Posted on 08/31/2006 8:16:17 PM PDT by bnelson44
Speaking after a Cabinet meeting, Nouri al-Maliki said Iraqi forces will assume responsibility for Dhi Qar province in the south, making it the second out of 18 provinces that the Iraqis would take control of.
The Iraqis took over Muthanna province in the south from British forces in July.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.scotsman.com ...
Good. Take over 18 more as soon as possible. I'm ready with the popcorn.
"new province"
For a moment I thought Saddam had invaded Kuwait again.
Good news of progress. Thanks.
Slightly deceptive, in that the Kurd provinces are already fully under the control of the Kurds, with just a tiny US presence.
Other provinces are "cooled", and while the Iraqis have de facto (in fact) control, we are pretending it is probationary before handing over de jure (in law) control.
In other words, married with two kids, but they don't have the wedding certificate yet.
The truth of the matter is operational control of their military and police. They are at least 80% strength and at least 60% independently functional. All they need is a heavy armor division or two, and to buy aircraft for their air forces. The Iranians don't want them to have an air force and have been systematically assassinating all of their old pilots. But when the time comes, we will probably train a dozen squadrons in Texas, then give them their aircraft to fly home.
Quietly, we've been turning our recruiting efforts to non-security personnel, like setting up fire departments all over the place. This means that the Iraqis are fully in charge of additional police and military recruiting and training.
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