This week, five high-ranking officers, speaking separately at the Pentagon and in Baghdad, and through an e-mail exchange from Baghdad with a reporter in Washington, were unusually candid about problems confronting the war effort. The generals' remarks, emphasized the insurgency's success and resilience (quite an admission). They said the buildup of Iraqi forces has been more disappointing than previously acknowledged (contributing to the absence of any Iraqi forces when a 1,000-member Marine battle group mounted an offensive last week). It confirmed that the 160,000 Iraqis now trained and equipped in the $5.7 billion American effort to build up security forces are still (after 2 years) "behind" in their ability to shoulder a major part of the war effort (way behind, it seems). They grumbled about the fact that Iraqi generals and police officials will not even go before the press out of fear for their lives, thus leaving it to American generals and others to do so- keeping an all American face on the war effort.
-edited from a New York Times article
The so-called Iraqi govt hasn't even been able to formally organize yet- and exerts no real authority. The strains between Suni, Shiite and Kurd factions grow by the day. Civil War seems just around the corner!
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1 comment:
-makes one wonder since they are willing to admit this much, what theyre not saying out of deference to the dod??? things cant be going good at all.
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