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Punctual Police? Not in Ramadi

By Ben Hallman
The American Lawyer
June 1, 2007

Reed Russell expected the gun battles, car bombs, and improvised explosive devices. After all, he was in Ramadi, an outlaw city of 400,000 about 70 miles west of Baghdad. He didn't expect that, in the midst of the violence, one of the greatest challenges he would face would be punctuality. Yet here he was, day after day, trying to convince the Iraqis in the special police unit he was there to train to please, please, show up to work on time. "Will you be here (at the given time) tomorrow?" Russell would ask his charges. "Insha'Allah," they would respond-if God wills it.

In 2005 Russell was of counsel at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and a major in the District of Columbia National Guard when he was tapped by his commander for a special mission. A small group of National Guard officers had been selected to join an Iraqi special police transition team, a U.S. Army unit sent to teach the Iraqi special police battalions basic soldiering skills, including tactical, operational, and human rights training. In the early summer he was sent to Ramadi, where his small team was embedded with the Iraqis.

His unit was assigned to run two checkpoints that guarded bridges over the Euphrates River. For months Russell and a small convoy of Humvees traveled back and forth between the checkpoints, dispensing advice and aid where needed. He acted as a broker between the Iraqis and U.S. Marines (who were also stationed at the checkpoints), ironing out differences, and settling disputes.

The police that Russell trained are the Iraqis that some pundits say must assume responsibility for their country so that U.S. and coalition forces can leave. This, in Russell's experience, is easier said than done. His unit differed from standard Iraqi police in that it was better armed and better trained. Most of the officers were former Iraqi army and had trained at a military college. There was a degree of professionalism among them. The rank and file were a different story. "I had no concerns about their bravery," he says, but most of the men were uneducated and came from conditions of extreme poverty. They had different standards about food sanitation and hygiene. Boredom was as much an enemy as insurgents. "It's not that hard to teach a guy to shoot," he says. "But there was a reluctance to do mundane things. Either a guy is going to stand in the hot sun at a checkpoint all day or he's not."

Attempts to condition the Iraqi policeman to Western standards yielded uneven results, Russell says. American military hierarchy places great responsibility in the hands of enlisted officers. Iraq society works on a top-down basis. There are leaders, and there are followers. Independent thought by those in the middle is not prized. Nevertheless, the men he trained persisted, staying on the job, despite the hazards, heat, and redundancy.

Russell returned to Akin Gump in June last year. He is a labor and employment lawyer, offering counseling and litigation avoidance advice. The bulk of his work is on wage and hour class action claims. Now that he has had time to reflect on his tour in Iraq, does he think the special police he helped train would come to work if their American advisers were to leave? "I believe they would," he says. "At the officer level, they are committed to taking control of their country." Would they come to work on time? God only knows.

E-mail Ben Hallman: bhallman@alm.com