More "success."
Riven with alleged sectarianism, which if true, is one more failure to chalk up for Bush and the gang.
"Panel Will Urge Broad Overhaul of Iraqi Police" by DAVID S. CLOUD
WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 — An independent commission established by Congress to assess Iraq’s security forces will recommend remaking the 26,000-member national police force. The commission, headed by Gen. James L. Jones, the former top United States commander in Europe, concludes... that its current units “be scrapped” and reshaped into a smaller, more elite organization, according to one senior official familiar with the findings. The recommendation is that “we should start over,” the official said.
[WE SHOULD START OVER?
After FIVE FUCKING YEARS?
GOOD LORD, WE WILL NEVER LEAVE!]
The report, which will be presented to Congress next week, is among a number of new Iraq assessments — including a national intelligence estimate and a Government Accountability Office report — that await lawmakers when they return from summer recess. But the Jones commission’s assessment is likely to receive particular attention as the work of a highly regarded team that was alone in focusing directly on the worthiness of Iraq’s army and police force.
A new attempt to disband an Iraqi force would also be risky, given the armed backlash that followed the American decision to dissolve the Iraqi Army soon after the invasion of 2003.
Geoff Morrell, a spokesman for Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, said that an American effort to retrain the Iraqi police forces was under way. Mr. Morrell said that Pentagon officials believed that such an effort could succeed... without requiring a complete overhaul of the Iraqi force.
“We’re not giving up on the Iraqi National Police,” Mr. Morrell said, adding that the United States and Mr. Maliki’s government were “both committed to seeing it through.”
[As we work behind the scenes to dump him!
Frikkin' lying American military again.]
According to several administration officials, the Jones commission also reached largely positive conclusions about the Iraqi Army’s performance since the start of the new security strategy in Iraq — a sign, several officials said, that a determined American effort to remake Iraqi institutions holds some promise of success.
[Promises, promises!]
The officials who agreed to discuss the commission recommendations did so in some cases because they believed that disclosing them publicly would help diffuse their impact.
[So the WHITE HOUSE LEAKED THIS!
And the MSM had you believing it was some disgruntled GAO guy!]
The Jones commission, which has 14 members, including former or retired military officers, Defense Department officials and law enforcement officers, was created this year by Congress to study the Iraqi security forces and report its findings this fall. Members of the commission made three trips to Iraq and met with senior American commanders and Iraqi officials.
National police units were designated earlier this year to play a major role securing neighborhoods after United States and Iraqi Army units cleared the areas of insurgents. But the police have proven to be a tenuous element of that strategy... supply and equipment problems have led to frequent complaints by the American military that the national police have been ineffective.
American commanders on the ground in Shiite-controlled areas of Baghdad say that the local police actively subvert efforts to loosen the grip of militias, and in some cases, attack Americans directly. One commander in northwest Baghdad said most bomb attacks against American patrols in the area this spring occurred close to police checkpoints.
Officers involved in training the national police units... acknowledged deep problems with the police but said that they had been working methodically for months on retraining national police units to do exactly what the Jones commission was proposing.
American officers have been trying to fix the police force since before 2006, which the military labeled “the year of the police,” a slogan meant to show their determination to fix what were, even then, longstanding problems.
On Friday President Bush is scheduled to meet with members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to discuss Iraq. Pentagon officials said the meeting would offer a chance for Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the joint chiefs, and the chiefs of the military services to provide their views about Iraq, as part of a process they have said is intended to present Mr. Bush with a broad range of views about the way forward in Iraq.
Several of the chiefs are expected to press for steep reductions in the force levels in Iraq over the next year out of concern that the current level of more than 160,000 troops imposes too large a strain on the military and leaves too few troops to respond to other contingencies, officials said."
[Well, he ain't gonna listen!!
I just say Ed Henry on C(IA)NN say that Bush looks like he has made up his mind to ESCALATE the SURGE!!!!]
