The
United States has maintained a $20 billion program to train Iraq's military
and security forces in an effort to make them independent.
"The numbers of personnel reported as trained are not easily correlated
with those assigned, the latter including persons not yet trained," the
report said. "Further, both assigned and trained numbers include persons no
longer on duty, and the number of trained personnel, in and of itself, is
widely recognized as an inadequate indicator of force capability."
The report was requested by Congress, some of whose members questioned
the Defense Department's claims of a sudden jump in Iraqi security forces.
The Pentagon's quarterly report in December 2007 was the first time that
statistics provided by the Iraqi government were used.
"The Department of Defense makes some efforts to determine and comment
on the reliability of the data presented," Bowen said. "However, as the
Iraqi government assumes greater control over the forces trained and
assigned, U.S. officials envision that they will have less visibility over
data reliability."
Officials said the Iraqi Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry have
failed to account for their forces. They said the Pentagon often takes the
figures provided by the Baghdad government at face value. In several cases,
the Pentagon counted the number of trained forces twice.
"The shortage of officers and non-commissioned officers in the Iraqi
security forces remains a significant long-term shortfall that could take a
decade to address," the report said. "There is a recognized need for
additional Iraqi security forces by 2010 to field a counterinsurgency force
capable of protecting the country against internal threats and insurgency."
The report was requested by Sen. Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North
Dakota. Dorgan pointed to an Iraqi estimate for 390,000 security personnel
in December 2007, a figure that leaped to more than 570,000 in March 2008.
"That really is the trigger of when ultimately we can begin bringing
troops home, when they have the stability and ability to provide for their
own security," Dorgan said.
