Iraqi forces can take over by June 2007?

via Reuters

AMMAN, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Thursday his government's forces would be able to take over security command from U.S. troops by June 2007 -- a move which could allow the United States to start withdrawing.
"I cannot answer on behalf of the U.S. administration but I can tell you that from our side our forces will be ready by June 2007," Maliki told ABC television after meeting U.S. President George W. Bush in Jordan.

First, let us qualify "take over security command". It would mean carrying out the daily manpower intensive tasks of patrolling and searching. The US would still provide Mitts, Logistics Support and Quick Reaction Forces.

Has al-Maliki taken one two many hits from the crack pipe, or does he know something the MSM doesn't...let's see.

RE: "The New Direction"

Greyhawk,
I think it is going to be worse than we thought. Cliff May was an advisor, and he has put out a War Warning about what is waiting.

I’ve been a member of the “expert” advisory group of the Baker/Hamilton panel. The frustration I and a few others faced: We thought our task was to develop options to move forward in Iraq. Most of our colleagues thought the task was to develop options to move out of Iraq.
...
They were unconvinced by the case that I and a few others were making: That if the U.S. mission in Iraq sinks, it won’t just be Captain Bush and his neo-con crew that will drown. America will have a lost a key battle in a serious global conflict.

The "New Direction"

"The bipartisan Iraq Study Group reached a consensus on Wednesday."

It's a big turn. In fact, the new direction in Iraq looks like it's going to be 360 degrees off from the one we've been going in - that's as big a turn as you can make.

As Army Lawyer noted below, the UN concurs.

Calling all Squids

There’s a new website poking fun at the Navy from the inside called GearAdrift. I guess you could say this is our version of the Air Forces Chairforce only most of the stuff isn’t written by a cranky Airman called Joe the Fat.

Check them out, I think the site has some good potential.

Plus check out their plans on refurbishing our carrier fleet!

Re: Defending Devlin

Michael Fumento:

Will the real Ramadi please stand up?

"The U.S. military is no longer able to defeat a bloody insurgency in western Iraq [Al Anbar Province] or counter al Qaeda's rising popularity there, according to newly disclosed details from a classified Marine Corps intelligence report," began a front-page article in yesterday's Washington Post by Dafna Linzer and Thomas E. Ricks. It concerned the so-called "Devlin Report," a five-page document allegedly filled with gloom and doom. It contrasts completely with my article Return to Ramadi, in the Nov. 27 Weekly Standard, in which I write that the largest city in the province is slowly being reclaimed from al Qaeda. By coincidence, the day my article hit the stands the Times of London published an extensive article coming to the same conclusion as mine. But for the timing, you'd practically think one of us had plagiarized the other.

Why such different conclusions between our articles and the Post's and whom to believe?

Remember Him?

You know that guy Jesse MacBeth? Allah does...just scroll to the bottom past the four hundred pound fake Marine...

More Imaginary Friends?

Just saw John Kerry on Larry KIng (transcript not yet available as of this posting) claim that our own generals are saying that our military presence in Iraq is making the situation worse. I've heard numerous generals state the exact opposite - that our presence is the only thing keeping it from becoming worse, but I'm not sure which generals Mr Kerry is quoting here, and he didn't provide names.

Anyone have some specific quotes? These would have to be actual quotes - not claims made by others about what generals said. Otherwise, looks like deja vu all over again.

Update: Here it is:

KING: You met with the Iraq Study Group, I believe, on Monday.

Any inclination as to what they're going to say?

KERRY: I think it's important for them to say what they're going to say and I don't want to violate that.

But I will tell you point blank, I said to them what I have been saying publicly consistently, which is that the American presence, according to our own generals and to our best experts, is making the situation worse.