Number of Iraqi battalions considered ready to conduct combat operations without help from US has declined this year
September 16, 2007 6:29 am IraqUS, Iraqi officials skeptical of Petraeus’s plan - The Boston Globe, 9/16/2007
The number of Iraqi Army and police battalions considered ready to conduct combat operations without help from the United States has declined from 15 at the beginning of the year to 12 this month, according to data that Petraeus provided to Congress last week….
At the same time, Pentagon assessments show that the number of Iraqi battalions considered “not ready” increased from 13 in November 2006 to 43 this past summer.
…many American military officials now acknowledge that when Iraqi forces took the lead in 2006 in a series of operations known as Together Forward I and II, the strategy failed, in part because of abuses committed by largely Shia Muslim Iraqi troops against minority Sunnis….