Flip-flop!

Decline in Iraqi Troops' Readiness Cited (WaPo)

The number of Iraqi army battalions that can fight insurgents without U.S. and coalition help has dropped from three to one, top U.S. generals told Congress yesterday, adding that the security situation in Iraq is too uncertain to predict large-scale American troop withdrawals anytime soon.

Gen. George W. Casey Jr., who oversees U.S. forces in Iraq, said there are fewer Iraqi battalions at "Level 1" readiness than there were a few months ago. Although Casey said the number of troops and overall readiness of Iraqi security forces have steadily increased in recent months, and that there has not been a "step backwards," both Republican and Democratic senators expressed deep concern that the United States is not making enough progress against a resilient insurgency.

So how is going from three ready divisions to one ready division not a "step backwards"?

And, notice how it's spun that we have to stay and take care of poor little Johnny Iraqi. That'd be insulting if they weren't already so pissed at us they're blowing themselves up to get us out - I sincerely doubt that there's anything we could do to piss Iraqis off any more, but I'm sure Bush and his gang of incompetents will be proving me wrong all too soon.