ISG says "Iraqi forces have not measured up"

Again, the issue in NOT Al-Qaeda, which is what the surge is focusing on. Instead, it is the ability of the Iraqi military and political elements to hold up their end.
War supporters quote wildly optimistic statements from military commanders who will lose their jobs if they don't show big progress real fast. But all of these optimistic statements generally revolve around fighting Al-Qaeda. The U.S. military is working feverishly to fix a leaky faucet in a house that is not only condemned, but collapsing. At this point, the best case scenario is that Petraeus will be able to point to a shiny water faucet in a rodent-and-termite infested kitchen while stepping carefully around loose floorboards to say that we have "won" and the spigot is ready to go.
The disconnect with reality when reading the right-wing blogs is astonishing. Huge progress has been made, or so they claim, and Iraq is stable and on the road to properity. Everyone killed or arrested is Al-Qaeda, and they are putatively crumbling....but somehow still an enormous threat. And we need more troops, since things are going so well.
During the Vietnam endgame, the public also heard ridiculously optimistic reports from military commanders eager to look good. Body counts of the "enemy" were rising everyday, the South Vietnamese were battling back, the people loved us and it would all wrapped up in no time.
What good will it do to rid the country of Al-Qaeda if the Iraqi military cannot hold ground or the politicians cannot even agree to disagree?
full story

Iraq Study Group co-chair paints bleak Iraq picture

Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, co- chair of the Iraq Study Group, said on Monday that the Iraqi government is far from "resolving sectarian differences" and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has underperformed.

In an interview with NBC's "Today Show", he said that Iraq's forces will not be able to provide the complete security for the country any time soon.

"These Iraqi forces that we have been training now for several years simply have not measured up overall," Hamilton said, adding that it would take "a remarkable bit of progress in a very short period of time for them to meet the prime minister's goals" of allowing Iraq's forces to take over security by the end of the year.

Hamilton was highly critical of Maliki, claiming that "He's known exactly what he has to do; he hasn't done it. His rhetoric is pretty good; his performance is pretty bad."

The Iraqi parliament "has been a huge disappointment all along" and is "not dealing with the fundamental problems of the country," Hamilton said.

In particular, Hamilton criticized the Bush administration for giving Iraq a satisfactory rating on the issue in last week's assessment report on the country's progress.

"What they have actually done is create a committee to look at it," Hamilton said.

"Now, creating a committee is a matter of process. It is not a matter of result. It is not close to resolving the sectarian differences that are required to bring about national reconciliation," he said.

Hamilton was making the accusation at a time when the Bush administration is under growing pressure from lawmakers of both the Republican and Democratic parties to change the Iraq policy.

Democrats said they will try again this week to set a timetable to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.

Source: Xinhua