Republican plans for Iraq share one element in common: The transfer of responsibility from American military units to Iraqi counterparts. Yet, Republican leadership of the military occupation of Iraq has not made enough Iraqi military and police units ready for such a transfer. On the contrary, recent Republican leadership of the misadventure in Iraq has actually reduced the number of Iraqi security forces ready to take over from the American military.

According to the statistics assembled by the Bush White House itself, and presented by General David Petraeus, there are fewer Iraqi military and police battalions ready to conduct combat operations without help from the US military now than there were at the beginning of 2007. In January, 2007, 15 such battalions existed. In September, 2007, only 12 such battalions remained.

In spite of what the Bush White House claims, this backwards slide does not represent military progress in Iraq. In 2008, America needs to elect a President who understands the nature of true progress, and is more interested in presenting an honest presentation of the status of the American occupation of Iraq than in creating a dishonest representation of conditions in Iraq in order to obtain more time for a policy that has clearly failed.

(Source: Boston Globe, September 16, 2007)