Rumsfeld upbeat about Iraqi Army-- says "I think they're going to make it"

[sabra]

http://ww2.wpri.com/Global/story.asp?S=4474208

Rumsfeld upbeat about Iraqi Army -- says "I think they're going to make it"

CAPITOL HILL Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the Iraqi security forces are improving their skills by the day, but he says they make up just one part of a "three-legged stool" on which Iraq must stand.

Rumsfeld told the House Armed Services Committee that without political and economic progress, and without a government and a military that are inclusive of all segments of Iraqi society, the country can't move forward.

Rumsfeld cautioned committee members that the Iraqi army "won't look like ours." But, he says, "they're going to have, for that part of the world, a military force that will be appropriate."

[chelsea0011]

1. Rumsfeld just read "The Little Engine That Could"?

[henslee]

10. ha! funny. He sounds like he's talking about a ball team.

[MadMaddie]

2. Umm...if their military would not have been completely dismantled

One of the biggest military blunders was to completely dismantle the Iraq army...instead of going in with a plan to evaluate the military and it's personal Paul Bremmer dismantles the Iraq army.

Now Rumsfeld states, "I think they're going to make it"....hmph didn't he say not too long ago that the US military would be there for 10-20 or more years from now.

When will this incompetent non-military man get fired...set out to pasture...prosecuted and sent to jail!!

[stepnw1f]

3. Nothing This SIcko Says Means Anything At All

More Orwelian bull shit.

[populistdriven]

4. photo of Iraqi Army:

[niallmac]

5. Three legged or not it's still the same ol 'stool' n/t

[KansDem]

6. Well, if they can "make it there," they can "make it anywhere."

Start spreading the news
Rum’s leaving today
He wants to be a part of it, Pee-nac's Eee-Raq
Those neo-Con shoes
Are longing to stray
And make a brand new start of it
Pee-nac's Eee-Raq
He wants to wake up in a country that can not sleep
To find he’s “king of the hill,” “top-of-the-heap”
These neo-Con blues
Are melting away
He’ll make a brand new start of it
In new Eee-Raq
If he can "make it there"
He’ll make it..."anywhere"
It's up to you, Pee-nac's Eee-Raq.

[sabra]

17. amazing job - wish I could nominate this post.

[amitten]

7. Translation: We need our guys back to invade IRAN.

God, I hate this fucking administration.

[pinniped]

8. Pretty FN lame how these punks think they are the nanny.

They're not ready!

They're ready!

We are guiding them with our hand!

Slooooow progress.

The country can't move forward.

Why do they even let this POS talk?

[HuffleClaw]

9. "for that part of the world, a military force that will be appropriate."

just what the hell is that supposed to mean?

[alcibiades_mystery]

20. Whatever happened to the outraged cries of

"brown people CAN INDEED govern themselves..."

Oy, vey.

[LynnTheDem]

11. rotfl! Rummy it really is way beyond time you sat down and kept quiet.

Coz yer an embarrassment, duckie.

[DinahMoeHum]

12. (sigh!) Looks like Rummy ate another bowl of stupid for lunch today.

Methinks the Iraqi "army" will break the speed record for disintegration set by the (South) Vietnamese ARVN in 1975. That outfit folded like a cheap suit.

:rofl:

[Endangered Specie]

13. Didn't Baghdad Bob say the same thing?

[leftchick]

14. He apparently does not talk with Gen. Casey "Police Force Hobbled"

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/3644750.ht...

Gen. Casey Says Iraqi Police Hobbled

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. forces are accelerating efforts to build a strong, professional police force in Iraq but it will take time to instill democratic values in the ranks, the top American general here said Wednesday.

Gen. George Casey Jr., said the command has declared 2006 as the "year of the police," a tacit acknowledgment that the more than 80,000-strong Iraqi force has been hobbled by incompetence, corruption, sectarianism and low morale.

The U.S. military wants more than 130,000 police operating by 2007 as part of the strategy to shift security responsibility to the Iraqis so that American and other international troops can begin to head home.

"If Iraq is going to be successful here, the civil authorities have to be able to maintain domestic order and deny this as a terrorist safe haven," Casey said in an interview with The Associated Press and National Public Radio in his spartan office in the Green Zone.

[0007]

15. It seem to me that the freedom fighters have kicked the living

shit out of Rumsfled troops, that was suppose to only take just a few weeks conquer with no outlay of a lot of money. Now this scum sucking pig is telling us that we're training the Iraqis to be good but not as good as us.

[WhiteTara]

16. If Rummy thinks they're going to be okay, then

they are going to really suck.

[Theduckno2]

18. Just when I thought no one could touch Cheney's "last throes" remark.

BTW, what type of military force is appropriate for that part of the world?

Something equivalent to, let's say, Israel?

:rofl: Rummy, Rummy, Rummy.

[alcibiades_mystery]

19. "Could be six days, could be six months..."

"I really don't think it will be six years."

So sayeth the sage Donald Rumsfeld, on the eve of his catastrophic war. We're halfway there, Don, and now you say maybe, the Iraqi Army might just make it. We begin the fourth year of the war in five weeks. Think on that, motherfucker.

[tanyev]

21. They're gonna make it after all.

I can't wait for the video of them all standing on a street corner and playfully tossing their hats in the air.

[Javaman]

22. So are they going to have a promo of an iraqi soldier throwing his

hat in the air in the middle of Chicago????

He's an ass.

[Tracer]

23. "Why Iraq Has No Army"

"We can't leave until the Iraquis have one, the * administraiton says - and they're not even close."

------ A very interesting cover story in the December '05 Atlantic, by James Fallows.