U.S. Commanders Express Disappointment with Iraqi Forces, Request More Tro

[54anickel]

Troops.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4788-2004Apr12.html

snip>

Abizaid, commander of the U.S. Central Command, said he was dissatisfied with the performance of Iraqi police and members of the civil defense corps in refusing to help U.S. Marines in Fallujah and in deserting their posts in southern cities, allowing militiamen loyal to Moqtada Sadr, a 30-year-old Shiite cleric, to take over government buildings and police stations. Abizaid said programs to train the Iraqis need to be revamped because ultimately, it will be up to Iraqi police and civil defense personnel to maintain order.

snip>

Military analysts in Washington said the two brigades would probably amount to about 10,000 troops, allowing commanders to maintain U.S. troop strength in Iraq at about 125,000 in the coming months. The military had planned to drawn the forces down to about 115,000, from an "unusually high" number of about 135,000 at present that is attributable to an overlap of new and departing units.

snip>

Kimmitt said "there is no reliable, authoritative figure" on civilian casualties. Once Fallujah is brought back under control, he said, the Iraqi ministry of health would be asked to "get a fair, honest and credible figure and not one that is somehow filtered through some of the local propaganda machines."

snip>

Mowaffak Rubaie, a Shiite physician whom Bremer named last week to be Iraq's national security adviser, sharply criticized the networks at a news conference. He said the two networks are "serving as a catalyst for increasing attacks and inciting war" and violating norms of journalistic practice.

[central scrutinizer]

1. iraq-ization is working about as well

as Vietnamization did 30 years ago.

[daleo]

2. His puppet government's ministry is hardly objective

"Iraqi ministry of health would be asked to "get a fair, honest and credible figure and not one that is somehow filtered through some of the local propaganda machines.""

Of course, everyone knows that, but it seems worth going through the formality of pointing it out.

[hang a left]

3. So what do you imagine the likely scenario to be folks?

Are they gonna start the draft before or after the election?