Editorial: More of the same

Thursday, July 26, 2007 | 7:10 a.m.

A top military official has said that Iraqi security forces likely will not be ready until 2009 and that an as-yet-undetermined number of U.S. troops would need to stay in Iraq until local forces were ready to take control.

According to a story by the Associated Press on Tuesday, Gen. David Petraeus has crafted a plan that calls for establishing local security in some regions by summer 2008. But continued support from U.S. troops likely would be needed until 2009.

This plan, coupled with another military official's assertion last week that the United States no longer is focusing on training Iraqi security forces but instead is concentrating the U.S. effort on protecting Iraqi citizens, strongly suggests that troop withdrawals are not likely to happen any time soon - if President Bush continues to get his way.

All these declarations come in the wake of a White House report released this month that says the Iraqi government has failed to increase its security forces.

Nonetheless, Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard, recent head of the Iraq Assistance Group, told USA Today in a story on Monday that training Iraqi forces "is not a main priority." Because of that, and since protecting Iraqi citizens is now more of a priority for U.S. troops, Pittard said staying through next spring and possibly longer is necessary.

Keeping U.S. troops in Iraq indefinitely as a security measure is completely at odds with what the American people and Congress want. This continued failure to halt the insurgency and create an independent Iraqi security force illustrates - again - just how misguided Bush was when he said the United States could get into and out of Iraq quickly. And now, after failing to adequately empower Iraqi forces, Bush's solution is to split the focus and draw out the Iraqi training efforts even longer. As usual, Bush's so-called strategy defies logic.

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