U.S. Law Enforcement Cites Tangible Progress in Iraqi Training

Army Brig. Gen. David Phillips, deputy commander of the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team, reports that tangible gains have been achieved with regard to the police force's relationships with Iraqi ministries and justice, judicial capacity is on the rise, corruption is being pursued internally, and the training program is continuing to expand.

Phillips says the local population has tired of the al Qaeda presence and that parts of Baghdad and Anbar province have improved dramatically due to the continual entrance of recruits into police academies and enhanced police presence in neighborhoods, as reported at PressZoom.com.

Furthermore, Philips notes that today institutional progress is helping smooth the Iraqi police's operations, the Iraqi force is on par with any peer police force around the world (despite the fact that their potential is temporarily held in check by levels of insurgent violence they were neither trained nor intended to face) and that the country's citizens have rallied together.

"They're working hand in hand with the Marine forces out there and the Army forces that are out there," says Phillips. "They're turning in the insurgents. They're turning in caches of weapons. And I have to tell you that commerce is working, the stores are back open, and you get small kids on the streets now waving as you go by in a humvee."