- The first thing I’ll do is update you on the number of Iraqi security forces in the city of Baghdad. As you see there, the goal for the city of Baghdad is 19,000 police. That’s to achieve a ratio of one-to-300, which is generally the accepted standard for a modern city. We just crested 10,000. We’ve got about 2,000 in class right now that will come out over the period of the next four weeks or so. And as you see we’re not having any trouble -- I know that some of you have asked about how well or not so well we’re able to recruit, and the answer is that for about every slot we have, we get five or six recruits -- five or six candidates.
- he Iraqi Civil Defense Corps is completely recruited, and we’re in the training phase of that. They’re trained up through the platoon level. Within about the next month they’ll be trained fully at the company level.
- We mentor an Iraqi army battalion up in Taji. By July there will be two additional battalions up there, for a total of three.
- I guess the question there is if we stop attacking terrorism, would terrorism go away? And I would answer that question absolutely no. The terrorists have a view of the world that is far different from ours and far different from the men that are on my left and right. And so, as we’ve said in previous briefings, if the future of -- if you want the future of your region to be one where you remain in approximately the 7th century; where computers are banned, satellite television is banned, the role of women is completely denied; then I suppose when sovereignty is restored to Iraq you may cast your vote in that direction. But I happen to believe in my heart that the majority of the Iraqi people will vote quite the contrary to that.
- I do have a roll-up of Iron Promise. You know, I am always reluctant to put scorecards up, but let me give you some of the things that we have just in the past 48 hours gained through Iron Promise. Fifty battalion-level operations. We killed one and captured 88. The most significant capture was one individual who we absolutely know has a linkage between one of the international terrorist organizations and one of the extreme religious organizations that we know operates inside of Baghdad. And so that linkage is -- that’s the one that this mission is targeted against. We’ve found 109 rifles, 44 RPG launchers, 71 artillery rounds, 54 sticks of dynamite, 10 machine guns, and so on and so forth. I mean, the amount of ammunition and weapons captured is fairly consistent from mission to mission. The big change in this mission is the specificity with which we’re targeting, and we’re very satisfied with the results of the first 48 hours.
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