Iraq's Post-Hussein Air Force Finds Its Wings Clipped
BAGHDAD — Iraqi pilots bitterly recall one of the commands that came down from Saddam Hussein as the dictator prepared for the U.S.-led invasion three years ago: Bury fighter jets in the sand.
Today, the men who flew those jets are in effect still grounded, even though they make up the bulk of the new Iraqi air force.
The U.S. military has hurriedly tried to turn over square mile after square mile of territory to Iraqi soldiers and police officers, but it has yet to yield control of a single cubic inch of the country's skies.
Despite U.S. pledges to help, the fledgling Iraqi air force remains tiny and ineffective -- consisting of three Vietnam-era cargo planes, a few secondhand helicopters, some small, problem-ridden aircraft and just 14 pilots, decades older than their American counterparts and under threat from Sunni Muslim insurgents and Shiite militias alike.
U.S. military officials say that addressing the question of when they will allow the Iraqi air force to acquire combat capabilities is years away. The U.S. Air Force, they say, will retain control of Iraqi airspace for the foreseeable future, regardless of any drawdown of ground troops.
In a country rife with sectarian tension, where militias appear to have infiltrated every layer of the government's security forces, a strong air force that could conduct bombing missions is a troubling prospect for the United States. Both Washington and its allies in the region are wary of putting such formidable powers in Iraqi hands, observers and Iraqi officials say.
"I think they're afraid of terrorists taking over the air force and attacking American bases," said an Iraqi airman who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Washington is also concerned about the loyalties of Iraq's Shiite-dominated government in the light of regional dynamics, notably with regard to neighboring Iran, also led by Shiites.
If the Iraqi air force develops combat capabilities, questions will arise about how to ensure that the firepower is not misused, said Robert Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago and a former teacher of air power strategy for the U.S. Air Force's School of Advanced Airpower Studies. "They might do more harm than good," he said.
Although U.S. officials describe a harmonious collaboration between the Iraqi airmen and their American advisors, Iraqi officials portray it as fraught with suspicion.
