Its not something done in a day:
BAGHDAD — They wear matching body armor, ride in the same up-armored Humvees and load identical ammunition into M-4 rifles.They are not Soldiers serving in the U.S. Army; they are seasoned American police officers working the unforgiving Baghdad beat. But the beat for these cops bears little resemblance to the relatively benign duties of policing U.S. cities. In fact, the duties of an International Police Adviser (IPA) are comparable to those of military policeman in the U.S. Army, said Kinston, N.C., native Billy Hedgepeth, an IPA on Forward Operating Base Rustamiyah in eastern Baghdad.
Far from “cake duty,” the only “difference is I have longer hair and a goatee,” Hedgepeth said, comparing himself to his military co-workers.
The challenge facing IPAs, like Hedgepeth, is to impart the wisdom of decades on the job to the relatively inexperienced Iraqi policemen, or “shurta” in Arabic, working to provide residents of Iraq’s capital greater security.
To this end, approximately 25 IPAs are stationed on FOB Rustamiyah, teaching the fundamentals of police work to shurtas from Baghdad’s Kharada District. The shurtas are there as part of a four-day crash course in leadership and law enforcement tactics.
This was the first iteration of the Iraqi Police Primary Leadership Development Course, which the 759th Military Police Battalion, out of Fort Carson, Colo., coordinated. Eight officers and 10 non-commissioned officers received certificates of completion after the final day of training, which concluded with a live-fire range exercise.
Designed to introduce western policing methods to the Iraqi policemen, the course was a mixture of lecture, discussion and practical exercises. Presentations in Arabic and English were given to the shurtas dressed in blue shirts with white stars and birds on the shoulders. The shurtas took copious notes and shared examples of life on the Baghdad beat.
A large part of our PR problem in this war is the fact that the critics just don't understand what is involved in leading a nation from totalitarian brutality to democratic justice - quite literally, for 30 years in Iraq what happened was whatever Saddam decreed, and whatever his henchmen thought they could get away with. Now we are engaged in teaching Iraqis how to do things we take for granted - like have cops who will be neutral enfocers of the law, rather than tools for political gamesmanship. You don't just put a uniform on man and send him out to patrol the streets - you have to teach him, from scratch, how to be a policeman. Much as any of us will complain when a cop pulls us over for speeding, the reality is that we are eternally grateful to have men and women who will enforce the laws with at least a strong attempt to be fair in all circumstances. Think of it like this - we have to take a Shia Iraqi who has been brutalized by Sunni Iraqis for decades, and make him willing ot lay down his life in defense of Sunnis victimised by crime. Not at all an easy or quick task.
The need for patience in Iraq is paramount - patience on the part of troops trying to ge things moving; patience here at home because no matter how hard we try, we can't know exactly what is going on and we are reliant upon the good will and skill of the men and woment of our armed forces. Things are coming together in Iraq; the surge is working; a genuinely political society is emerging from the ruins of Saddamite tyranny.
Give it time, that is all we who support the effort ask.
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