The NY Times is reporting that a senior US military adviser in Iraq has written a quite "blunt" report on the status of things there. In short, Col. Timothy Reese says,
"Iraqi forces suffer from deeply entrenched deficiencies but are now capable of protecting the Iraqi government, and that it is time "for the U.S. to declare victory and go home."
More over the jump...
Col. Reese gives more detail saying that while Iraqi forces have their problems, they can handle things on their own. More importantly, since the signing of the Status of Forces Agreement, the relationship between our forces and the Iraqis has changed:
Colonel Reese’s memo lists a number of problems that have emerged since the withdrawal. They include, he wrote, a "sudden coolness" to American advisers and the "forcible takeover" of a checkpoint in the Green Zone. Iraqi units, he added, are much less willing to conduct joint operations with their American counterparts "to go after targets the U.S. considers high value."
The Iraqi Ground Forces Command, Colonel Reese wrote, has imposed "unilateral restrictions" on American military operations that "violate the most basic aspects" of American-Iraqi agreement.
"The Iraqi legal system in the Rusafa side of Baghdad has demonstrated a recent willingness to release individuals originally detained by the U.S. for attacks on the U.S.," he added.
Right now, we have about 130,000 troops in Iraq, now outside of the major urban areas. The plan is for about 10 to 15 thousand (two or three brigades) to come home by the end of the year. After the January 2010 Iraqi elections, then another 90,000 troops would come home. The remaining 30,000 or so would remain until the end of 2011.
Col. Reese's report clearly says, enough already.
"As the old saying goes, ‘Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.’ " Colonel Reese wrote. "Since the signing of the 2009 Security Agreement, we are guests in Iraq, and after six years in Iraq, we now smell bad to the Iraqi nose."
Great. They don't want us. Our being there isn't doing them any more good. Let's come home. Let's speed up the withdrawal. Make it four or five brigades by the end of the year. Get the total down to 20,000 by September 2010, and to zero by January 2011.