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Politics

Bush, military brass huddle

Meanwhile, a report questions progress by Iraqi national police.

WASHINGTON - President Bush huddled with top military leaders about the Iraq war Friday, and Pentagon officials defended efforts to rid the Iraqi national police of sectarian bias and corruption, even as an independent review found the force too tainted to continue.

In a 90-minute meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a secure Pentagon room dubbed "the Tank," Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney heard from leaders of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, who are worried about strains that are building on the forces - and on troops' families - as a result of lengthy and repeated tours in Iraq.

In a fresh sign of U.S. frustration with the Iraqi government in Baghdad, a senior U.S. commander said in an Associated Press interview that he is irritated by the slow pace of action by Iraq's central government to ensure that its security forces are properly led, supplied and equipped on the battlefield.

"I have not seen any improvement really in the year I've been here in that regard," said Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq. He said the Iraqi army is doing "pretty well" in fighting the insurgency alongside U.S. troops, but they are not getting sufficient support from Baghdad.

"Progress is slower than it should be inside the (Iraqi) army in particular" with regard to proper support and direction from national leaders in Baghdad, Mixon said by telephone, adding that the problem lies in a combination of bureaucratic obstacles and sectarian-based decisions about army leadership appointments.

Two independent assessments of the situation in Iraq already have been previewed this week - the latest finding that Iraq's national police are so corrupt and influenced by sectarianism that the corps should be scrapped and replaced with a smaller force.

An independent commission established by Congress to study Iraq's security forces will recommend starting over and reshaping the troubled 25,000-member police organization with a more elite force, a defense official said Friday. He said the report was more positive about progress being made by the Iraqi army.

The report from a commission headed by the former commander of U.S. troops in Europe, retired Gen. James Jones, is to be presented to Congress next week but Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other officials were briefed about it this week, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not been made public.

Asked the Pentagon's view on this, press secretary Geoff Morrell said there already is a program under way to fix the problem of sectarian influence in the national police. He said he had not seen the Jones report.

"It should come as no surprise to anyone that there have been problems with sectarianism within the Iraqi national police force, and we have been working on it along with the Iraqi government for some time to fix that problem," Morrell said.

"We believe we now have a program in place which is showing progress, and that is by what we like to call 'reblooming' the Iraqi national police force. We are revetting, retraining and then reintroducing forces into the Iraqi national police force," he added.

The Iraqi National Police, a paramilitary organization run by the Interior Ministry, has long been feared and distrusted by the Iraqi people and is considered the weak link in the Iraqi security system. Many of its early senior officers were veterans of the Badr Brigade, the Iranian-backed Shiite militia formed in Iran from among Shiite refugees who had fled Saddam Hussein's rule.

The national police are separate from the far more numerous local police.

Fast facts

Developments

Bombings, sectarian slayings and other violence related to the war killed at least 1,773 Iraqi civilians in August, the second month in a row that civilian deaths have risen, according to government figures obtained Friday. The numbers are based on morgue, hospital and police records.

A cholera outbreak in northern Iraq, where thousands of people have sought refuge from sectarian violence, is overwhelming hospitals and has killed up to 10 people, health officials said Friday. The cities of Sulaymaniya and Kirkuk have been affected by the outbreak, which is seen as the latest example of the deterioration of living conditions and displacement caused by the ongoing conflict.

Iraqi police responded with an iron fist Friday to the violence that threw the Shiite Muslim holy city of Karbala into chaos earlier this week, arresting more than 300 people in a show of force against Shiite militias. Iraqi officials say Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the arrests.

[Last modified September 1, 2007, 01:40:57]