Iraqi authorities announced today that 40,000 Iraqi police and soldiers will be deployed in a "cordon-and-search" mission, with "hundreds of checkpoints 'like a bracelet' in the largest show of Iraqi force since the fall of Saddam Hussein."
link
AP reports (same link):
Iraqi authorities did not say how long the crackdown would last, and it was uncertain if the Iraq security services are capable of mounting a sustained operation. Except for a few elite units, most police officers are believed to have joined up for the higher pay the job provides -- at $300 per month their salaries are triple the average wage.
Is it me, or are they setting themselves up for the mother of all attacks?
The Times
adds:
More than 40,000 Iraqi soldiers and security forces will be deployed throughout Baghdad in what the ministers described as an aggressive cordon-and-search mission. Troops will build a security wall around the city, establish 675 checkpoints, check identity cards in hotels and restaurants, and patrol neighborhoods. The operation will be extended to the rest of Iraq over the next several weeks, the ministers said.
The goal is "to turn the government's role from defensive to offensive," said Bayaan Baqer Solagh, Iraq's Interior Minister and a Shiite.
So you have 40,000 people who mostly signed up for the good pay, can't be trained all that well, and you're going to put them out on the streets in a "offensive" position?
And when the insurgents (or whatever you call em) have already proven they can mount deadly coordinated bomb attacks?
I fear this is setting up to be a complete disaster, and will quickly escalate Iraq into full civil war.