ABSTRACT
In 2007, the chief U.S. training officer for the Iraqi National Police characterized his experiences of police capacity building as similar to “trying to build an airplane while you’re flying it” (Col. Chip Lewis quoted in Frayer 2007). After the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s military dictatorship, the coalition had envisioned the rapid development of an impartial and professional local police force that would be capable of providing security, committed to the rule of law, and supportive of the goal of building a democratic Iraq (U.S. House of Representatives 2007: 71). The U.S. government spent $19 billion to develop the capacity of the Iraqi armed forces and police between 2003 and 2007 (ibid., 41).
