Iraqi CDF targets terrorism
Volume 11, No. 54, October 19, 2006
By Wg-Cmdr Bob Rodgers

Top job: Iraqi CDF Gen Babakir Baderkhan Zibari, Commanding General of the Iraqi Joint Headquarters in his office in Baghdad. Photo by Wg-Cmdr Bob Rodgers

THE man who leads Iraq’s defence force has a challenging, always evolving job.

Gen Babakir Baderkhan Zibari is the Commanding General of the Iraqi Joint Headquarters located in the Ministry of Defence in Baghdad.

A Kurd, Gen Babakir has spent most of his military life fighting the regime of Saddam Hussein after first joining the Iraqi Army “…a long time ago” where he completed the Iraqi Military Academy training and served for three years. But he soon found himself fighting to protect the people of Kurdistan from Saddam’s regime.

Meeting Gen Babakir, you have no doubt this is a soldier who has seen much fighting in his life. He is fit and lean, hardened by his experience.

He has a strong sense of assuredness and his gaze seems to fix on the far distance as he considers his responses.

To meet Gen Babakir, you enter the Iraqi Ministry of Defence. The marble floors and dark timbered corridors are frantic with people moving. Hot in your body armour, you must shrug past Iraqi Army personnel guarding the entries to the offices of the key appointment in the Joint Headquarters. The strong smell of sandalwood and cigarettes pervades the building.

At the inner sanctum of Gen Babakir’s office, Peshmerga guards from his home state stand ready, exuding a strong sense of professional competence.

Gen Babakir is facing a range of challenges – the Iraqi armed forces must be rebuilt, effectively from scratch, while fighting a determined insurgency.

It is brave men who step into positions of authority and influence in a nation in the throes of a counter insurgency war. Daily, officers, soldiers and civilians are targeted by insurgents for assassination, in addition to the deaths and injuries caused by the conduct of counter insurgency operations. In the month of July alone 3438 Iraqis were killed, 1885 due to sectarian violence and 1,583 from bombings and shootings. Over 3,600 were wounded.

The men and women he leads are fighting a bitter and deadly war for the future of Iraq.

He heads the Iraqi Joint Headquarters which manages the six branches of the Iraqi armed forces; Army, Navy, Air Force, Special Forces, Training Force and Support.

In three years the Iraqi Armed Forces have been disbanded and rebuilt with the assistance of the Coalition. The establishment of the Joint Headquarters has been a fundamental part of that rebuilding.

Gen Babakir said it was difficult growing so quickly and acknowledged the support of the Coalition in assisting in training and equipping his force.

“The Iraqi military system was not made to fight terrorists; this is a large transformation that we have had to make. We had a lot of officers from the previous military who have a lot of expertise, but in this sort of war they have no experience,” Gen Babakir said.

The war against terrorists has brought new demands on the Iraqi military and Gen Babakir believes that militaries throughout the world will need to re-evaluate their capability and focus.

“They will have to stop and think about facing the terrorist. In the old days you would worry about conventional war and facing the traditional military, but now [we] are fighting a stealth-war against an enemy that is only visible at night,” he said.

He clearly sees the war against terrorism in Iraq as part of a global battle, believing that if the terrorists succeed in Iraq or Lebanon then Europe will be next.

“Sometimes I get surprised by the people of America or England when we have a protest against George Bush or Tony Blair, they should support their leadership in pushing to beat terrorism because if it is successful here it will expand to their countries,” he said.
The Iraqi Army has moved from a fully conscripted military to a volunteer force – a significant cultural and organisational change.
“In the old days the people were drafted into the military, there was no way to escape it. Now people are volunteering to join. Anytime they are tired of the military, they can say ok, I don’t want to be here and they can go home. Right now we have so many volunteers we don’t know what to do with them, much more than our capacity,” he said.
But this cultural change has extended not only to its recruitment methods, but also to the democratisation of the Armed Forces.
“In the old days they could do whatever they wanted to do, they would kill people and nobody would ask questions. Now if things go wrong in the military, we have committees which will investigate the matter and punish [as necessary],” he said.
There are many challenges ahead for the Iraqi Army, but for now, Gen Babakir’s focus is on the prosecution of the counter insurgency battle across Iraq.
“First of all we are fighting terrorism, a hidden enemy, and intelligence is important – we need information to find locations and networks. They have hidden networks everywhere and their targets are very easy because they are civilian,” he said.

To fight this war, the Iraqi Army is currently reliant on support from the Coalition. However, Gen Babakir is confident that the Iraqi Army has what it needs to get the job done.

“Slowly the equipment is coming. Everything we had before was on a plan for a different kind of war. Now, the weapons you need to fight terrorists are light weapons, you do not need heavy artillery.

“We don’t need jet fighters or big tanks, all we need is armoured vehicles so they can go from one area to another and more helicopters would be good for transporting VIPs and soldiers. What we need is good intelligence and good communications. This is what we need for fighting terrorism now,” he said.

The Iraqi Armed Forces are increasingly taking responsibility for the security of Iraq and the general sees this as a positive step towards Iraq’s future.

“The Iraqi people are very happy to see the Iraqi military taking the responsibility [for our security]…by the end of the year, all the divisions, except maybe one or two, will take responsibility for security,” he said..