[War] US/UK/Can - "A Conference"

[Ian Martell]

OFF: This one is getting posted late because my comp died on me.

"A Conference"
President Christopher Hazen- United States of America
Prime Minister Jack Arlington - United Kingdom
Prime Minister Donald Harding - Canada
April 1st 2006

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(White House Conference Room)

As usual the preparations were immaculate.  The meeting itself had been kept 
very quiet, after all the last thing either nation represented needed now 
was a change in Government, especially over a well aimed terrorist attack. 
There was a myriad of subjects up for discussion, almost all of them 
revolved around one topic though...terrorism.

"Gentlemen."  Chris extended a hand to the Canadian and British Prime 
Ministers.  "It's good to meet you both.  We have a lot on our plate,  shall 
we get seated and begin?"

Don shook the President's hand firmly. "Thank you Mr. President and yes 
let's get to it," he said before turning to the British PM and offering  him 
a handshake as well. "Jack," he said nodding.

"Please, by all means, call me Chris."  Hazen sat down, folding his hands on 
the table.  "I'd suggest we begin with Iraq.  You should both know I intend, 
tommorrow evening, to lay out exactly what conditions would prompt a troop 
reduction on the American part.  I believe we should go over these 
requirements in some detail as each of our governments are now committed in 
some way."

"Sounds good," Don said as he got settled. "And please call me Don."

"Don it is."  President Hazen gave a sharp nod followed by a congenial 
smile. "In this case, General Shinseki in testimony to Congress once called 
for about 350,000 troops in order to sufficiently occupy and rehabilitize 
Iraq. This was before the war, naturally.  Deciding that was too big, my
predecessor made the mistake that, quite frankly, is now Iraq."  It wasn't 
customary for
Presidents to say bad things about the people they replaced, especially not 
when from the same party, but in this case it was well deserved.  "I 
believe, therefore, that we should devote ourselves to the creation of a 
500,000 man strong Iraqi military, that's all services and reserves.  We'll 
have to commit substantial resources to accomplish this, but I believe all 
our governments will benefit if our respective peoples can be shown that 
there 'is' a goal towards which we can strive towards."

If nodding approvingly was ever an insufficient answer to something it was 
now, a definable goal was exactly what Don had been hoping to bring back to 
home from this meeting.

"I concur, Chris," Don said. "Do we have a goal as far as time is 
concerned?" he asked.

"As soon as possible would be the only guidance I could offer."  Chris 
smirked, reviewing the documents each of them had been given.

"Sufficing to say, we're looking at an absolute 'minimum' commitment of two 
to two and a half years.  We have an officer and NCO corps to train 
virtually from scratch. Then there's recruiting and equipping issues.  If 
all goes well, however, we can begin reducing current  deployment levels 
within a six month time frame."  That said, he thumbed through the 
requisition requirements.  "A big issue for the Iraqi domestic forces is a 
lack of appropriate gear as I'm sure you all know. They use flat-bed pick-up 
trucks as personnel carriers.  Many soldiers, even 'front-line' troops lack 
appropriate uniforms, footwear, and body armor. Sufficing to say, they're 
also lacking the support system to maintain an effective force, in terms of 
vehicles, armored and other wise, supplies, even basic small arms and 
ammunition is troublesome."

As Chris talked Don made a few notes so he'd remember what he had to say 
back.

"I'm all for that, I think what we should do is have our people sit down and 
put togeather a force organization with the Iraq brass, figure out what sort 
of equipment we can supply them with and how it fits in that organization, 
and then begin to train officers, NCOs and troops on that equipment and 
under one program we all agree on, so that their armed forces aren't divided 
between guys who fight like British troops, guys who fight like  American 
troops, and guys who are rushing off to everybody else's war because they 
fight like Canadians," Don said with a smile at the end.

"But beyond a single training program. My biggest questions are where do we 
do it? In country has an advantage of looking better for Iraqi legitimacy 
but these sorts of places would be huge targets for the insurgents. If not 
in country, where? I think if we do it one of our countries the US is the 
best bet, I'm sure you have a base or nine Chris, kicking around that  would 
be up to the job. If not one our countries I suggest that we talk to the new 
King in Saudi Arabia see if they might host them there.

"Lastly is how do we fit this into current Iraqi politics. Personally I 
think we'll need to break down the various militia's in the country to make 
room for this force, and I think we're likely going to have to convince the 
Iraqi government that conscription is the way to go, something like the 
Isreali system for example, though I wouldn't sell it to them that way of 
course. The other issue is that Iraq sees it's self a basically three groups 
instead of one. We've got Sunnis we've got Shiites and we've got Kurds, and 
all of them have to work togeather if this is  going to have a chance, so we 
need them to think of themselves and this army most of all as Iraqi and not 
a tool of one of the factions."

"Current Iraqi politics doesn't concern me as much.  The Iraqi's, Kurd, 
Sunni, and Shi'ite alike 'see' themselves as Iraqis, as one united country 
for the most part.  Their sectorian divides aside, this is the foundation on 
which we need to build a new Iraq.  I believe the Iraqi Army itself needs to 
  be composed in some representative fashion of all three groups in order to 
present a truly united front.  I don't think we need to move to a 
conscripted force, as the problems with the Iraqi forces certainly aren't 
with recruitment, it's with training, equipment, and combat competency. As 
for a unified training regimen, I agree.  I've already talked with the 
German Chancelor, and he's given us approval to use the American bases in 
Germany for advanced training for Iraqi forces.  I'm seeing the program as a 
finishing school for Iraq's better troops, advanced training... particularly 
for pilots, tankers, and special forces.  It works well given residual East 
German proficiency in Russian Equipment which I believe should make up the 
bulk of Iraqi capabilities."  After all, if Iraq 'did' fall to another 
Hussein, at least with mostly Russian equipment they'd be more beatable.  
"This means, however, basic training programs will still reside within Iraq 
proper.  I also believe this necessary, the people of Iraq need to see 
themselves building this force, not just being given one by the coalition.  
This means we need to hammer out what they should have, standardize their 
forces, and give them guarantees we will no longer 'half ass' our way around 
things.  Our respective governments need to cobble together an emergency aid 
package, for appropriate uniforms, body armor, small arms, and support 
equipment.  Once that's in place, the ground will be set for the 
introduction of heavier forces and greater capability."

Don nodded. “Sounds like a plan, give me a day or two to talk to my people 
and I think we can get started as soon as this week."

Actions:
1>    Begin establishment of a 500,000 man volunteer Iraqi army.
2>   Create unified training regimen for the troops to be taught by US, 
British and Canadian troops in Iraqi bases with advanced training being 
offered by the US and Germany in US bases in Germany.
3>   Emergency military aid package to be set up to get the Iraqi troops up 
to acceptable standards with uniforms, weapons and basic vehicles.

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