Gen Dempsey, commander of the US army's 1st Armored Division, told media executives in an interview that he believed popular support for the coalition among Iraqis remained high, though it could not be taken for granted. But he acknowledged that one in every 10 of the Iraqi security forces trained by the coalition ended up working against the US-led forces. "About 50% of the security forces that we built over the past year stood tall and stood firm," he told the annual meeting of the Associated Press news agency. "About 40% of them walked off the job because they were intimidated and about 10% actually worked against us." He said it had been difficult for some of the people who joined the local security forces because they were looking for the emergence of an Iraqi rather than US hierarchy. Gen Dempsey also said these recruits had found it hard to accept that Iraqis were fighting each other.
