Friday, August 25, 2006

Maliki optimistic about Iraqi troops

"Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki also offered his most specific plans to date for the transfer of authority to Iraqi forces. Though additional American troops were required recently to secure the capital, he said Iraqi forces were on track to handle security within a matter of months.
'Next month we will start to receive control security in the provinces, one by one,' he said in a statement thanking the Interior Ministry for providing protection during a recent Shiite pilgrimage in Baghdad. 'At the end of the year we will take control of most provinces.' " [1]

"294,000 Iraqi troops have been trained, just shy of the goal of 325,000, and no U.S. official expects to turn over the war entirely to them anytime soon." [2]

"The Iraqi army was supposed to take control of [relatively calm] Qadisiyah and neighboring Wasit province from coalition forces in September. But that timetable recently slipped to January or February because of worries that the Iraqis aren't fully ready. . . . The new Iraqi security forces, totaling 325,000, will mostly be in place by year's end, says Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who is responsible for training. Dempsey tells me that next year he hopes to consolidate this force, teaching the Iraqis mundane skills, such as logistics management, that make a modern army work." [3]

"In remarks closely following similarly upbeat statements by American military officials in Baghdad, the prime minister also sought to lend optimism to his government’s efforts to bring security to Baghdad and other parts of the country, and to rule out the possibility of civil war.
'We are not in a civil war; Iraq will never be in a civil war,' he said, through an interpreter, in an interview with CNN on Sunday. 'The violence is in decrease, and our security ability is increasing.' " [4]

sources
[1] The New York Times. Lawyers for Hussein Accuse Kurd of Treason. August 24, 2006.
[2] The Washington Post. Bush's New Iraq Argument: It Could Be Worse. August 24, 2006.
[3] The Washington Post. Iraq: Still Worth Some Waiting. August 27, 2006.
[4] The New York Times. Bomber Attacks Baghdad Paper on Day When 52 Are Killed. August 28, 2006.

posted: august 25, 2006, 10:25 AM ET
update: august 28, 2006, 7:39 AM ET

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