Iraq army nears full strength

Rowan Scarborough:

The general in charge of training the much-needed Iraq army and police said yesterday that the final target of 325,000 personnel will be met before the end of this month, with "dramatic improvement" in performance envisioned by July.
"The sooner we can give Iraqis responsibility for the security of their own country, the better off we're gong to be," said Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey.
His assessment comes as President Bush weighs options for changing strategy and tactics for 135,000 U.S. troops in Iraq as a surge of violence threatens to drag parts of the country into chaos.
The strategy talk has expanded to include what the entire U.S. armed forces needs to continue fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, while keeping its commitments around the globe. The Army has increased its active force by almost 30,000 to more than 500,000. But the increase can be drawn back without congressional approval.
Adding to "end strength," as it is called in the yearly defense authorization bill, would be the first major departure from the policies of former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who resisted permanent increases.
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The linchpin of any new strategy will continue to rely heavily on the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) to mature and shoulder more counterinsurgency missions.
"I think the progress you'll see among the legitimate Iraqi security forces here in the next six months will be dramatic," Gen. Dempsey told reporters via a conference call from Baghdad.
While the Army makes progress, the national police force is riddled with corrupt officers. Gen. Dempsey said about one-quarter of them needed to be weeded out. Its nine brigades are undergoing re-evaluation and retraining that includes lie-detector tests.
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I think they are going to have to continue to weed disloyal troops out of the army too. I will be surprised if they achieve the results Dempsey is expecting in the short term. While they will be technically at full strength and trained, they still lack the mid level infrastructure of NCOs and field grade officers that are needed for proper leadership and unit cohesion. That will come over time if they are granted that gift of time. That is a gift the Democrats seem bent on denying them.