CentCom UpdateHere's a long report on
US Central Command's plans for 2006. Some news you won't hear in the MSM:
At the height of the December 2005 elections, there were approximately 154,000 U.S. forces and 21,000 Coalition forces in Iraq. Significant air, naval and special operations forces supported these troops from within Iraq and across the region. These numbers have decreased in recent months to approximately 130,000 U.S. and 19,000 Coalition troops. The most significant change in terms of troop levels in 2005 was the number of trained and equipped Iraqi Security Forces (ISF). In January 2005, there were 127,000 total Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior security forces, or 78 battalions. About a year later, there were approximately 231,000 combined security forces constituting more than 160 battalions. More important, these increasingly capable Iraqi forces are assuming greater responsibility for combating the insurgency.I'm pleased to be on CentCom's mailing list for information like this from the people who know what they're talking about. Unfortunately, there are
others on the list who probably shouldn't be.
