Presidential Auction 2004 - Iraq exit strategy

[F]or all their squabbling on the campaign stump, both presidential candidates actually share a common commitment to Iraq -- and have many of the same long-term goals. They have both pledged to keep U.S.troops in Iraq for years, acknowledging that a modicum of stability is a prerequisite for leaving. They have both identified rebuilding the Iraqi army as the key to an eventual exit strategy.

article

"It is getting worse," agreed an Army staff officer who served in Iraq and stays in touch with comrades in Baghdad through e-mail. "It just seems there is a lot of pessimism flowing out of theater now. There are things going on that are unbelievable to me. They have infiltrators conducting attacks in the Green Zone. That was not the case a year ago."

... Reports from Iraq have made one Army staff officer question whether adequate progress is being made there.

"They keep telling us that Iraqi security forces are the exit strategy, but what I hear from the ground is that they aren't working," he said. "There's a feeling that Iraqi security forces are in cahoots with the insurgents and the general public to get the occupiers out."

He added: "I hope I'm wrong."

article

[12/10/03] Plans to deploy the first battalion of Iraq's new army are in doubt because a third of the soldiers trained by the U.S.-led occupation authority have quit, defense officials said Wednesday.

article

[12/13/03] Faced with the desertion of nearly half the new Iraqi army, the U.S. military is thinking about raising the pay scale for Iraqi soldiers as it trains more to join the force, the commander of U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq said Saturday.

article

[5/7/04] U.S. Marines last week disbanded the controversial Al-Fallujah Brigade after it became clear that brigade members were actively assisting militants in the city, international media has reported. The brigade was formed in April in an effort to bring an end to weeks of intense fighting between U.S. forces and militants opposed to the occupation.

article

[9/26/04] The man chosen to lead the Iraqi National Guard in a province in the so-called Sunni triangle has been arrested by U.S. forces on the suspicion that he has ties to insurgent fighters, a U.S. Army spokesman said.

article