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WASHINGTON (CNN) Feb. 25 — The only Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support has been downgraded to a level requiring them to fight with American troops backing them up, the Pentagon said Friday.
The battalion, made up of 700 to 800 Iraqi Army soldiers, has repeatedly been offered by the U.S. as an example of the growing independence of the Iraqi military. The competence of the Iraqi military has been cited as a key factor in when U.S. troops will be able to return home.
“As we see more of these Iraqi forces in the lead, we will be able to continue with our stated strategy that says as Iraqi forces stand up, we will stand down,” President Bush said last month.
The battalion, according to the Pentagon, was downgraded from “level one” to “level two” after a recent quarterly assessment of its capabilities.
Though officials would not cite a specific reason for downgrading the unit, its readiness level has dropped in the wake of a new commander and numerous changes in the combat and support units, officials said.
The battalion is still deployed, and its status as an independent fighting force could be restored any day, Pentagon officials said. It was not clear where the battalion is operating within Iraq.
According to the congressionally mandated Iraq security report, there are 53 Iraqi battalions at level two status, up from 36 in October. There are 45 battalions at level three, according to the report.
Overall, Pentagon officials said close to 100 Iraqi army battalions are operational, and more than 100 Iraq Security Force battalions are operational at levels two or three. The security force operations are under the direction of the Iraqi government.
● New Iraqi Security Forces Show Remarkable Progress
● Peter Welch Calls for Rumsfeld Ouster
Former U.S. attorney General Ramsey Clark, first left, and international advisor to former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein participates in a protest against US military bases in Bulgaria as people carry posters saying "No Foreign Military Bases in Bulgaria", in Sofia today. About a hundred supporters of communist and nationalist movements gathered for the protest. AP Photo/Petar Petrov
The chaos that has overtaken Iraq is now threatening hopes among the US and its allies that they might be able to start significant troop withdrawals in the coming months. Such withdrawals have always been conditional on the security situation and that situation is, to say the least, on a knife-edge following the bombing of the Shia al-Askari shrine in Samarra and the subsequent retaliations.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard has already publicly expressed his concern over the effect of increased sectarian tensions on embryonic troop withdrawal plans: “There’s no early prospect of all coalition forces being withdrawn, although until this latest event the signs were looking good.”
The foreign forces are now in a predicament – their presence adds to the violence yet they are not withdrawn for fear that the violence might get worse. They are part of the problem and not enough of the answer.
Iraqi troops still need the support of
coalition forces: Sir Jeremy Greenstock.
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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BAGHDAD (NPR-Morning Edition) January 10, 2006 · Steve Inskeep speaks to an Iraqi journalist whose home was raided in the middle of the night by U.S. forces because of mistaken identity. Ali Fadhil was detained for the night in Baghdad. Fadhil was working for British media on a documentary about the alleged misuse of millions of dollars intended for Iraqi reconstruction.
American troops in Baghdad forced their way into the home of Ali Fadil, who is working with the British TV Channel 4, and fired shots into the room where he was sleeping with his wife and children.
He was taken away by the American troops and released a few hours later, but videotapes he had produced were confiscated and not returned.
“It is simply not acceptable to burst into a journalist’s house, shoot off a few rounds and justify terrorizing a family on the back of a so-called hunt for insurgents, particularly when it concerns a reporter who is asking serious questions about corruption in high places,” said Aidan White, the IFJ secretary general, in a statement.
At the end of last year Fadil was presented the UK Foreign Press Association Young Journalist of the Year award.
Continuano gli attentati in Iraq RAI News24● Is This What They Call Democracy?
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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Oui, did you catch this or this one?
and
Found both by accident, do you think both would be of use to you when writing something else? (If you haven’t already seen them, I mean.)
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The Germans have often outstanding insight in facts on the ground in Iraq. See recent controversy about the Intelligence gathering by BND before the outbreak of the Iraq war.
Germany Admits BND Spies GaveIntelligence to US in Iraq War
I did do a diary in the past on Pattiz and al-Hurra broadcasts, but this coverage you linked is essential in the propaganda war, or how to fund our friends and steal money from the citizens who vote for the Democrats anyway.
Norman J. Pattiz (pictured), vice chairman of the US-based Israel Policy Forum, has been appointed chairman of the ‘Middle East committee‘ of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). The committee represents the propaganda arm of the Middle East Initiative, which seeks to “democratize” the region against its will.
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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All the MSM covers is propaganda for this administration, so I get my news off the blogs and use MSM articles for reasearching and backing up my theories w/facts. The days of an aggressive media are gone. So, the fact of the matter is that we, on this site and others are the real media in this country and the world today. And the thing is that I have been finding out re: what I have been doing re: Medicare D(isaster) and a single payer system is searching for info and putting it all together. (The trick is to find it and tie it all together.)
And the use of the propaganda in manipulating the people in this country (and others) into believing that all is wonderful is disgusting. It’s sickening that it has also spread to other countries under the guise of “spreading democracy” as repeatedly stated by gwb.
You are correct in that it is all a propagada war, and the funding of it has not been addressed. It has to be but I hold little hope that will happen the way the political system/parties/businesses are structured today. Time for a change, i.e., rebuilding the unresponsive system that we are stuck with into one that works.
BTW, your diaries are great!
Thank you, Oui.
Reality…
The insurgency is in it’s ‘waning moments’…the Iraqi’s are ‘standing up, so we can stand down’…indeed.
When is the reality of we’ve lost this ‘war’ going to break thru the fog of all those addled minds that continue to insist otherwise.
How many more are required to die, be maimed, and psychologically destroyed until we end this madness…for it surely is madness.
Peace
Government death Squads under the control of Ministry of Interior are part of the problem, The Independent (UK), Sunday Edition, reports in related article here
btw, it’s called “sectarian struggle or sectarian violence.” We dare not say ‘civil war’. Rawstory cites NYT with the same facts, changes Irag conflict from ‘civil war’ to having ‘endangered future’
their song, “should we stay or should we go” and do something decisive, something that will be the least dangerous to Iraqi civilians.