Key Bush Assertions About Iraq in Dispute

[Dickie Flatt]

Many of President Bush's assertions about progress in Iraq -- from police training and reconstruction to preparations for January elections -- are in dispute, according to internal Pentagon documents, lawmakers and key congressional aides on Sunday. ...

He said nearly 100,000 "fully trained and equipped" Iraqi soldiers, police officers and other security personnel are already at work, and that would rise to 125,000 by the end of this year. ...

But many of these assertions have met with skepticism from key lawmakers, congressional aides and experts, and Pentagon documents, given to lawmakers and obtained by Reuters, paint a more complicated picture. ...

The White House defended its figures, and a senior administration official defined "fully trained" as having gone through "initial basic operations training." Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command that covers Iraq, told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the number of trained Iraqi forces "will continue to grow."

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[whistle]

1. The fu*ker lies, there are no security police who have been fully...

...trained in the 24 week training program, there are fewer than 5,000 Iraqi troops, Bush has had since May 2003 to put $18 billion approved and set aside by the Congress of the United States to begin vital reconstruction of Iraq's infrastructure and they have squandered billions, spent a meager $700 million and now want to reassign $4 billion to increase fighting.

BUSHIT!!!!

This November 2nd, Bush and the entire corrupt5 bunch go out on their collective asses!

[MissMarple]

2. Many of the ones they have work nights for the insurgency.

This pretense of a successful war effort and the rebuilding of Iraq are sad jokes on the naive and gullible elements of the American public.

From today's Denver Post.

"The U.S. military said Sunday that it had arrested a senior commander of the Iraqi National Guard, raising concerns about the loyalty and reliability of the new security forces just months before general elections are scheduled to be held across the country."

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E6439%257E2429229,00.html

[Halliburton]

7. Did you listen to Al Franken today?

They had a Canadian journalist who was taken hostage by the insurgent group, Ansar Al Islam in Mosul about two weeks ago. Along with an Iraqi translator and a Turkish colleague, he went to Tal Afar, which is located on the outskirts of Mosul and met up with Iraqi police who later delivered them to Ansar Al Islam where they were taken hostage and tortured. He said that Mosul was teeming with insurgents and would likely explode in the coming months.

[AIJ Alom]

3. oh man this is really starting to stink. if a general in the new Iraq army

worked for the other side. Can you imagine what the possible Iraqis on the ground are doing ? Can you imagine if they are the ones providing intelligence ? They could be telling our forces to target innocent civilians !!! By having our forces kill civilians, they can turn the population against us.

[phantom power]

4. there is no "dispute". There has been no progress there.

The whole idea that this is a matter of discussion is crap.

[AIJ Alom]

5. The following is not a joke.

a senior administration official defined "fully trained" as having gone through "initial basic operations training." - in Bush speak, they have signed their names on paper.

[gratuitous]

6. Son of a . . .

Can NOBODY call this guy a liar? Yeah, by "fully trained," we meant they'd been through initial orientation: i.e., we told them which end of the gun to point at what they want to die.

Reminds me of the old third grade joke: How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg?

Answer: Four. Just because you call his tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.

Unfortunately, no one in the press corps got past third grade. Evidently.

[GoBlue]

8. Hell, that's better training than Bush had

senior administration official defined "fully trained" as having gone through "initial basic operations training."