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In Iraq, $22.5bn can't buy security
the australian ^ | June 29, 2007 | the australian

Posted on 06/29/2007 7:48:50 PM PDT by Flavius

THE US has sunk more than $US19 billion ($22.5 billion) into training Iraqi forces, but new army and police units still cannot enforce security, a congressional report released yesterday warns.

Four years after the US invasion, 346,500 Iraqi military and police have been trained, but readiness is not evenly spread and there is strong evidence some newly trained troops are committing sectarian violence, the report says.

The study, by a subcommittee of the House of Representatives Armed Services panel, is the latest unflattering assessment of US operations in Iraq, and comes as support ebbs for the White House's Iraq policy among Senate Republicans.

(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: iraq

1 posted on 06/29/2007 7:48:50 PM PDT by Flavius
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To: Flavius

“It is obviously a very difficult thing to do and we want to make sure we don’t train the enemy,” he said. “There is always that potential risk.

wow what to say


2 posted on 06/29/2007 7:49:43 PM PDT by Flavius
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To: Flavius

we have invested billions of $ in policing the streets of America. Can we name anywhere totally safe from crime?

Granted, we don’t have huge car bombs going off (yet) and don’t find piles of bodies of people who support our government. But we do place a higher value on life than mid East people. Until they are taught to place more value on life, which could take a generation or more, there will always be violence on an uncomprehensible scale.
But it is not the fault of the troops or the police force we are training.


3 posted on 06/29/2007 8:06:18 PM PDT by o_zarkman44 (No Bull in 08!)
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To: Flavius
The study, by a subcommittee of the House of Representatives Armed Services panel,

With the DemonRats and their 'Rat staff having the say as to what went into the report, and what did not.

In general, Congressional Studies, or those by "pet" think tanks, aren't worth the paper it takes to print them, or the electrons it takes to generate them.

4 posted on 06/29/2007 8:06:28 PM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: o_zarkman44
Granted, we don’t have huge car bombs going off (yet)

Yeh, yet. Let the 'Rats and the RINOs have their way, and well be having IEDs going off on Central Expressway in Dallas, Actually more likely in Richardson, or on I-20 or I-30 in or near Arlington Texas, more muzzies in those areas, including Hamas.

5 posted on 06/29/2007 8:08:35 PM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: Flavius

This after Biden’s failed analysis that a force could never be trained.

The fact that we have trained a 350k force from scratch after 30 years of tyranny and war is a testament to the awesome power of America and the strength of US policy.


6 posted on 06/29/2007 8:10:14 PM PDT by lonestar67 (Its time to withdraw from the War on Bush-- your side is hopelessly lost in a quagmire.)
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To: El Gato

We have em in Missouri too. Like an infestation of rats and skeeters, the plague of islam is spreading.


7 posted on 06/29/2007 8:11:03 PM PDT by o_zarkman44 (No Bull in 08!)
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To: Flavius
The report also warns that Iraq's military and political infrastructure is sorely lacking: "The Iraqi ministries of Defence and Interior are not capable of accounting for, supporting or fully controlling their forces in the field. In addition, these ministries lack the capacity to execute their budgets."

Well, their previous track record was nothing to be proud of, we should not raise the bar to high to soon.

8 posted on 06/29/2007 8:13:42 PM PDT by operation clinton cleanup
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To: o_zarkman44

The great majority of Mideast people value life ever bit as much as we do. But there is a significant number of people who support armed resistance to the central government. The IRA has kept itself in operation for nearly forty years because it has enough supporters, even including people who woulkd lie to have peace. But it must be peace on their terms. As to $23 Billion. We sprinkle more than $40 billion a year on the public schools and litttle of that has any demonstrable effect.


9 posted on 06/29/2007 8:18:05 PM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: o_zarkman44
Until they are taught to place more value on life, which could take a generation or more, there will always be violence on an uncomprehensible scale. But it is not the fault of the troops or the police force we are training.

No. It just makes it a pointless exercise.

10 posted on 06/29/2007 8:20:36 PM PDT by Huck (Soylent Green is People.)
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To: operation clinton cleanup

This was also true of the equivalent Korean ministries in 1955.


11 posted on 06/29/2007 8:21:18 PM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: o_zarkman44
Which would suggest that we've wasted $22.5bn...

Until they are taught to place more value on life, which could take a generation or more, there will always be violence on an uncomprehensible scale. But it is not the fault of the troops or the police force we are training.

12 posted on 06/29/2007 8:22:10 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy ("Everyone knows there's a difference between Muslims and terrorists. No one knows what it is, tho...)
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To: Flavius

Bill Rogio’s site specifies many Iraqi Army units that are becomming quite effective.

Also, consider Kurdish areas which are becoming very prosperous and advanced. They have a 5 year head start on the rest of Iraq. Consider what could be.

On the other hand, there is a terrible truth, that the lands of the middle east are terribly corrupt, so that police and security forces cannot be brought to our level of transparency and respect for the law.


13 posted on 06/29/2007 10:11:09 PM PDT by sgtyork (Liberalism worthy of the name emphasizes freedom of the individual, democracy and the rule of law.)
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To: Huck; Ready4Freddy

If we don’t give the good people a chance to prevail, we will never know if it has been a pointless exercise or a waste of money.
I have never known the fight for freedom to be either pointless or a waste.


14 posted on 06/30/2007 5:18:22 AM PDT by o_zarkman44 (No Bull in 08!)
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To: o_zarkman44
If we don’t give the good people a chance to prevail

We did that...four years ago. Now the good people of Iraq need to git her done, not us. Do we station our troops in Israel and go house to house fighting their terrorist problem? No. We let them take care of it. How about when the IRA was terrorizing the Brits? We let the Brits deal with it. We toppled Saddam, we helped them set up a gubmint. Now they have one. Why are we fighting their battles for them, especially given the fact the WMDs weren't there? What's the point? They gotta do the work.

15 posted on 06/30/2007 5:22:29 AM PDT by Huck (Soylent Green is People.)
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To: Huck

They are getting a lot of work done. We just aren’t being told about it because the MSM wants us and Bush to lose this war.
It takes persecuted people a lot of time to build confidence. Right now, basic survival is the most important aspect.
I guess the DemoRats have a governing plan that will work in Iraq, being they are the great governing majority guiding the US to unprecidented prosperity and social reform? /sarc


16 posted on 06/30/2007 5:33:57 AM PDT by o_zarkman44 (No Bull in 08!)
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To: o_zarkman44

Seems like a waste of our resources. Besides, when you do for others, they don’t do for themselves. It’s like security welfare. And we’re not even doing a good job if we can’t even make Baghdad secure. We went there to find WMD. Didn’t happen. We toppled Saddam. Fine. We set up a new gubmint. Fine. So what the hell are we still doing there?


17 posted on 06/30/2007 10:36:49 AM PDT by Huck (Soylent Green is People.)
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To: Huck
We toppled Saddam. Fine. We set up a new gubmint. Fine. So what the hell are we still doing there?

Killing Jihadist terrorists. Better there than here. Like it says in the anthem:

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this our motto be: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

18 posted on 06/30/2007 10:01:37 PM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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