Army Gen. David H. Petraeus urged Congress to approve supplemental funding for the Commander's Emergency Response Program by June to continue handling the situtation in Iraq.
He also just highlighted improved training of Iraqi security forces, saying that in the last 16 months more than 133,000 soldiers and police have been added and he expects another 50,000 soldiers and 23,000 police by the end of this year.
"While improved, Iraqi Security Forces are not yet ready to defend Iraq or maintain security throughout the country on their own," Petraeus said, pointing to recent outbreaks of violence in Basra that illustrated the strengths and weaknesses of the current force.
You can read Petraeus' full testimony before the Senate Armed Services this morning, very similar to this afternoon's testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, here.
— Carrie Sheffield, Web editor, The Washington Times
Comments (1)
When is Congress going to grow a few and just say NO to more "funding"?
Enough is enough.
Stop throwing money down the toilet that somehow ends up in the bank accounts of politicians and their friends.
Doesn't anyone else think it's unusual to hire American contractors at American value rather than Iraqi contractors at Iraqi value to 'rebuild'?
Or do they just want Americans to speak Chinese and Arabic?
Pull out NOW.
Posted by mwf | April 8, 2008 6:34 PM