Military Training

A news article in today's New York Times runs under the headline, "Iraqis Seek to Oust Hussein With U.S. Military Training." The Times reports, "The Clinton administration was skeptical of the claims made by the Iraqi National Congress and opposed military training." It's a distortion to say that the Clinton administration "opposed military training" for the Iraqi opposition without mentioning that, during the Clinton administration, members of the Iraqi National Congress actually received military training from the United States. An undersecretary of state for political affairs in the Clinton administration, Thomas Pickering, said in a public speech on November 1, 1999, "The first free Iraqis, nominated by the new Iraqi National Congress, are already en route to participate in the training provided under the Iraq Liberation Act. They, and we hope many others after them, will benefit from exactly the same training which the Department of Defense offers to civilian and military officers of friendly countries throughout the Middle East." Reuters reported from Washington on October 28, 1999 -- during the Clinton administration -- "The United States will begin its first direct, although modest, military training of opponents of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein at a Florida Air Force base next week, the U.S. Defense Department said on Thursday. Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said four Iraqis, including two former military officers who defected from Saddam's forces, would attend a regular Air Force civil-military training course for officers from Arab and Central Asian countries at Hurlburt Field near Pensacola. But Bacon stressed at a briefing for reporters that the 10-day course beginning on Monday at the Air Force's special operations headquarters was 'non-lethal,' although he refused to rule out future combat training for the Iraqi opposition."