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News
Iraq's
hope
The
future leaders of the Iraqi Army
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Three
Iraqi officers are currently studying at the Australian
Defence College and the Command and Staff College.
Photo by Pte John Wellfare, Army newspaper
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By
Pte John Wellfare
THREE of the officers set to lead Iraq’s new Army into the
future are undertaking 12-month courses in Australia to learn the
finer points of military command.
Commander Iraqi Training Battalion Col Saman Talabany is studying
at the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies, while 1 Company
Commander Maj Muhannad Al-Dabbagh and Officer Trainer Maj Shaker
Al-Aobidy are undertaking courses at the Command and Staff College.
Both colleges are located at the Australian Defence College in Canberra.
Leaving a fragile post-war Iraq in November last year and moving
to Australia with their families had been hard for the three officers.
Col Talabany, who had been a leading member of the Kurdish forces
before the war, said a lot of their learning over the past nine
months had taken place outside the classroom.
“When I was in Iraq, if my wife says something I don’t
like, I don’t let her speak, but now it’s different,”
he said.
“If we can we should go to change all peoples’ mind in
the new Iraqi Army.
“We have a new Army now, but many people are from old Army,
they have old ideas about what you do with the soldiers.”
Maj Al-Dabbagh, once a first lieutenant in the old Iraqi Army, had
chosen to resign and was punished by being conscripted as a soldier
back into the same unit. He said opportunities for members of Iraq’s
military to study overseas would be crucial to the development of
the new forces.
“A friend asked me yesterday - when I come back to Iraq with
this new knowledge, with this new tactics and new weapons ... how
can I deal with the Iraqi officer, even of the new Iraqi Army?”
He explained.
“I told him that when we come back to Iraq there’s another
two [officers] coming to Australia to study and when they come back
there will be five in Iraq. After that come another two or another
three – become six, so ... we need time to make progress.”
Simply living in a democratic country has provided a model of inspiration
for the officers. Maj Al-Aobidy spoke of the culture shock he experienced
when he arrived in Australia.
‘THE first time I reach Melbourne I never see a building that
high,” he said.
“I never see how to use a mobile phone, it’s a shock for
me, how to use the train ticket. I am a Major in Iraq, but maybe
I can’t do these simple things in Australia, while small kids
do it in spite of me.”
As well as learning from Australia, the Iraqis have been able to
offer a more personal perspective on the situation in Iraq as it
plays out on the evening news.
“[Iraqis] are living in a war area for the last 30 years ...
it’s not easy to change that culture in one or two years,”
Maj Al-Aobidy said.
“We need help from the whole world and I think that the Iraqi
people, they are strong people and we are a rich country.
“We feel very sad about the Iraq situation, but also we feel
that we have a good people and with the help from the international
[community] ... we can make a different situation for all people
in Iraq.”
Maj Al Dabbagh explains the causes of Iraq’s trouble as being
somewhat like a surgical operation.
“There’s no surgery operation without the blood and that’s
fact and we need more time to release from this pressure.
“We need more support from the people who lose the jobs in
Iraq – from the old Iraqi Army [or] another organisation from
the old regime – and we need time, time and support.”
All Iraqis showing tolerance and understanding would be the key
to a stable future according to Col Talabany, who said Iraq now
had a clean slate on the world stage.
“I think that the Iraqi people, we have no enemy,” he
said.
“Our enemy is only those terrorists. They are not only the
Iraq people’s enemies they are the world enemy.
“Anyone [who] want to make trouble in our country, want to
give us bad situation, anyone who want to bring back Iraq to Saddam’s
era is our enemy.
“Without that we have no enemy, we would like to make friend
to all people.
“We want to make new relationship with all Iraqi country neighbours
- Turkish, Iranian, with Europe, with USA.
“The new Iraqi people believe that all the world is human and
that God make the people as a nation to know each other, not to
fight each other, and we would like to do that in the future. Inshallah,
like the Iraqi people say.”
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