Pentagon report: Economy could hamper training of Iraqis

[unhappycamper]

Pentagon report: Economy could hamper training of Iraqis
Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, Aprli 2, 2009

While security improvements in Iraq are continuing, the training and equipping of Iraqi forces could be hampered by the global economic crisis and drop in oil prices.

According to the Pentagon’s latest quarterly report on the Iraq war, the economic challenges could "curtail the rate at which Iraqi forces can become fully modernized, self sufficient, and (counter-insurgency) capable, particularly in the near term."

Plans to add around 40,000 Iraqi troops by 2010 might need to be delayed as a result.

The decline in oil prices means that the Iraqis now face a budget deficit of around $20 billion in 2009, the report said.

Iraqi forces continue to rely on American troops for logistics, fire support, close-air support, communications, planning and intelligence, "particularly in northern Iraq," the report reads.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=61753