This sentence is nothing but pure AP BS propaganda.
"Although Wednesday's raid failed, the insurgents' ability to put together such large and well-armed bands of fighters underlined concerns about the ability of Iraqi police and military to take over the fight from U.S. troops."
This sentence is nothing but pure AP BS propaganda."
Agreed. Indeed, if you parse it, it is thoroughly illogical.
Army Z, Zarqawi's army and their capabilities are described as "insurgents' ability to put together such large and well-armed bands of fighters", and that tells us nothing of the capabilities of Army I, the Iraqi Army, which could range from incompetent to extraordinarily superior. What Z can do tels us nothing ofwhat I can do. It doesn't 'underlines concerns', it tells us nothing,
and 'concerns' is a way to say absolutely nothing in the sentence. Such 'concerns' exist anyway, whatever the level of terrorist threat.
Does this attack demonstrate some fact relevent to the question of whether Iraqi army can fight on its own?
Well, since a joint US-Iraqi response *defeated* the terrorist attack, the one lesson is this: The Iraqi Army is at least capable of defeating even organized terrorist attacks, with the help of US forces.
That is the only logical and useful conclusion, and a positive one. Curiously, this obvious answer is missed by the defeatist media.