Kaplan finds truth re # trained Iraqi troops-deep in $81.9B request!

[flpoljunkie]

Deeply buried in the Bush administration's 97-page supplemental budget request for $81.9 billion ($75 billion of it for the Pentagon), mainly to fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is one sentence that expresses—more succinctly and shockingly than any official statement to date—just how little progress we've made toward making Iraq a stable nation.

It's there in the section dealing with the $5.7 billion requested for the "Iraq Security Force Fund," which notes that the interim Iraqi government, with assistance from coalition nations, has already created a security force of 90 battalions, but then adds:

All but one of these 90 battalions, however, are lightly equipped and armed, and have very limited mobility and sustainment capabilities.

In other words, 89 of Iraq's 90 battalions essentially cannot fight.

This is a far worse state of affairs than even President Bush's critics have imagined. During Condoleezza Rice's confirmation hearings last month, Sen. Joseph Biden, the top Democrat on the foreign relations committee, said he'd been told that of the 120,000 security forces that Rice maintained existed, only 4,000—or 3 percent—were well-trained. Now the administration is admitting, in the pursuit of seeking more money to improve matters, that the real number is more like 1 percent.

<>It makes you wonder: What the hell has been going on here? It's been 18 months since Iraq's insurgency emerged in full force. Yet only now is the Bush administration seeking funds to "begin" training Iraqi security forces to "participate" in the "hard end" of fighting the insurgency.

more...

http://www.slate.com/id/2113575/

[Vincardog]

1. When will people admit the Idiot bu$h wants and has in place plans for

PERMANENT occupation and endless war? This is what the bu$h death cult is about. Impoverish and kill US and every or any one who opposes the rule of the rich. We have to stand and fight them here and now.

[FreedomAngel82]

2. Exactly

And I bet you anything if we leave or start showing signs of leaving the fighting will stop. I remember when Brokak was leaving MSNBC he had a special on all he's seen. Towards the end he had him in Iraq in the beginning. He saw a group of young men in their 20's standing around before it got real bad with the fighting. He went over to one of them and asked what they thought about everything going on. He said, "I would like to fight the Americans. Not the people. The GOVERNMENT." It really is just putting two and two together. BushCo just wants to be seen as victorious and not losing a "war." It really is pathetic. I bet if John Kerry was president we could start pulling out sometime this year. I understand they have to train their police (because they haven't had an army since WW2) but how can they train them inside of Iraq? Why not do Kerry's idea and take them out of the country for a little while to train them properly?

[global1]

3. Where Does Biden Weigh In On This One?.....

My guess is that this statement validates what he has been saying at Condi's hearings, etc. Points to the fact the the * admin has been lying to us again. But I'm sure Biden supports the $81.9 billion.

[flpoljunkie]

4. Congress needs to raise hell as to why Iraqi troops have not been trained.

Biden should lead the charge.

[flyarm]

8. biden says great things..and then...

he puts rose colored glasses on the subjects he speaks of
( iraq )..one second he is saying exactly what he should be saying..then the next minute you are left thinking:wtf:


fly

[Vickers]

5. This is important: we send troops over there with 6 months training

WHY THE FUCK CAN'T THEY TRAIN IRAQIS?

Lemme guess: no money in it? :eyes:

[Roland99]

6. It'll be years (decades?) before we're out and it will cost >$1 trillion

[Riding this Donkey]

7. Kick for Cond-a-liar n/t

[Jacobin]

9. There will be no Iraqi security force to speak of

No Iraqi worth his salt is going to be a guntotting stooge to protect a foreign occupying power.

This is another crazed attempt (see: Vietnamization) of trying to bail out of a fucked up invasion.