weeks, the Iraqi nation will hit the polls in its second national election since the U.S. invasion in 2003.

After seven years of service in Iraq, the U.S. military will shift its role from combatant to advise-and-assist, and a recall of American soldiers is scheduled for August of 2010, said U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill in a briefing on Wednesday. The Middle-eastern country’s national elections and success will be a key factor in the role the U.S. military will play, he said.

“I think a key element of this is to have successful elections,” Hill said. “The alternative is not very nice, it’s a very unsuccessful process with a very uncertain future.”

There are 325 seats to fill in the Iraqi parliament, over 6,000 candidates and millions of voters. There remains a division among Sunni and Shi’a citizens, and the presence of the Ba’ath Party still causes controversy in Iraqi politics, Hill said.

Hill said he remains confident that the elections will end in success, attributing such optimism to the increasing number of campaign posters being placed throughout the streets of Baghdad.

Even with a successful election, the Ambassador said that help is still necessary to ensure prosperity in Iraq. He said that, in addition to the $200 million in funding for this year’s election, there are three things the U.S. still needs to do in Iraq to ensure the country’s stability and security.

“We must help Iraq build healthy political and democratic institutions... we must help Iraq modernize its economy, [without it] it’s not going to work... [and] we must help Iraq establish a productive relationship with its neighbors,” Hill said. “In so doing, we can secure Iraq’s role as, not only a reliable partner, but a strategic partner for the U.S.”

Increase In Defense Contractors Creating Concern Over Waste And Fraud

Travis Martinez - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

The Commission on War Time Contracts expressed concern on Monday over the military's use of contract employees Afghanistan and Iraq.

The independent and bipartisan commission held a series of hearings today investigating how the neglect of defense contracts has led to fraud, waste and abuse by government contracted companies.

“We need to be clear about the role of contractors in supporting the Iraq drawdown, and be sure that numbers of contractor personnel are appropriately geared to the reduction of U.S. Military,” said Co-Chair of the Commission Michael Thibault.

With the deadline for a complete American troop withdrawal in Iraq scheduled for December 21, 2011, the commission is looking into ways to avoid waste while effectively managing supplies that are shipped, sold or donated to residents of the two nations.

“As units move out of bases, the absolute and comparative numbers of contractors may rise to prepare bases for handover or closure, but the general trend should be for declining numbers,” said Thibault.

Although the commission would like to see a drawdown of contractors coincide with a drawdown of troops in Iraq, Rear Admiral Tom Traaen testified that the opposite may occur instead.

“The ratio of contractors to military has been 1:1 for the past several years, but it is predicted this will increase to 1.5:1 by next August,” he said.

Independent Panel Probes Handling Of Gov’t Contracts

Travis Martinez - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

The independent, bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq acknowledged Monday that there has been difficulty judging how many contractors are in the two nations, a scenario Co-Chair Michael J. Thibault warned could expose the U.S. to fraud.

“Eight years after the overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and more than six years since the overthrow of the Baathist regime in Iraq, we still don't know how many contract employees are in the region,” said Thibault during a hearing Monday. "The concern is not knowing exactly how many contractors there are, where they are, what they’re doing. That difficulty, in turn, permits and invites waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayers money and undermines the achievement of U.S. mission objectives."

A major concern for the panel is the lack of a single census system to account for contractors in both theaters. The effectiveness of the two accounting systems utilized, SPOT and CENTCOM, has been in question. The panel raised concerns that during a one-month span earlier this year the two systems produced a nearly 80,000 count gap.

Three witnesses that testified, Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Gary Mostek, Deputy Director of CENTCOM Redding Hobby and John Hutton with the GAO, all expressed doubts that the SPOT program is an effective method of accounting. All three shared the feeling that a manual census at this point would be the most reliable means of keeping track of how many contractors are in the two countries.

Odierno Signals Faster Withdrawal From Iraq

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

General Raymond Odierno, who commands U.S. forces in Iraq, told the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday that improved security in Iraq may allow troops to withdraw sooner than anticipated.

Odierno says, 4,000 U.S. troops will leave Iraq this month, bringing the total number of American troops down to 124,000. He said the withdrawal would continue to increase rapidly.

“Eleven months from now, our combat mission will end,” Odierno said. “Success will be defined by our ability to support Iraq’s developing institutional capacity, from governance to economics.”

Still, Odierno told committee members that now the U.S. must be cautious with the pace of withdrawal.

“The important part is that we do not want to lose the security progress that has been made,” He added that too quick of a withdrawal would create instability. “We have to ensure that we don’t take enough risk that ethno-sectarian violence is able to continue.”

Odierno noted in his testimony that although there are still significant challenges facing Iraq, he is optimistic about the current situation.

“I believe we are now in reach of our goals,” he said.

Odierno added that attacks “of all types” are decreasing to levels not seen since the “summer of 2003.”

“You can honestly feel a difference amongst the people in Baghdad,” Odierno said.

Iraq is currently establishing diplomatic and economic ties with neighboring countries, and confidence in the operational effectiveness of Iraqi Security Forces is increasing. ISF has taken over security with U.S. forces merely advising, assisting and enabling operations.

U.S. Peace Group Meets With Iraqi Political Leaders

By Julianne LaJeunesse - Talk Radio News Service

A federally-funded U.S. peace group met with two Iraqi leaders Friday to talk about the country's current stability and what the United States might expect from January's parliament elections.

Iraqi political leaders Ayad Allawi and Saleh Muhamed al-Mutlaq spoke with the United States Institute of Peace, or USIP warning that Iraq cannot afford to be left on their own during a time when "political corruption is obvious." Mutlaq, a secular Sunni politician told guests at the conference, "If they go on like this, I think Iraq is going to face a problem."

"We have to admit that the stability that we are talking about, and the security that we are talking about is for a short time and it is fragile," Mutlaq said. "We have a neighbor who is training militias there and waiting for the time when the Americans leave Iraq...They said 'we will fill the vacuum'.''

That neighbor is Iran. In 2007, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech that U.S. political power in Iraq was collapsing and that: "Soon, we will see a huge power vacuum in the region. Of course, we are prepared to fill the gap, with the help of neighbors and regional friends like Saudi Arabia, and with the help of the Iraqi nation."

Mutlaq, like former Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, stressed that over the next few months, Iraq is going to need U.S. and international help as the country votes for their second national parliament since the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Mutlaq heads the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, which is a group of individuals who contest the December 2005 general elections in Iraq. He said ensuring security during the January 2010 elections is essential to the nation's progress. Allawi agreed, saying he hopes the next trip to the polls will be "fraud-free, will have integrity and be free of intimidation, and free of rigging the ballot boxes."

"Our aspiration, really, is to build a country by Iraqis, for all Iraqis, excluding terrorists and extremists and those who have stained their hands with the blood of the Iraqi people," said Allawi, who helped manage Iraq's January 2005 elections.

"This is what we aspire [to], and this is where we need the understanding of the international community... it is a known fact, in the Middle East, the greater Middle East, a stable Iraq would spill over stability throughout the region, and vice-versa is also correct," he said.

The discussion was an addition to Ayad Allawi and Saleh Muhamed al-Mutlaq's "to do list" while in the country. The two met with Congress on Thursday to address the Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA agreement, and to advocate for Iraqi exemption to U.N. Security Charter 7, which among other conditions, requires Iraq to pay reparations to Kuwait.