Reply #3: Iraqi security not ready despite training - report [View All]

The United States has spent more than $19 billion training hundreds of thousands of Iraqi soldiers and police officers, but they are still not ready to provide security, a congressional report said on Wednesday.

"The security forces are not capable of taking over security responsibility, as timelines for transition are repeatedly extended and violence has not significantly decreased across Iraq," the oversight panel of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee said in the report.

Signed by 16 lawmakers from both political parties, the report said the Pentagon must do a better job of reporting to Congress on progress in training but stopped short of making a judgment on whether the United States should continue the effort.

"This bipartisan report shows clearly that the president's plan to stand down our troops as the Iraqis stand up has been a failure to this point," said Rep. Martin Meehan, a Massachusetts Democrat and the panel's chairman.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N27260438.htm