This "fact sheet" is from November, 2005, over a year ago.

It seems strange. Before the invasion the Iraq Army was touted as big and mean. The Republican Guards were supposed to be an elite force, well trained, well equipped.

The Iraqis also had a police force, in situ, doing it's job. Crime doesn't seem to be a big issue with them, and the majority of the citizens who weren't involved with trying to overthrow the government had Constitutional protections.

What is taking so long to "train" these people? Are they particularly slow learners, stupid individuals? Is it that Saddam's DIs spoke Arabic, or were meaner?

Is it that training them to fight people who resist a foreign occupation force is a problem? That would be understandable. After all, no one likes foreigners shooting up their neighborhoods, families, friends. How does one go about training an army to harbor foreign invaders? After all, most armies are nationalistic in nature, preferring to resist foreigners roaming around the countryside immune to law and order.

It's a puzzlement.

By the way, al-Maliki is a goner. Bush just denied it.

Arf