Iraqi forces backslide on lead role

[RamboLiberal]

Source: LA Times

Iraqi forces began taking a back seat in combat operations in Iraq last autumn, even before President Bush started deploying 21,500 more troops chiefly to spearhead a security crackdown in Baghdad, according to a new Pentagon report.

The report shows that Iraqi military units began assuming greater responsibility for operations in the earlier part of last year. But the trend has reversed. In October, U.S. forces were conducting 8% of the combat operations, while 72% were joint missions. By January, U.S. units were conducting 33% of the operations, and the percentage of joint operations had fallen to 59%.

In addition, the number of Iraqi army and other units in the lead has declined to 92 in February from 94 in November, while the number of U.S.-led missions has been increasing.

The quarterly report to Congress, required by law, covers the period immediately before Feb. 13, when the U.S. began building up troop levels and implementing its new counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-na-iraq15mar15,1,4045153.story

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They also had half the casualties of U.S. forces last month.

[IndianaGreen]

1. Is anyone surprised by this development?

Outside of Bush, Cheney, and Petraeus, no one else really thought the Iraqis were to take a leading role in the purge, quite the contrary.

[daleo]

2. To be fair, the Iraqis are on both sides

It's not easy to play the lead role on both offense and defense.

[Dhalgren]

3. It is easy to take both sides in a civil war. The problem is that one side

of the civil war is using the US military to do its fighting. The US military is simply carrying one side in this civil war and losing. Our Army and Marines are getting hammered into the ground and our "leadership" doesn't seem to know it - or doesn't care...

[daleo]

4. Yes, getting in the middle of a civil war is no good

But when the U.S. invasion touched off the civil war, it's bound to happen. Intelligent people said this would happen way back when, during the propaganda buildup to the invasion. It's easier to get into civil wars than to get out of them.