Cheney agrees w/ Biden; contradicts bush, rummy, and rice

Q Senator Joseph Biden, the ranking Democrat, on the Foreign Relations Committee just came back from Iraq. He says that the U.S. is currently training 107 battalions of Iraqi troops and only three of those battalions are fully capable right now to take charge.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, a year ago there weren't any Iraqi battalions at all. It takes time to get a battalion up to speed where you take in the recruits, you train them, you equip them. It will take time to create a fully competent U.S. battalion if you started from scratch. We've got a lot of them in the pipeline. There are several different stages. There are three or four now that are up to the top level in terms of competence and capability, able to operate on their own. There are a lot more coming along behind them. So I feel very good about where we are with respect to training.

Q So you don't want to speculate how long it will take to get all those battalions up to speed?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, but what I'd recommend you do is talk to Dave Petraeus, the former commander of the 101st, the man who is in charge of the training program over there...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/06/20050623-8.html

BUSH, September 2004:
"Nearly 100,000 fully trained and equipped Iraqi soldiers, police officers, and other security personnel are working today. And that total will rise to 125,000 by the end of this year. The Iraqi government is on track to build a force of over 200,000 security personnel by the end of next year. With the help of the American military, the training of the Iraqi army is almost halfway complete."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/09/20040923-8.html

RUMSFELD, February 2005
"Obviously the people who are providing this information, provide it every week, we put it on the web site, it's available to any member of the House or Senate or the public. And the fact of the matter is that there are 130,200 who have been trained and equipped -- no matter what he says. That's a fact. And how do I know that? I know it because General Petraeus counts them."

http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/2005/tr20050202-secdef2062.html

RICE, June 2005:
"The Iraqi security forces now consist of about 170,000 trained and equipped soldiers and police."

http://www.dod.mil/news/Jun2005/20050619_1767.html