Iraqi Army: almost one-quarter lacks minimum qualifications

Salazar, who is at the end of his current deployment here, says the focus of training has shifted over the past year to an emphasis on capability and competence, rather than size.

"When I got here, we were very much focused on how many soldiers can we train in a basic training cycle so we could get a brigade or a battalion into the fight as quickly as possible."

No money to hire more soldiers

Along with improved security, which lessened the need for more combat power, the Iraqi government ran out of money. Salazar says they realized last August that the Iraqi budget could no longer support hiring more soldiers.

An Iraqi government plan aimed at transforming a counterinsurgency force geared at internal security to a larger, better-equipped Army that could defend Iraq's borders by 2020 has been scrapped. The cost of the plan was estimated by Iraq at about $15 billion.

"We weren't really going to reach that, because we were at 267,000 to 270,000, but could only afford to pay for about 253,000, so all of a sudden everything kind of slowed down," he says.

Salazar estimates the Iraqi government instead has between $4 billion and $4.5 billion, "enough to pay the soldiers, sustain the Army and make some limited capital investments and expenditures on equipment."

The goal of a 300,000-strong counterinsurgency force by 2016 has also been derailed.

After putting 80,000 Iraqi soldiers through basic training last year, the figure so far this year has dropped to only about 2,000. Instead, the coalition is helping the Iraqi Army concentrate on retraining existing soldiers in areas where they are still reliant on US forces, such as logistics, intelligence, and engineering.

Most units are at 75 percent strength and the Iraqi Army is looking at consolidating soldiers by eliminating some formations, according to the US general.

The budget crunch has also stalled a key program to recruit former Iraqi Army officers and noncommissioned officers into the new Iraqi force.

"The Iraqi Army advertised and said 'please come and join us again,' and then there are other recruits who went through the recruiting process who are ready to come into the Army," says Salazar. "So we think there were about 40,000 who wanted to come into the Army, but they can't, because they can't afford to pay for them."

He says that figure is believed to include about 14,000 former officers and noncommissioned officers (NCOs) who were ready to rejoin.

Leaders needed

The Iraqi Army has a severe shortage of leadership; fewer than half the officers it needs and only about 60 percent of the NCOs. The program was also a significant step toward reconciliation of Saddam Hussein-era military leaders, many of them Sunni.

Although the US says it does not track the demographics of Iraqi security forces, overall, the non-Kurdish component is still believed to be disproportionately Shiite.

Salazar says he believes that the budget crisis has instilled a change in focus from increasing the size of the force to making the existing force more professional.

"We were focused on growing capacity – we and they together on growing the size of this Army in order to provide security," he says. "I think we've gotten to that point the Army is not going to get any bigger.

"Frankly, I don't think it needs to get any bigger – it needs to get more capable."

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