Commanders Say Push in Baghdad Is Short of Goal - New York Times

In an interview, he said that while military planners had expected to make greater gains by now, that has not been possible in large part because Iraqi police and army units, which were expected to handle basic security tasks, like manning checkpoints and conducting patrols, have not provided all the forces promised, and in some cases have performed poorly.

That is forcing American commanders to conduct operations to remove insurgents from some areas multiple times. The heavily Shiite security forces have also repeatedly failed to intervene in some areas when fighters, who fled or laid low when the American troops arrived, resumed sectarian killings.

The NYT hacks join the Bushbots in the kabuki that pretends our upcoming withdrawal from Iraq must be blamed on the failures of the Iraqis, rather than the failures to properly prosecute the regional war against Islamist-supporting regimes by the Bush adminstration, and the opposition to victory from the Dems, the NYT, and the rest of the MSM, that are the real causes.

Submit to Stumbled Upon!