CNN: No Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support

[ourbluenation]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The only Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support has been downgraded to a level requiring them to fight with American troops backing them up, the Pentagon said Friday.

The battalion, made up of 700 to 800 Iraqi Army soldiers, has repeatedly been offered by the U.S. as an example of the growing independence of the Iraqi military.

The competence of the Iraqi military has been cited as a key factor in when U.S. troops will be able to return home.

"As we see more of these Iraqi forces in the lead, we will be able to continue with our stated strategy that says as Iraqi forces stand up, we will stand down," President Bush said last month.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/24/iraq.security/index.html?section=cnn_topstories

[ClintonTyree]

1. After three years......

there are a mere 800 Iraqi soldiers who can fight on their own. If this isn't evidence that the Iraqis care little about the "war on terra" within their own country, I don't know what is. As long as there are American troops present the Iraqis will defer to them every time. It's time to leave or we'll NEVER be able to leave.
Pay war reparations, fix what we broke, but get our troops the hell out of there NOW! Bush's little experiment in exporting Democracy has been a miserable failure. BUSH has been a miserable failure. 2300 American deaths, untold Iraqi civilian deaths and a half-trillion dollars later we're no closer to "Democracy" than we were the day before the Iraqi invasion.

[Robeson]

2. That's not to mention the thousands of these veterans we have coming.....

...back, and of course, the 10's of thousands of innocent Iraqi's we've obliterated. Bush, by any standard, is a war criminal. If we didn't have 10,000 nuclear warheads at our disposal, the World would have made us pay long ago...

[Hubert Flottz]

3. "there are a mere 800 Iraqi soldiers who can fight on their own"

Half of those cover their faces in public, out of fear. Even the Republican Guard hate Republicans! Bush should have listened to us! The Iraqis know that Bush can't protect them. Hell, Bush couldn't even protect the people on the US Gulf Coast.

[BuyingThyme]

4. Enough already.

Who the hell decides who's ready to fight? Donald Rumsfeld?

This ain't a complicated process. You give 'em a gun and tell them what to do. That's it.

Give them their guns and bring our people home.

[ourbluenation]

6. If * were as loyal to his country as he is to his friends the situation

in Iraq might be slightly different, maybe - but...he won't let rummy resign. That kind of loyalty does not serve the very country he's been handed the keys to.

[laruemtt]

5. and apologize heartily for

destroying their country and leaving them in this horrible predicament. i agree, we've gotta get out NOW. what a mess.

[Toots]

7. I don't care whose military it is not a military matter. It is a police ma

There are no uniformed troops or other nations. It is entirely the killing of Civilians. How would we in America like Soldiers Patrolling our cities and sacred sites. That is why we have "posse comitatus". Why would we wish worse for our new mideast friend?

[spanone]

8. How many lives, How much money, How much BULLSHIT!

Bush* is not responsible for WHAT he says...someone may have told him wrong.