Iraq War: Does this sound like "standing up" Iraqi forces?

"I think we are winning.  Okay?  I think we're definitely winning.  I think we've been winning for some time." - Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on the Iraq War 04/26/05

"I just wonder if they will ever tell us the truth." - Harold Casey, Louisville, KY, October 2004.

If this report is true, it makes sense to me that the US would want to clean up the Iraqi security services: U.S. to Rein In Iraqi Police: Military oversight will be bolstered in response to reports of prisoner abuse, reasserting American authority over security forces by Louise Roug Los Angeles Times 12/29/05. Roug writes:

U.S. officials announced plans Thursday to rein in Iraqi special police forces, increasing the number of American troops assigned to work with them and requiring permission for Iraqi raids in Baghdad after a series of prison abuse scandals that have inflamed sectarian tensions.

The decision to impose more day-to-day oversight suggests a recognition within the U.S. military that the heavy-handed tactics of some Iraqi units, which are to increasingly take on the role of fighting insurgents, have aggravated the sectarian strife that helps fuel the insurgency.

More than 2 1/2 years after the U.S.-led invasion and 1 1/2 years after the formal end of the occupation, it also illustrates that Americans still carry the final word on security matters.

It's hard to argue with that last paragraph. If a foreign power is telling the Iraqi government that they can make raids on alleged rebels without American permission, I'd say that's a pretty high level of outside control.  Will the US be able to enforce that direction?  Time and results will tell. 

And maybe not just Baghdad:

Seven of nine Iraqi special police brigades in Baghdad now have 40 to 45 Americans attached to each. Under the new plan, hundreds of additional U.S. troops will team up with each of the nine brigades.

The plan will be implemented in the capital first but may serve as a model for the rest of the country, said a senior U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity. (my emphasis)

This part doesn't sound like the "good news" that the FOXists keep telling us is out there all over Iraq:

Unlike the Iraqi army, special police forces grew unsupervised after the overthrow of Hussein's government in April 2003 and now number about 15,000 officers. Some can be seen firing their weapons in the air as they roar through Baghdad in pickup trucks mounted with machine guns.

Withdrawing American troops, the White House keeps telling us that as "they stand up, we'll stand down".  However necessary it may be, it sure sounds like we're having to force some of the Iraqi security forces to "stand down".

"Wars are easy to get into, but hard as hell to get out of." - George McGovern and Jim McGovern 06/06/05