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Bush Hyping Numbers of Equipped Iraqi Forces

Bush: “Today Iraq has more thann 160,000 security forces trained and equipped for a variety of missions.”

Fact: Most Iraqi Security Forces Are Not Trained Or Equipped

Fact: “Only three battalions are rated fully operational by the Americans, and many others are far behind in terms of manpower, training and equipment.” [New York Times, 6/13/05]

Fact: According to the Brookings Institution, as of May 2005, only 50,000 troops were proficient and well-equipped. [Brookings, 6/3/05]



3 Responses to “Bush Hyping Numbers of Equipped Iraqi Forces”

  1. Susan says:

    These so called trained forces are mostly police officers, not military troops.


  2. The WB42 5:30 Report With Doug Krile says:

    Speech-Night Update

    Some good reading, post-speech, from the blogosphere.


  3. shrimplate says:

    Unfortunately, our terrorist enemies are not stupid, and they are not impatient.

    I would bet a nickel that the most well-trained Iraqi forces are also the ones from which will spring the most blowback.

    We are, figuratively speaking, training a kennel of attack dogs; some of which could not only bite the hand that feeds them, but chew off the whole arm, too.

    This is crazy. We are training our future enemies.



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