Buried within an AP story on Al-Zarqawi having a hissy fit on Islamic religious leaders not wanting to be involved in the "insurgent" actions led by a non-Iraqi wackjob, nor send young people off to die for Al-Zarqawi, and so on, is a little bit that should be shouted from the roof tops:
Meanwhile, some 6,000 Iraqi Army troops —
the first batch of quick-reaction forces — graduated Wednesday from a
southern military base, a military spokesman said.The new graduates are the first group
trained as quick-reaction forces, in charge of launching defensive and
offensive operations in emergencies, said the spokesman. A delegation
of the Iraqi defense ministry and U.S. military officers attended the
graduation ceremony at Al-Nuimiyah base is about 100 miles south of
Baghdad.
Is this not the kind of thing that the MSM’s have been screaming for, to have Iraqi’s start taking over their own security, as part of an "exit strategy?" Yet the story is unfindable at CNN, MSNBC, and cBS, and buried in the same AP story at FoxNews, the NY Times, and others who carried the story. A search of Yahoo News finds no separate story about the troops. Shame on them.
Internal security is what the Iraqi’s need. They need to take ownership, and have the people see that ownership. It gives them a stake in their own future, as well as showing the Iraqi people that things are happening to allow the Coalition (of the bribed and coerced) to leave, and the the Iraqi’s to have their country back. Then the Coalition (of the bribed and coerced) can move on to other pastures, like helping to secure a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problems, and invading France and evicting folks from the United Nations building. And, yes, I am wearing pajamas, such as they are.
Perhaps they are reserving judgement, this time, until we find out if these trainees “melt away” or even start shooting at US.
I remember all of they breathless “new security force” stories in the past that turned out not to have such a happy ending. Perhaps they do, too.