Stand Up! Sit Down! Fight! Fight! Fight!

For nearly five years President Bush has promised that when the Iraqis stand up, we’ll stand down. Our withdrawal has been predicated on training and equipping enough Iraqis so that they will be able to stabilize the country. Here, I try to resist (and fail) the sick pun that we have stable-ized Iraq by bombing its cities into rubble fit only to stable animals.

The good news was that six months ago we certified 10 battalions of Iraqi soldiers as ready to fight and carry out operations independent of us. Now, however, there is bad news. We are saying that only six remain able to operate. We have lost 40% of our Iraqi fighting friends and allies. How can we stand down as they are (and I love this military word) attrited faster than we can train them?

This week we got into a running battle with some bad Iraqis. They were tactically smart, apparently well trained and equipped. We had to call in an air strike to take them out. The good news is that we succeeded. The bad news is that these Iraqis were guys whom we had trained and equipped. They finally stood up but they were standing not with us but against us.