More good news from Iraq:
Critical to U.S. plans for redeploying American troops from the battlefield, Iraq’s security forces appear far from ready to take over the fight against al-Qaida and insurgents, an independent report concluded.
Retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, who led the 20-member panel studying Iraqi security forces, was to testify before Congress on Thursday. His report, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, said that Iraq’s security forces would be unable to take control of their country in the next 18 months.
The readiness of Iraq’s security forces will be an important element in the congressional debate over the war. Republicans see success by the Iraqi forces as key to bringing U.S. troops home, while an increasing number of Democrats say the U.S. should stop training and equipping such units altogether.
The study found that the Iraqi military, in particular its Army, shows the most promise of becoming a viable, independent security force with time. It predicted that an adequate logistics system to support these ground forces is at least two years away.
Worse off is the Iraq national police force. The study, which described the police force as dysfunctional, corrupt and infiltrated by militias, recommended that the force be scrapped and entirely rebuilt.
A quick summary of the facts tells us that the Iraqi military is broken, the police force is even worse, we have ceded the south to the Shi’ites, Anbar province is under the control of the Ba’athists, our military is stretched to the breaking point, corruption is the norm, there is a cholera epidemic, high levels of violence against the civilian population, we can not provide basic services (like, for example, electricity or water), and the national government is squabbling (when not on vacation) and led incompetently by a man Bush thinks is under his tutelage (that alone should scare the hell out of you).
The sole force doing well in Iraq are the American contractors.
Personally, I blame the liberal media, and clearly it is time to bomb Iran.
Jake
Look John, the President has commented a number of times on the resilience of the Iraqi people.
They don’t need light and water, they love cholera and it is rude of you to suggest that they can’t take a life of non-stop fear. They don’t have electricity so they don’t have TV. Wondering when the next car will explode, where the gun fight will break out or who will be found punched through with drill holes today is the only form of entertainment they have. And you want to take that away from them just because Maliki hasn’t learned to ride his Freedom Pony yet.
Have you no shame, sir?
Ned Raggett
C’mon, John, we’re kicking ass. (If only he went all the way and had a banner made with that on it.)
rachel
I suspect that was congressional ass Bush was thinking of. Really, whose else’s could it be?
demimondian
What, Tinkerbell and Pavarotti in just one day? This after Beverly Sills left us earlier this year?
Well, at the very least, Tinkerbell will have a fine honor guard of Iraqi civilians to guide her to Valhalla.
jnfr
It’s good to see John re-gaining his sense of perspective. Bomb power!
Ned Raggett
This is a good point. Either way, I tend to picture Bush saying this while kicking back at a bar drinking an O’Doul’s.
Cyrus
Here’s a bit of trivia for you: Maliki means “king” in Arabic. This doesn’t actually mean that he’s particularly anti-democracy, of course; after all, Martin Luther King Jr. wasn’t aristocratic. I’ve just found it funny, in the same way as Chris Rock’s joke about “Bush, Dick and Colin,” that the guy trying to lead a democratic government in Iraq is named King.
Rick Taylor
You forgot two million refugees fleeing to other countries, as similar number displaced within the country, and a vanishing educated class (including a shortage of doctors).
Elvis Elvisberg
A week before the 2004 election, David Petraeus took to the Post to reassure us:
So, you’ve been proven wrong, John.
Charles Bird
What you offered, John, was a drive-by, not a “quick summary of the facts”. The national police is indeed broken, but the army and special forces have been made substantial progress (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/063jtsuu.asp?pg=1). What a disappointing post.
Badtux
Yeah, the Iraqi army and special forces have made substantial progress. They’ve gone from having 1 battalion in 2005 capable of independent operations to having ten battalions capable of independent operation today. At that rate, it’ll only be another 20 years and another 40,000 U.S. soldiers dead and the entire nation bankrupted by the $150 billion per year cost of this war before the entire Iraqi Army of approximately 100 brigades is capable of operating without U.S. leadership. Progress!
Tsulagi
Funny (not really) thing is, that is probably the most optimistic and rosy report Jones could put out without gagging.
Maybe he sees the Iraq Army not as bad as the police because there are thousands and thousands of IAs that indisputably are not taking part in the civil war or attacking US troops. They’re the good guys in the IA. The ghost soldiers.
I’ve heard/read anywhere from 15 to 30% of the soldiers on the Iraq Ministry of Defense payrolls are phantoms. Their salaries pocketed, their assigned weapons/equipment wind up wherever. Even the very right thinking American Security Council Foundation noted the problem.
I like the part in Jones’ report about the IA being at least two years away from developing an adequate logistics system. Now that is funny. Two years? In whose dreams? Maybe the Iraq MoD can get their ghost soldiers hard at work in logistical support brigades. But of course we can all have faith our very own Super Decider has a political plan to tackle the rampant lying and corruption in the
BushMaliki government.You think Tinkerbell is dead? Just wait until after the WH/Petraeus reports. There will be so much clapping from the self-known known patriots Zombie Tinkerbell will rise.
John Cole
LMAO @ Charles.
I list a long litany of things, you choose to target one to refute, attempt do so with a post from the WEEKLY STANDARD, and then claim disappointment.
I am not even going to bother with the link. Which Kagan wrote it? Or was it Kristol? Or Dean Barnett? Because when I think of credibility, it is the coterie of fools at the Weekly Standard.
You deserve the shit you get from your commenters.
Badtux
Can anybody name *ONE* thing that the Weekly Standard has been correct about when it comes to the Iraq war? Anybody?
rachel
It’s in Iraq?
TenguPhule
Completed.
Funny how the little bird forgets to finish his sentences.