Pentagon Becomes Official GOP Mouthpiece

The DoD has a new website up which it claims is designed to rebutting claims made by the mainstream media. It reads like a Republican talking points memo. As David Axe of DefenseTech - a journalist who has actually toured Iraq and not just as an imbed - says: "check it out, it's a gas."

Here's a sample of what he means:

CLAIM: “For two years, American sergeants, captains and majors training the Iraqis have told their bosses that Iraqi troops have no sense of national identity, are only in it for the money, don’t show up for duty and cannot sustain themselves.”

FACTS: Some 300,000 Iraqi Security Forces are risking their lives for their new country. Polls of Iraqis show consistent support among the populations for members of the Iraqi Security Forces. Iraqi forces are increasingly taking the lead in operations against the enemy.

Never mind that of the half of that number who are in the police forces, about 70% are reported as being militia members, eh?

Here's what David has to say in reply:

Actually, both claims are (sorta) right. Iraqi forces have no sense of national identity. And they are increasingly capable -- but only as local security forces. On several occasions I have visited Iraqi Army units that have flatly refused to deploy, or have been besieged in their deployed bases by hostile local residents. And even as Iraqi forces improve in a tactical sense, they remain dependent on coalition forces for logistics and most of their air support. That won't change any time soon.

And don't get me started on the Iraqi police -- technically a security outfit and a mob that the Pentagon always includes in its censuses of Iraqi forces. These guys are actively evil, grossly incompetent and, in most towns, very nearly insurgents themselves. As for the Pentagon's claim that security forces have "consistent support among the populations," I call B.S. The average Iraqi is actually scared of his local police.

Which is about as accurate as you could hope to get.

Isn't there some kind of law against the military becoming a campaign organ for the G.O.P.?