Saddam's generals



http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/2006/tr20060627-13349.html

Saddam's generals
Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the man given the critical task of
training and equipping the new Iraqi Security Force (ISF), was in
Washington this week for consultations along with his boss, Gen. George
Casey. Gen. Dempsey put a new light on the difficulty of creating
leaders within the Iraqi army, which he considers the key to a
functioning fighting force. Under Saddam Hussein, senior officers
thought their rank entitled them to all sorts of privileges. Gen.
Dempsey is trying to erase that culture and replace it with the edict
that generals are public servants, not kings. "I think it's fair to
say, and even some of the former officers would say, in the former
regime, leadership was an entitlement," he said. "You wanted to be a
leader because you got certain things for it. And the system that Iraq
is putting in place now [is] to build leaders who actually have to
perform, who have a loyalty to their subordinates and who have a
loyalty to the greater Iraq. And as long as we keep that moving in
place, I think we're going to be OK."

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