PDA

View Full Version : New commander takes reins of MNC-I



thedrifter
12-14-06, 03:18 PM
December 14, 2006
New commander takes reins of MNC-I

By Gina Cavallaro
Staff writer

Multi-National Corps-Iraq has a new commander. Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli relinquished command to Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, who commanded the 4th Infantry Division during its year in Iraq 2003.

Chiarelli led the 1st Cavalry Division during its yearlong deployment to Baghdad in 2004, then returned to Iraq at the end of last year to take command of MNC-I, which has control over U.S. military combat divisions in Iraq.

In what was likely his last interview with members of the media as commander of MNC-I, Chiarelli held a roundtable discussion in the Green Zone.

“I happen to believe that we have tremendous strategic interests in what we’re doing over here,” Chiarelli said in an Army press release. “I happen to believe this is the most important conflict that we’ve been involved in the last 50 years.

“I think it’s absolutely essential that we give the Iraqis an opportunity to do exactly what they want to do, and that’s to form their kind of democratic government here in Iraq. And no matter what we say back home, it’s going to take time,” he said.

He said he was satisfied that U.S. troops were taking the training missions seriously, noting that in Baghdad the police training was one-on-one at the police station level.

He described the job of training and equipping the Iraqi army as “an ongoing and monumental task,” and acknowledged the difficulty of the continuing mission for U.S. troops in Iraq.

“I think it is singularly unique to our history,” Chiarelli said in the Army release. “I know it’s hard. I know how hard it is. And one of the things that I’m going to try to do when I get back is try to figure out a way to make it easier, because this is a relationship that we’ve got to continue.”

Ellie