"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." That seemed to be what General Peter Pace was telling the American people today about the fact that the number of battle-ready Iraqi battalions able to fight on their own has dropped to a half-dozen from 10 in recent months despite heightened American training efforts, as reported by the AP. Even though increasing the battle-readiness of Iraqi army battalions has been a linchpin of Bush's latest strategy to reduce U.S. troops in Iraq (last time I checked my watch), Pace said the decline of these forces was nothing to be "overly concerned" about. And you'll never believe the reason he gives.
I don't want to appear like I'm making this crap up, so here's the verbatim AP report on Pace's reasoning:
Pace, however, also said the readiness of the Iraqi fighting units was not an issue to be "overly concerned" about because the problem is partly attributable to the fact that the Iraq units are out operating in the field.
Appearing at a news conference with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Pace said that "as units operate in the field, they have casualties, they consume vehicles and equipment."
In other words, Pace says we shouldn't worry our pretty little heads about the fact that the number of battle-ready Iraqi army units is declining, because they only reason this is happening is that they are out in the field actually working and doing what they supposed to do! And when they're out in the field they seem to keep dying off! If they didn't have to operate in the field, and if they didn't keep getting killed, everything would be fine. So don't get concerned, just go back to watching the shiny object.
I've head a lot of crap come out of Pace's mouth, but this really takes the cake for me. If this is the best explanation the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff can come up for the current military situation in Iraq, we are in worse shape in Iraq than even I had realized (and that's pretty bad).