that stand up routine is getting old

"Our strategy can be summed up this way, as the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down."
- George W. Bush

Training Iraqi troops no longer driving force in U.S. policy


WASHINGTON - Military planners have abandoned the idea that standing up Iraqi troops will enable American soldiers to start coming home soon and now believe that U.S. troops will have to defeat the insurgents and secure control of troubled provinces.

Training Iraqi troops, which had been the cornerstone of the Bush administration's Iraq policy since 2005, has dropped in priority, officials in Baghdad and Washington said.

No change has been announced, and a Pentagon spokesman, Col. Gary Keck, said training Iraqis remains important. "We are just adding another leg to our mission," Keck said, referring to the greater U.S. role in establishing security that new troops arriving in Iraq will undertake.

But evidence has been building for months that training Iraqi troops is no longer the focus of U.S. policy. Pentagon officials said they know of no new training resources that have been included in U.S. plans to dispatch 28,000 additional troops to Iraq. The officials spoke only on the condition of anonymity because they aren't authorized to discuss the policy shift publicly. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made no public mention of training Iraqi troops on Thursday during a visit to Iraq.

So if you can pull yourself away from your VT massacre media induced trauma for just ten seconds, wrap your head around this story. A story that it is worthy of headlines has only been brought to light by McClatchy - formerly Knight-Ridder. Though we have been hearing for years that the primary goal is to create a self-sustaining military in Iraq befitting a self-sustaining democracy it appears that the great minds at work have changed course once again. Never mind the millions of dollars flushed and the hundreds murdered for signing up for the Iraqi army,some Pentagon pricks now think training a military is untenable and that the only way to "win" is to roll up our sleeves and do it ourselves. Makes a hell of a lot sense doesn't it? Security is going so well over there we may as well turn back the clock to year one of the war. Can we fire the Pentagon for incompetence yet? All those bureaucrats in the funny shaped building can only come up with this??? What do they do all day? Since when does not training an Iraqi force become an "additional leg" ? Sounds like an amputated leg to me. This is a ship of fools.

So what is the goal here? If we're aren't going to have a trained Iraqi force of say 150,000, who is gonna fill the security gap, the credibility gap with Iraqi citizens? A draft perhaps? No, Americans don't want a draft, we're not very good at responsibility and much prefer the working class to disappear over there somewhere while we postulate the merits of an armed classroom and get siked about the coming rapture. Besides a draft for an illegal war might cause trouble - might make people question motives as they are forced to personalize the war and the pillaging - the volunteer part is the loop hole.

Or perhaps another deal has been inked to fill this gap with private mercenary forces. Seems like the only way to do this. They could stay forever without bothering with Congress and all that fussy legal stuff. As for the Iraqis well you'll just have to get used to an American occupation forever because let's face facts there's still a hell of alot money to be made over there and we sort of regard you as helpless children anyway.