Iraqi PM seeks US weapons, not troop boost

Well whaddayaknow.

Iraq's need for US troops could fall in three to six months if the US supplied more weapons to the Iraqi security forces, PM Nouri Maliki has said.
Shortages of weapons and equipment had led to the insurgency being more prolonged and bloody, he told the UK's Times newspaper.

He urged the US to honour a deal to give Iraqi forces more equipment.

There has been concern that US military hardware could end up in the hands of militias and insurgents.

..."If we succeed in implementing the agreement between us to speed up the equipping and providing weapons to our military forces, I think that within three to six months our need for American troops will dramatically go down," Mr Maliki told The Times.

"That is on condition that there are real, strong efforts to support our military forces and equipping and arming them."

(Here's a link that will take you to the audio of Maliki's interview with the Times.)

It has always been the policy of the American-led occupation to keep Iraq dependent on its' invading "benefactors" for logistical support at even the lowest level as well as witholding the kind of heavy military equipment (armor, artillery, airstrikes) which has all too often made the difference between local victory or defeat in combat for Coalition troops.

What has resulted is a satrapy of Iraq. Iraqis can see that their government doesn't have a monopoly on effective force - the occupiers do. Iraqis can see that, no matter what words are spoken, their nation has no true sovereignty and no ability to refuse the wishes of its occupiers.

If the Iraqi people are to find their way to peace, they must be freed to find their own way to it. No matter how messy that path. Give them the gear and get the hell out. To do otherwise is to show the world that, despite all the rhetoric, American national interest is fundamentally more important than Iraqi freedom. That plays right into the hands of Al Qaeda and their ilk.

Postscript I'm still laughing at this one:

In the Times interview, Mr Maliki criticised US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who recently suggested his government was living on "borrowed time". Such comments could only give "moral boosts" to the insurgents, he said.

Condi the defeatist and supporter of terrorists.