WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- A U.S. Army three-star general has been nominated to take over training of Iraqi security forces.
Army Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik is currently the commanding general of the I Corps at Fort Lewis, Wash. He will succeed Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey as commander of Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq.
Dubik was once a philisophy instructor at the U.S. Military Academy.
Dempsey has held that post since September 2005, overseeing more than a year of some progress and difficult set backs, particularly concerning the training of police. Last fall, concerned about sectarian militia influence in police commando units, Dempsey initiated a retraining program for all the national police brigades. At least two have thus far completed the retraining program. In one unit alone more than 70 officers and police were fired and several arrested for their personal role in violence in Baghdad.
Lt. Gen. David Petraeus held that job before Dempsey. Petraeus has now been nominated to succeed Gen. George Casey as as the commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq.
Petraeus will appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Jan. 23 for a nomination hearing and is expected, if approved, to arrive in Baghdad early to mid-February.
He will be taking on leadership of the Iraq war at a critical time, when President George W. Bush is preparing to send up to 21,500 more troops to bring Baghdad and eventually Anbar province under control. Less discussed parts of the plan -- to invigorate the economy and increase assistance by adding hundreds more State Department employees to provincial reconstruction teams, have Petraeus handprints all over them. Non-military approaches to counter-insurgency are a chief component of a recently released counter-insurgency manual, which Petraeus co-sponsored with Marine Lt. Gen. James Mattis. The "non-kinetic" aspects of the Iraq campaign have been sorely under-resourced.
Casey has been nominated to succeed Gen. Peter Schoomaker as chief of staff of the United States Army.
