Bush: Serious problems still plague Iraq's U.S.-trained forces

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

Bush: Serious problems still plague Iraq's U.S.-trained forces
By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — President Bush said Thursday that his report to Congress on the war in Iraq was "a cause for optimism" but acknowledged that Iraqi security forces remain beset by manpower problems and sectarian divisions, including purges of minority Sunni Muslim officers by the Shiite prime minister's office.

The findings reinforce doubts on whether the Iraqi government can achieve three central goals that will allow a U.S. troop withdrawal — creating army and police forces that can maintain internal order, enforcing laws without religious or ethnic bias and protecting the country from external threat.

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Anthony Cordesman, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in an analysis of Bush's report that the Iraqi security forces are largely unable to operate independently of U.S. forces and that their unreliability has compelled U.S. commanders to rely on local tribal forces and police in many places.

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Many members of Maliki's ruling coalition are backed by armed factions and have often sought to protect them by blocking military operations against them or giving warnings.

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Bush: "The real debate over Iraq is between those who think the fight is lost or not worth the cost and those who believe the fight can be won, and that as difficult as the fight is, the cost of defeat would be higher."

No, the real debate is how we're going to get rid of your sorry ass & what the punishments should be for what you & your criminal cabal have done.

Or that's what it should be, anyway.