Pentagon report on Iraqi troops is not good

Last September there was one Iraqi battalion capable of going it alone into battle. That alone was pretty sad news after all of the time, effort and money that had poured in to Iraq but now that number is zero. (Strangely enough, the Washington Post somehow gives this article the title of "US Report on Iraqi Troops is Mixed" as if going backwards is somehow "mixed.") This is even down from the previous number of three battalions. The booby prize is that the number of Iraqi battalions that can go into battle with US support has increased. So the US is nearly three years into this disaster and this is what they have to show for the effort? Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.

The other jewel in the report is that the insurgency is losing steam and should not even be called an insurgency. Uh huh, right. Those TV images of people marching in the streets with guns everywhere must not have really happened. That looked to me like a country that had a lawlessness problem. The insurgency may be changing to a civil war, so you can call it whatever you like, but there is an obvious problem that only the Pentagon and Bush can overlook.