Iraq - Standing Up, Standing Down

Maybe this is why the Iraqis are not Standing Up so we can Stand Down. From an AP article by Pauline Jelinek come these nuggets of wisdom:

WASHINGTON (AP) - About one in six Iraqi policemen trained by U.S.-led forces has been killed or wounded, has deserted or just disappeared, a senior U.S. military commander says.

[...]

Speaking before a House subcommittee, Dempsey said some 32,000 Iraqi police had been lost from the newly trained force of 188,000 in the 18 months before January.

About 8,000 to 10,000 were believed killed in action and 6,000 to 8,000 wounded severely enough so they cannot serve, he said Tuesday.

Another 5,000 ``probably ... had deserted.''

The remaining 7,000 or 8,000 are unaccounted for. One lawmaker wanted to know if they could be among militants causing the violence in Iraq.

``Is there any basis to believe that some portion of those ... are fighting our people?'' asked Rep. Robert E. Andrews, D-N.J.

Dempsey said he didn't know.

Good grief. How ... inspiring. We're arming the insurgents because they're going to fight al-Qaeda - even though al-Qaeda is a very small presence in Iraq - even though we know the various factions are attacking each other viciously - even as our people don't know whether the same people we're training are killing our troops. Lovely. What a massive clusterfuck this has turned out to be.

Stumble It!