I'm a little concerned about the shrinking number of trained Iraqi troops. If we continue at this rate, we might as well just delare the country a commonwealth and get it over with.
Here's why:
- August 2004: Bush declares"we've got 100,000 trained now, 125,000 by the end of the year".
- January, 2005: Condi Rice is testifying before the Senate in order to be confirmed as Secretary of State. She cites the figure of "120,000". and asserts that this is "how big an Iraqi security force has actually been trained."
- January 23, 2005: The newly appointed Ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte, tells Tim Russert on Meet the Press that "there are 75 to 80 currently trained and operating battallions." ( A Battallion's size varies based on its deployment. It is somewhere between 300 and 1000. So we're talking about 23,000 to 80,000 soldiers. This definition of a battallion's size comes from "Grunts", a web site devoted to the Army)
- April, 2005: The Pentagon,via it's own American Forces Press Service, states that there are more than "155,000 trained and equipped" members of the Iraqi security forces.
- August, 2005: MSNBC and the A.P. report on the 7th of Aug that "last week the Defense Department set the number of trained Iraqis at 175,000."
- September 29, 2005: General Casey said "only one battallion" of Iraqi soldiers was "trained, equipped and capable of operating independently."
So it is not 100,000 , not 155,00, not 175,000 Iraqi troops that are ready. It is more like one thousand.
And please remember: today the A.P. ran a report on how U.S soldiers themselves were still having to pay for appropriate body armor. The article dealt with the difficulty the troops have in getting reimbursed from the Pentagon.
How well equipped do you think the 1,000 Iraqi troops are?
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