Rumsfeld Shoots Blanks To Congress !!!

[WillyT]

<snip>

As I wrote back in June, Congress, in a little-noted section of the defense spending bill passed this spring, had ordered Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld to deliver a detailed report by July 11 on a long list of measures gauging Iraq's economic and political stability, the extent of the insurgency and the capacity of Iraqi forces to provide security for their own country.

July 11 came and went with no report. The Senate subsequently passed a resolution reminding Rumsfeld of the unfulfilled obligation. And on July 21, the report was delivered.

It came in two parts: a 23-page public document and a classified annex. The congressional resolution had suggested that questions about planned U.S. force requirements and troop rotations be dealt with in a secret annex, but asked that everything else be available to inform the public debate.

The Pentagon has not stonewalled the request, but the quality of the information it has given the lawmakers and the public is disappointing. For example, the report includes page after page of blank forms that the coalition command in Iraq has developed to assess the quality of personnel, command and control, training and logistics in Iraqi military and police forces. But the important question of how many of those units are capable of fighting the insurgency independently or with help from U.S. and British troops is nowhere answered.

<snip>

Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002419266&zsection_id=268883724&slug=broder04&date=20050804

'Disappointing???' C'mon David, it's pure arrogant BULLSHIT, and you know it!!!

:mad::nuke::mad:

[babylonsister]

1. This got my attention, and

should be noted, because they're accomplishing nothing over there but managing to get soldiers blown away. I'm sure the amount of trained Iraqis is much lower than we've been led to believe, and their increasing numbers are supposed to be our 'get out of Iraq' card.:eyes:

"Michael O'Hanlon, a defense policy expert at the Brookings Institution, said he was struck by the fact that the Pentagon report not only is silent on the question of the degree of training and preparedness of the Iraqi battalions but "doesn't capture the quality of the officer corps or the loyalty of the troops. ... Rumsfeld has a lot more specific information," he said, "and he ought to share it."

[jimshoes]

2. He could have save a lot of time

and trees if he had just turned in his report consisting of one page and the word, FUBAR. (Or is that considered an acronym)?

[Lannes]

3. Even O'Reilly said he should be fired