WP: U.S. Military Expects to Meet Training Goal for Iraqi Security Forces

[grytpype]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/27/AR2006062701552.html

U.S. Military Expects to Meet Training Goal for Iraqi Security Forces

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 28, 2006; Page A20

U.S. military commanders expect to meet their goal of training and equipping more than 325,000 members of the new Iraqi security forces by the end of this year, an important step in developing Iraq's self-defense, Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who leads the training effort, said yesterday.

...

"It's just not appropriate yet to be thinking in terms of independent anything in Iraq," Dempsey said. "This, remember, is a nation at war, and although they have taken responsibility for battle space, and large swaths of it . . . they are not independent at this point in time."

...

Nor are U.S. military leaders saying that a trained Iraqi military means that U.S. forces can leave Iraq soon.

"It's my belief . . . that we're going to be in Iraq for a long time," Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, told the House Armed Services Committee yesterday. "It's open-ended."

...

It could take TWENTY YEARS to build up a fully independent Iraqi security force. There's no way we can stay that long. Even by Bush's victory criteria, the war is lost.

[grytpype]

1. k

[Tempest]

2. Iraqi Forces Will Not Be Independent for Some Time: General

Iraq’s security forces will not become capable of fully independent operations for some time, the U.S. general responsible for building the force said June 27.

”It’s just not appropriate yet to be thinking in terms independent anything in Iraq. This, remember, is a nation at war,” said Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey.

The strength of the Iraqi security forces, however, is a lynchpin of the U.S. strategy for reducing the size of its 127,000-member force in Iraq.

The White House acknowledged this week that it is considering a reported plan to reduce U.S. combat forces in Iraq by some 30,000 by the end of 2007 as Iraqi forces assume more responsibility for security.

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=1914602&C=mideast