This is getting really, really frightening.
We can't leave Iraq until the new Iraqi security forces are ready to take over the job. This will include fighting other Iraqis, which they are very reluctant to do. They would rather fight us than their fellow countrymen.
However, do not let this cause you to believe we are "stuck" in Iraq. Quite the contrary. We just won't be out for a few years. How many, we don't know.
U.S. Stuck In Iraq
Miami Herald
June 23, 2004
Eight days before U.S. caretakers are scheduled to turn over control of Iraq to an interim government, Pentagon officials told Congress that American soldiers are likely to remain there for years.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, one of the Bush administration's strongest advocates for the invasion, [yes, keep pointing that out, media!] told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that it would be inadvisable to set a deadline for the departure of American troops, who make up the vast majority of a U.N.-sanctioned multinational force.
"From your description, Mr. Secretary, I don't see an end in sight," said Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo. "We're stuck."
"We're not stuck, Mr. Skelton," Wolfowitz said.
"Tell us what your measurement is for success," Skelton countered. "People ask me this. I have no answer."
"When it becomes an Iraqi fight, and the Iraqis are prepared to take on the fight, they're prepared to join their security forces. We are prepared to arm and equip them to do it," Wolfowitz responded. "I can't tell you how long that's going to take."
It's time to face the truth. No international forces are going to pour into Iraq and save the day for us. We can't leave until we can turn over the country to a native security force. Which means that only the Iraqis can get us out of Iraq now. We are at their mercy.
And it is even worse than that, because the security forces we are training are working with the resistance.
New Iraqi police fight US troops who trained them
By Damien McElroy in Baghdad
(Filed: 27/06/2004)
With american fighter jets and helicopters buzzing the skies overhead, an officer in Iraq's new police force approaches a group of fighters on Fallujah's front lines with an urgent call to arms.
"I need a man who can use an RPG," says Omar, who wears the uniform of a first lieutenant. Four hands shoot up and a cry rings out: "We are ready." He chooses a young man, Bilal, and they drive to an underpass on the outskirts of the city.
There, on Highway One, an American Humvee is driving east. Bilal aims and fires his rocket propelled grenade, turning the vehicle into a smoking, twisted, metal carcass. The fate of its occupants is unknown.
First Lt Omar is sworn to uphold the law and fight the insurgency that threatens Iraq's evolution into a free and democratic state. Instead, he is exploiting his knowledge of US tactics to help the rebel cause in Fallujah.
"Resistance is stronger when you are working with the occupation forces," he points out. "That way you can learn their weaknesses and attack at that point."
[much more in the article, read it all]
This could end with the defeat of the United States for the first time since Vietnam and the second time in history.