Thursday, April 19, 2007

1-2-3 What are we fighting for?

Don't ask me I don't give a damn. This sure sounds like Vietnam.

We can now throw "As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down." onto the shitheap of Bushian lies about why we are in Iraq. From Nancy A. Youssef, reporting for McClatchy, we get this latest shift in war policy for Iraq.
Military planners have abandoned the idea that standing up Iraqi troops will enable American soldiers to start coming home soon and now believe that U.S. troops will have to defeat the insurgents and secure control of troubled provinces.

Training Iraqi troops, which had been the cornerstone of the Bush administration's Iraq policy since 2005, has dropped in priority, officials in Baghdad and Washington said....

....U.S. forces complained that the Iraqi forces weren't getting the support from their government and that Iraqi military commanders, many who worked under Saddam Hussein, weren't as willing to embrace their tactics. Among everyday Iraqis, some said they didn't trust their forces, saying they were sectarian and easily susceptible to corruption.

Most important, insurgents and militiamen had infiltrated the forces, using their power to carry out sectarian attacks.

In nearly every area where Iraqi forces were given control, the security situation rapidly deteriorated. The exceptions were areas dominated largely by one sect and policed by members of that sect.
I have to re-read my Stanley Karnow to see if "The light at the end of the tunnel" is next.

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