The Iraq Conundrum: Version 3.0

Stop presses!

The big news is that the Iraqi army is going to assume primary responsibility for security of Baghdad beginning early next year. Most U.S. troops would be withdrawn to the periphery and concentrate on fighting insurgents.

Seems like a super idea until you consider that the Iraqi army has difficulty tying its own boots, let along playing a major role in tamping down the ongoing civil war where it is bloodiest -- in the capital.

This is an army that even the most optimistic observers say is at barely at half strength three and a half years after the U.S. foolishly disbanded it, where recruits are assigned to units based on their religious and political affiliations, where some units provide camouflage for the ongoing sectarian civil war, where desertion is widespread, where . . .

Okay, you get the idea.

More here.