Bush's 1 "battle ready" Iraqi battalion spin.

[RSchewe]

"Over 30 percent of the Iraqi troops are in the lead on these offensive operations. We've got troops embedded with them, and that's an important part of the training mission. But nevertheless, the Iraqis are showing more and more capability to take the fight to the enemy,"

Here we go boys and girls. The official spin of the pitiful truth that only 1 battalion (~700 troops) are fully trained and able to operate INDEPENDENT of the US armed forces in Iraq.

Do they actually think people can't tell the difference between operating independently and taking the lead in combat operations in Iraq? Maybe they think taking the lead is considered good enough. Is this supposed to resolve the issue at hand?

We need full trained Iraqi forces to GET OUT, otherwise we will never leave. This point has to be focused on relentlessly for anyone that wants us to get out of Iraq.

Wow...

Here is the Reuters article on this:

Bush says Iraqi troops playing bigger role
Wed Oct 5, 2005 12:24 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, facing waning public support for Iraq war, said on Wednesday Iraqi troops are taking a bigger role against the Iraqi insurgency and offered hope U.S. troops could come home.

Bush emerged from a war council with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Gen. Peter Pace, new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and U.S. Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, to claim progress in the training of Iraqi troops, which he calls a prerequisite to a U.S. pullout.

But he offered no timetable.

A CNN/Gallup/USA Today poll last month said only 32 percent of Americans approved of Bush's handling of the war, which he launched in 2003 citing the threat of weapons of mass destruction possessed by Saddam Hussein's government. Such weapons were never found.

"Over 30 percent of the Iraqi troops are in the lead on these offensive operations. We've got troops embedded with them, and that's an important part of the training mission. But nevertheless, the Iraqis are showing more and more capability to take the fight to the enemy," Bush said on the steps of the White House Rose Garden.

There are persistent questions about the quality of the trained Iraqi forces and the degree to which they have been infiltrated by insurgents. Senior U.S. generals said last week that the number of Iraqi battalions able to fight last week without help from American forces had shrunk to one, from three in July.

More than 1,900 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, increasing the uneasiness among Americans about the wisdom of pursuing the war.

Bush said U.S. troops will stay on the offensive to try to tamp down an upsurge in violence spurred by a planned October 15 referendum on an Iraqi constitution.

"I've told the American people all along our troops will stay there as long as necessary. We'll do the job. We'll train these folks. And as they become more capable, we'll be able to bring folks home with the honor they've earned," he said.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-10-05T162353Z_01_DIT557143_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-USA.xml

[bowens43]

1. In the lead.....

blocking bullets for american troops.....

[cantstandbush]

2. The Iraqis ARE the enemy, stupid.

Does he really think the insurgents are not Iraqis?

[RSchewe]

3. There are so many things screwed up in Iraq, it is hard to know where to..

start.

[Democrats_win]

4. You're in the bush army now. Start earning money for Halliburton.

[spanone]

5. Will this country ever conclude that bush* is full of shit? Top to bottom

[tabasco]

6. In the first Kerry-Bu$h debate ...

Bush said there would be 200,000 "trained" Iraqi troops by the end of 2005. They better get shit hot on those other 199,500 troops. Good thing they've restored integrity to the White House.

[unrepuke]

7. How many of our troops are embedded in that battalion?

According to Bush it's just under 70% -- out of a battalion of 700 or so 480 of them are ours? WTF?