When Rumsfeld addresses Iraq he talks about their military ‘standing up’. The opposite appears to be more true according to CNN:

The only Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support has been downgraded to a level requiring them to fight with American troops backing them up, the Pentagon said Friday.

The battalion, made up of 700 to 800 Iraqi Army soldiers, has repeatedly been offered by the U.S. as an example of the growing independence of the Iraqi military.

The competence of the Iraqi military has been cited as a key factor in when U.S. troops will be able to return home.

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So here we are just weeks away from entering out 3rd year in this war and what progress we were told was being made has now been taken away. The current leadership if guiding an utter failure and they are in a bad case of deniability because of this. The only way to get us back on the right track is for the administration to realize their mistakes and come up with a new plan. You can’t help but feel sorry for our troops. They are trying everything to get the mission done right but when the plan their leaders have given them is on a direct course for failure it makes their jobs that much harder.