Weeks before last Baghdad brigade ready: U.S. general

[Barrett808]

Source: Reuters

Weeks before last Baghdad brigade ready: U.S. general
By Paul Tait

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The final extra U.S. brigade in a security crackdown to prevent all-out civil war in Iraq is unlikely to be fully operational for up to two months, the U.S. military's top spokesman in Iraq said on Wednesday.

Military and civilian deaths have spiked as thousands more U.S. and Iraqi troops are deployed in Baghdad but U.S. commanders say success cannot be judged until all five brigades are in place.

...

Four of five extra U.S. brigades are fully operational in the last-ditch bid to stop full civil war between the Shi'ite majority and Sunni minority, which ruled under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

That deployment will be completed "within the next couple of weeks," military spokesman Brigadier-General Kevin Bergner said.

"As we have seen with our other forces in the fight, once they're in position, they may take another 30 to 60 days to fully establish themselves with their Iraqi counterparts and the people in those sectors," Bergner told a news conference.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070606/wl_nm/iraq_dc

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That last brigade will make all the difference.

[Ezlivin]

1. Wow. They are starting to backtrack on that whole "September" meme

If they don't get the last brigade ready until the end of July, they can say in September that we've still not given it enough time.

"We didn't get the last brigade into position until it was almost August! You know it takes 30 to 60 days to fully establish themselves! We told you back in June..."

[Barrett808]

3. And just what does "fully establish" mean?

Opening fire on civilians at checkpoints is probably not what they mean. But it's what happens.

[LiberalFighter]

2. They don't want to be accused of being incompetent

[jimshoes]

4. He's taking a surge mulligan

I didn't know you could do that.