Morning Brief, Wednesday, October 25

Iraq Gen. Casey's remarks yesterday that Iraqi troops could be expected to control security in the next 12 to 18 months gets the treatment today: It's a laudable goal, but likely unrealistic. On paper, Iraq has substantial security forces. The Pentagon noted in an August report to Congress that Iraq had more than 277,000 troops ...

Iraq

Iraq

Gen. Casey's remarks yesterday that Iraqi troops could be expected to control security in the next 12 to 18 months gets the treatment today: It's a laudable goal, but likely unrealistic.

On paper, Iraq has substantial security forces. The Pentagon noted in an August report to Congress that Iraq had more than 277,000 troops and police officers, including some 115,000 army combat soldiers.

But those figures, which have often been cited at Pentagon news conferences as an indicator of progress and a potential exit strategy for American troops, paint a distorted picture. When the deep-seated reluctance of many soldiers to serve outside their home regions, leaves of absence and AWOL rates are taken into account, only a portion of the Iraqi Army is readily available for duty in Baghdad and other hot spots.

Meanwhile, Maliki today distanced himself from a joint Iraqi-U.S. raid in Sadr City, insisting that "it will not be repeated." And in the least surprising report today, lots of money is spent on overhead for contractors in Iraq, leaving less for actual infrastructure projects.

North Korea

A food crisis looms this winter. Putin adopts a softer stance. And South Korea's top official in charge of relations with the North tenders his resignation.

Darfur

Expelled U.N. envoy to Sudan Jan Pronk defends his blog remarks about defeats Sudan's army has suffered in Darfur. Chad's foreign minister accuses Sudan of arming rebels in Chad in an effort to overthrow the government. Max Boot thinks it's time to send in the private security companies to secure peace in Darfur.

Elsewhere

Putin continues the war of words with Georgia, accusing the country's leaders of trying to resolve border disputes with force.

Ethiopia's prime minister says his country is "technically" at war with Islamist militias in Somalia. 

And it looks as though Chavez's performance at the U.N. only really helped Chomsky's book sales – and hurt Venezuela's chances for a seat on the Security Council. 

Carolyn O'Hara is a senior editor at Foreign Policy.

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