MPs teach law and order in Iraq

Fort Bragg soldiers charged with getting Iraqi police operations up to speed

RASHID, IRAQ -- Staff Sgt. Benjamin Bower, a big guy with a big voice, had reason to be happy.

Bower, 30, a military policeman from Fort Bragg, must contend with a manpower shortage at the new Iraqi police station in Rashid, but last week he bumped into five recruits who had proper paperwork.

"Out-frickin'-standing!" the Charleston, Ill., native said. "See, this warms my heart."

But he quickly learned that the men were from southern Shiite cities such as Basra and signed up hoping for assignments near home. Instead, the Iraqi bureaucracy assigned them to this largely Sunni area just south of Baghdad.

"This is why I have such a high absentee rate," Bower said. "Well, it looks like I have five more people who won't be coming to work."

Bower and the other soldiers of Fort Bragg's 21st Military Police company are struggling to help Iraqi police get stations running in the Mahmudiyah district -- in Rashid and three neighboring towns. Arrayed against them are a sluggish central government, the country's ethnic divisions and a drumbeat of violence.

Late last year the U.S. military began a nationwide plan to train and equip about 135,000 police officers. The 21st works with leaders at Iraqi police stations to teach them how to handle operations and personnel.

In the 21st's area, which also includes Baghdad's Dora neighborhood, the insurgency is still active. More than half of all attacks against Americans and Iraqi security forces in the Baghdad area are against the Iraqi police.

"We've had quite a few killed while we're here and quite a few wounded while we're here," said Capt. Stephanie Bagley, 30, the company's commander.

Common crimes

Though the Iraqi police are targets of insurgent violence, they are not supposed to be a counterinsurgency force. The men in the Rashid station's holding cell are suspected of common crimes, from public drunkenness to murder.

When Bower arrived at the station, an Iraqi officer, Kalashnikov rifle in hand, was escorting a prisoner to the cell. With the power out and lights off, there was a dungeon-like feel to the long, dark hallway with a barred door at the end. But the large holding cell was full of surprisingly cheerful prisoners who praised their jailers for bringing a doctor to do checkups.

They sleep on blankets laid perpendicular to the walls and use a toilet shielded from view by a wall. Their complaints are much the same as the officers' -- today they hope the power comes back on so air conditioning can combat temperatures that have climbed over 110 degrees.

The MPs of the 21st say the Iraqi police must rely on a government and Ministry of Interior that is falling short on issues ranging from recruiting to logistical support.

Last week, Lt. Chris Rhoades, 24, met at the Mahmudiyah station with the Iraqi police colonel responsible for the district. The American arrived with a four-point agenda and sat across from the colonel's desk in a flak vest loaded with things such as extra rifle ammunition and a plastic case for his earplugs.

Col. Ayad, who, like many Iraqi officers, will not give his full name to reporters, wore his short-sleeved uniform with the top two buttons undone. A middle-aged man with thinning hair, he told Rhoades that local leaders, who help recruit police officers, wanted to change the list of men heading north to Baghdad for police training.

"It doesn't matter if they want them to go up and take the training," Rhoades told Ayad. "They're not qualified."

Recruiting is a challenge here. Police must be able to read and write to fill out reports, but the literacy rate is low in these poor farming communities. Recently, 75 recruits went to Baghdad to enter a police academy; only 19 completed the program. Illiteracy was a major disqualifier.

Local leaders are eager to fill the gap by providing jobs for their favorites, but Rhoades and the MPs fight that.

Bower said the day-to-day problems are frustrating but that he had noticed the difference over the first six months of the company's deployment.

"It may not seem like they're making progress," he said, "but they're making progress."

Bagley said she hoped to have all the company's stations equipped with adequate supplies and personnel by the time the MPs leave Iraq at the end of the year.

"We do try to work it," Bagley said. "But sometimes there is no solution right now, until the Iraqis work out their own solution."