Davis: U.S. ‘troops not trained to protect civilians’
In addition to fighting insurgents and more recently al-Qaeda in Iraq, one of the primary missions of the U.S. military has been to deter the civil war related violence in Iraq — that is to say, protecting the civilian population. Moreover, many casualties, if not the majority, are attributable to the detonation of IED’s the U.S. troops encounter while patrolling the streets of Baghdad and other locations.
Interestingly enough, according to statements made today in the Blackwater hearing by Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Tom Davis (R-VA), our troops are not trained for nor should be carrying out the mission President Bush has tasked them with.
Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-MI) and Rep. Davis had an exchange in today’s hearing with respect to paying private contractors (Blackwater) to perform services the U.S. military could provide at least equally as well and cost substantially less than Blackwater. More specifically, the State Department has contracted Blackwater to provide security for protecting civilians, primarily those residing or conducting business within the Green Zone, which also includes protection for civilian transportation outside the Green Zone.
Obviously without realizing the significance of what he was saying in his attempt to discredit any Democratic posit, Davis managed to step all over the president’s often stated reason for maintaining a U.S. military presence in Iraq.
Responding to Waxman’s assertion that the U.S. military could provide the same services as Blackwater, Davis said U.S. troops “are not paid to protect civilians. That’s not what military troops are trained for. I went through officer basic course [sic] in Georgia, at Fort Benning…and that’s not what troops are trained for when they go out into the battle zone…Our troops have not been trained to do that kind of work…That hasn’t been the history throughout the last 50 years, of the military that I’m aware of.”
I wonder how Rep. Davis plans to reconcile his statements with those of President Bush. The president has made it clear on multiple occasions, U.S. troops are in Iraq to protect the Iraqi civilian population and to train Iraqi security forces (i.e. police) in addition to the Iraqi army.
On January 4, 2006, the president, discussing the War on Terror following a Pentagon briefing, said:
The coalition teams will go in the field with the police; they’ll provide real-time advice and important assistance on patrol and during operations.
In his weekly radio address given January 13, 2007, the president said:
Our military forces in Anbar are killing and capturing al Qaeda leaders, and protecting the local population.
In another weekly radio address on June 30, 2007, the president said:
This week I traveled to the Naval War College in Rhode Island to give an update on the strategy we’re pursuing in Iraq. This strategy is being led by a new commander, General David Petraeus, and a new Ambassador, Ryan Crocker. It recognizes that our top priority must be to help the Iraqi government and its security forces protect their population — especially in Baghdad.
So, if Davis is correct in his assertion, then how can he and other Republican Members of Congress continue to support the primary mission of George Bush’s war in Iraq?
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