Troop documents conflict with Bush claims

Fewer Iraqi security forces will be fully trained by the end of this year than cited by President George W. Bush and it will take until July 2006 to fully train the police force, according to Pentagon documents.

With interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi at his side, Bush said on Thursday that nearly 100,000 fully trained and equipped Iraqi soldiers, police officers and other security personnel are already working and this number would rise to 125,000 by the end of this year.

But documents prepared by Defense Department officials and given to lawmakers show that fewer than 100,000 will be trained by the end of this year.

The Pentagon also said on Monday that only about 53,000 of the 100,000 Iraqis on duty now have undergone training.

The documents, obtained by Reuters, show that of the nearly 90,000 currently in the police force, only 8,169 have had the full eight-week academy training. And it will be July 2006 before the administration’s new goal of 135,000 fully trained police is met.

The White House stood by the 100,000 figure cited by Bush, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

Amid mounting violence, the Bush administration announced last week that it would shift $3.5 billion from water, sewer and other infrastructure projects to improve security. Of that amount $788 million would be used to add 45,000 police officers.

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'Urgent priority'
“Our most urgent priority right now is security,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who appeared before a House of Representatives subcommittee on Friday to explain the shift.

The request has provoked angry reactions in Congress, which must sign off on the changes.

“We find ourselves in an increasingly insecure environment which has slowed the pace of reconstruction to a crawl,” said New York Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey.

“It has become crystal clear that the president and this administration have no coherent plan to win the peace.”

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Bush is also facing criticism from his own party.

“I think it is fair to say that the administration made some fundamental mistakes in the planning and execution of its postwar strategy,” said Arizona Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe.

Lost jobs
The shift away from the water and electricity projects will also mean lost jobs.

“We’ve got about 77,000 working on reconstruction projects today, that’s woefully inadequate,” said Armitage.

He admitted 18,000 jobs in water projects will not be created because the money is being moved, as well as 4,000 jobs in the electricity sector.

So far only $1.2 billion has been spent of the $18.4 billion that Bush asked Congress to rush through last year.

Armitage said he hoped to speed up the pace of spending to between $300 million and $400 million a month.

Lawmakers were also told that the anti-American insurgency has driven up security and operating costs for rebuilding projects to as high as 50 percent, congressional sources said.

“Security is a big deal and that’s what the majority of the overhead costs are,” Armitage said.