We'll Stand Down When?

Not that you can necessarily believe anything they say, but BushCo. has been saying that we can stand down in Iraq when the Iraqis stand up for themselves. So let's just say that this once we take them at face value. You know; "fool me once... can't get fooled again."

So, when might we be able to stand down? According to General George Casey, who gets his talking points from the very top, that would be in 12 - 18 months. What about if you ask the people who are actually training Iraqi security forces?

The infiltration of Iraqi police by militias may delay the United States handover "for decades," American soldiers training the Iraqi police tell the Washington Post.

[snip]

Capt. Alexander Shaw, head of the police transition team overseeing the training of all Iraqi police in western Baghdad says, "To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure we're ever going to have police here that are free of the militia influence."

According to American soldiers interviewed by the paper, despite extensive evidence of police ties to the militias which they have turned over to Iraqi officials, "no one has ever been criminally charged or even lost their jobs."

As always, the truth on the ground is always something different than the story we get from BushCo.