The Iraqi army consists of 119 battalions. But the generals' testimony meant that after two and a half years of US efforts, only 750 men out of 200,000 can be relied upon to operate and obey orders independently in combat situations.
The media:
Anybody still left wondering why all of this wasn't tracked and reported more closely by the media should refer to the following:
The media organizations in charge of vetting our images of war have become fewer and bigger - and the news more uniform and gung ho. Six huge corporations now control the major U.S. media: Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (FOX, HarperCollins, New York Post, Weekly Standard, TV Guide, DirecTV and 35 TV stations)... In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, there was even less diversity of opinion on the airwaves. During the critical two weeks before and after Colin Powell's speech to the United Nations where he made his case for war, FAIR found that just three out of 393 sources - fewer than 1 percent - were affiliated with anti-war activism.
To read more on this, reference "Why media ownership matters". Click here in case of a problem with the previous link.
Perhaps all of the above helps explain why we've gone from a "catastrophic success" to debating a "recipe for disaster".
Additional Resources:
Senator Carl Levin - Newly Declassified Information Indicates Bush Administration's Use of Pre-War Intelligence Was Misleading (November 6, 2005): (short pdf files)
Senator Carl Levin - chart comparison -Bush Administration Statements with Intelligence Community Statements on Pre-War Iraq Intelligence (November 18, 2005)
The easiest to read and most illuminating chart (if only for the starkness of the difference in statements and truth) is contained at the Carnegie Endowment (which contains numerous documents relating to this issue. The chart specified by the following link is notable because it shows the evaluation placed on the threat by the U.N., the NIE, and the subsequent Senate Intelligence Committee report on Iraq- mostly "No", "Maybe" and "Probably Not," while the Administration's given statement on each pre-war concern was a definitive "Yes". Carnegie Endowment (short pdf file)
For an excellent rundown on all the factors that went into "creating" the war and the subsequent assertions that the Senate and House had the "same access" to intelligence see: The Facts: The Case for War by Emily Messner of the Washington Post (November 21, 2005) (registration may be required).
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