"Blast from the past" from Associated Press

'Standing up' Iraq army looks open-ended
By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent
Sat Mar 29, 2008
Iraq's new army is "developing steadily," with "strong Iraqi leaders out front," the chief U.S. trainer assured the American people. That was three-plus years ago, the U.S. Army general was David H. Petraeus, and some of those Iraqi officials at the time were busy embezzling more than $1 billion allotted for the new army's weapons, according to investigators.

I'm reminded of an old Miller Beer commercial:

"It doesn't get any better than this!"

...unless, of course, you really expect anything resembling progress in Iraq.

Though, given the complete absence of any U.S. "strategic objective", it's difficult to say just what might constitute "progress" in this open-ended engagement.

The AP article goes on to note that

Year by year, the goal of deploying a capable, freestanding Iraqi army has seemed always to slip further into the future. In the latest shift, with Petraeus now U.S. commander in Iraq, the Pentagon's new quarterly status report quietly drops any prediction of when homegrown units will take over security responsibility nationwide, after last year's reports had forecast a transition in 2008.

Earlier, in January last year, President Bush said Iraqi forces would take charge in all 18 Iraqi provinces by November 2007. Four months past that deadline, they control only half the 18.

Gentle reminder (stated often, ad nauseam, to the point of numbness):

We've achieved ALL original war aims:
1. Iraq has no WMD
2. Saddam has been deposed, tried, and executed.
3. The foundations of "democracy" have been established

a. An Iraqi Constitution has been drafted and adopted
b. National elections have been held
c. An elected government is in place

No, Iraq is not a "beacon of democracy" in the Mid-East.
Was that an original war aim?

I remind those who cite the continuing anarchy as a reason for us to stay that SecDef Rumsfeld would disagree:

"Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things…"

As I've stated frequently before, from this perspective

the Iraqis are exercising their freedom with a vengeance!

News stories about Iraq from 3+ years ago can simply be transcribed, quotations and all, and reprinted today.
This is "progress"???

Out now!

Stop the madness!