Iraq seen needing leaner army, retrained police

Iraq's new military will be a leaner fighting force - less than half its prewar size - while its police will have to be retrained to fill the gaping security vacuum left after the war, defence analysts say.

Under President Saddam Hussein's leadership, the Iraqi military was seen as a mighty machine that crushed internal dissent and carried out acts of aggression against neighbours, an image that will take many years for a new Iraqi administration to change.

"This army was used as an army to kill the Iraqi people. We need to leave this past behind and start a new day and build this army to include Iraqis from all sectors," Iraqi exile Waria Nameek from the Free Officers and Civilian Movement told Reuters yesterday.

Nameek, part of a group of Iraqi exiles who before the war advised the State Department's Future of Iraq project on a new military, said they had recommended a force of about 200,000, but US military analysts said far fewer were needed.

Estimates vary over the strength of Iraq's military before the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam, but military specialists say it was probably no more than 400,000-strong.

Rick Barton of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank said the core mission of a new military, which he said could comprise about 50,000 members, should be to protect the country's borders, with US help in the near term.

"The US defence umbrella should be extended and just as we stand ready to protect Kuwait, a shield of allies will be there in the region for Iraq," said Barton.

A key challenge would be to rid Iraq's military of "undesirable elements" linked to President Saddam, said Mark Burgess, research analyst at the Centre for Defence Information.

"A lot of the people who were involved in the military were involved in what was going on. Saddam made sure that he spread the guilt around so that everyone had a little bit to lose. Some undesirables are going to be left in and the Iraqi people won't be happy with that," he said.

While reforming the military was important, experts said a more immediate need was to get Iraqi police back on the streets and retrained to fill the security gap left after the war. Law and order collapsed in Baghdad and other parts of the country on April 9 when Saddam was toppled by US troops, leading to looting and violence.

Analysts said the United States had been slow in reacting and should have put an international police force in place immediately.

Robert Perito, a senior adviser to the rule of law program at the United States Institute of Peace, said the United States had taken a "rather leisurely approach" on policing.

A 10-nation force led by the United States, Britain and Poland plans to deploy in Iraq by the end of this month.

Barton suggested a new Iraqi police force should be decentralized to move away from the model used by Saddam of having total control. "This centralized institution gave power to Saddam Hussein and was so easily corrupted and used for personal benefit," said Barton.

The army, secret police and intelligence services should be disbanded, suggested Barton, and restructured or reintegrated into society.

One problem with disbanding the army and other forces was that members would turn to international smuggling and other criminal activities, Perito said.