Now this is definitely one dumbass general, he must be using the same speech writer Rummy uses.
The top American military spokesman here on Thursday played down recent discord between the American and Iraqi governments, saying that while there had been “disconnects,” the leaders of both countries were working closely to achieve political stability in Iraq...
...“A transition is not always a pleasant thing to watch as it happens,” the spokesman, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, said...
...General Caldwell said Thursday that a “tremendous amount of political activity” was under way to secure the release of the soldier, who was reported taken on Oct. 23 after he left the fortified Green Zone, without permission, to visit relatives in central Baghdad.
But on Thursday, perhaps addressing those complaints, General Caldwell said, “We never stop looking for our service members.”
Prime Minister Maliki’s demand to end the search cordon put additional strain on an increasingly fractious relationship between him and President Bush.
The top American military commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., said last week that Iraqi security forces still needed 12 to 18 months before they would be ready to take full control of the country’s security. But Iraq’s president, Jalal Talabani, offered a more conservative prediction, saying during a speech in Paris on Thursday that Iraq’s security forces would be ready to assume full responsibility in two to three years.
General Caldwell said some measurements of violence in Iraq had indicated a decrease since the holy month of Ramadan ended early last week, including a 23 percent drop in casualties across the country from the week before.
“Those statistics are promising, but as I’ve said before, one week does not constitute a trend,” he cautioned.
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