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2008-06-16 Iraq

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Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2008-06-16 10:55|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top
File under: Mahdi Army

#1 Despite claims about progress in training Baghdad's new army. Of the 197,000 local soldiers qualified by US or British instructors, at least 27,000 have deserted.

Where does this figure come from? Is this from the beginning of training 4 years ago? How many of these desertions occurred in the first 2 years? How many last year or in the past six months?

Based upon everything else I've been reading, Basra has quieted significantly. How "besieged" is the airport now? This is just more agenda jounalism. The a**hole who wrote this should be tossed on his ear.

Posted by remoteman 2008-06-16 12:50|| 2008-06-16 12:50|| Front Page Top

#2 27,000 out of 197,000 is less than 14%, according to the calculator on my cell phone. Not bad for those who realize they aren't really cut out for the work, it seems to me, not even taking into account the Shiite moles who'd planned to turn the Iraqi Army into a tool of the Mahdi Army and thence Iran.

Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife 2008-06-16 13:10|| 2008-06-16 13:10|| Front Page Top

#3 It's a leftie paper.

I don't doubt the desertion figure. It is, however, probably a total for the last several years while the trained number of 197,000 is boots on the ground right now. Apples and oranges.

I'd like to know the last time the Brits got mortared. Most of that was well before the Iraqis moved in the Basra.

And, it shouldn't take 4,000 troops to defend an airfield from insurgeants. Really.

Posted by Chuck Simmins">Chuck Simmins 2008-06-16 16:56|| http://northshorejournal.org]">[http://northshorejournal.org] 2008-06-16 16:56|| Front Page Top

#4 CS: And, it shouldn't take 4,000 troops to defend an airfield from insurgeants. Really.

I think this was the paper that coined the phrase "brutal Afghan winter" in reference to the impossibility of defeating the Taliban in 2001, right before they ran pell mell for the Pakistani border.

Posted by Zhang Fei">Zhang Fei 2008-06-16 21:05|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2008-06-16 21:05|| Front Page Top

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