The Chocolate Ration Has Been Raised Again!
Tony Copaccio of Bloomberg writes:
Bloomberg.com: U.S.: Bush said yesterday the U.S. was making progress in preparing Iraqi forces to take on a bigger role in securing the country and in rooting out terrorists who have been staging attacks on U.S. and Iraqi targets...
And Yochi Dreazen writes:
WSJ.com - Military Gives Mixed Iraq View, Says Withdrawal May Hit Snag: In a joint appearance on Capitol Hill, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and three senior generals... said the number of Iraqi army battalions capable of operating without U.S. help had decreased to one from three over the past year. They declined to specifically explain the decrease but said many Iraqi units had suffered from a lack of stability and managerial expertise within Iraq's Ministry of Defense as successive Iraqi governments shuffled the ranks of both the ministry and the armed forces.... At the same time, they said, the country's police and army units have become riddled with insurgent sympathizers...
I'll stop calling this crew "Orwellian" when they stop using 1984 as an operations manual.
