Iraqi payroll filled with dead, missing soldiers

Iraqi payroll filled with dead, missing soldiers
U.S. audit also finds discrepancies in how troops are counted
updated 12:01 a.m. ET, Fri., April. 25, 2008
WASHINGTON - Iraq's government has kept thousands of dead, injured or absent policemen and soldiers on the payroll as a way to compensate or care for their families, an audit found.

The practice is just one example of why there are no reliable numbers on how many Iraqi forces are on the job at any given time, says the report being made public Friday by Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

"There are continuing uncertainties about the true number ... who are present for duty at any one time,'' Bowen said of Iraqi policemen, soldiers, border guards and other forces.


Bowen said another part of the problem is that Iraqi ministries lack automated accounting systems needed to keep good data.

"I would not call it a damning report. I would say it's reflective of the difficulty of assessing troop strength ... and, more importantly, capabilities,'' Bowen said in an interview Thursday.

Bowen had been asked to assess last month's Defense Department report on Iraq, one in a series of quarterly documents required by Congress to measure progress toward military and political security there.

The $20 billion U.S. program to train Iraqis to provide their own security is key to when U.S. troops levels can be reduced in Iraq. And the problem of assessing the Iraqi forces is not new.

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What is really, really wrong about all of this is, it’s our money and we are not taking care of our own dead soldier’s families, living soldier’s families or the wounded we have. This is what is wrong with this. What else is wrong with this is we still don’t know how many Iraqis are really serving in their own military fighting for their own country. This is what else is wrong with all of this! We don’t know how closer we are to turning over Iraq to the Iraqi people. Plus there is Al-Sadr who just called for all out war against the “occupiers” or in other words, our troops.