Iraqi police under siege

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BAGHDAD -- Nadia Jassim joined the police department for only one reason: She so distrusts its ability to protect her family that she signed up for the free weapons training.

"My neighbor was kidnapped, and there are gangs in my neighborhood," the 26-year-old cadet said. "The police don't help, and I want to learn to use the weapons to protect my family."

The police are so unpopular that Miss Jassim and many of the other trainees at the Baghdad Police Academy say they change into their uniforms only once they are inside the compound.

"I haven't told many of my friends I'm doing this," she said. "And mother is so worried that she has hired a taxi to take me to the academy and home each night."

The Bush administration has said the 138,000 U.S. troops will not leave Iraq until Iraqi soldiers and police can provide adequate security. Despite Washington's $3.5 billion commitment and the participation of various British police and military units, it is clear that Iraqi police and civil-defense units will not be ready to stand alone for a very long time.

"Our military exit strategy requires a fully effective, credible, reliable Iraqi security force," said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmit, deputy director of operations. Such a force includes the police, army, border patrols and a national guard.

The Iraqi police department, once one of the most feared and hated arms of Saddam Hussein's regime, is shattered. Analysts say it will take years to create a nationwide police that is trusted and capable.

No police station is properly equipped: Vehicles, weapons, communications, bullet-proof vests and ammunition are in short supply. The buildings often are dilapidated.

About 40 percent of nearly 90,000 cadets and officers on the job have received the basic police training. Twenty-year veterans have no experience in investigations and no concept of a police department sworn to "protect and serve" rather than shake down and terrorize.

Unlike postconflict situations as in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina, there is no NATO force to provide backup while civilian police officers are vetted and trained. In Montenegro and Liberia, there was relative stability after hostilities subsided.