NOT ENOUGH IRAQIS TROOPS...

...And many of the current Iraqis security forces are corrupt and disloyal.

As McClatchy reported earlier, there simply aren't enough Iraqi troops to make the Surge a success. Now, a U.S. general has publicly confirmed that report:

U.S. says more Iraqi troops are needed
An Army commander says the shortage
is forcing the military to rely on community watch groups.

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, LATimes Staff Writer
July 16, 2007

BAGHDAD — Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, said the shortage of Iraqi troops was forcing him and other commanders to recruit residents to police their neighborhoods. "We need to add confident, capable Iraqi forces to maintain security," he said. "They are getting better every day. But they are just not enough. There has to be aggressive recruiting to get more Iraqi soldiers and police on the rolls, properly trained and properly equipped."

On Sunday, Lynch, who oversees troops south of Baghdad and in the southern provinces of Babil, Karbala and Najaf, said he needed to increase Iraqi security forces by a third, with seven more Iraqi army battalions and five more Iraqi police units, to secure the area. An Iraqi army battalion can include 500 to more than 700 soldiers.

The Iraqi security forces comprise about 349,000 soldiers and police officers, said Navy Rear Adm. Mark Fox, a military spokesman. At a news conference Sunday in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, Fox said that in addition to the personnel shortage, the Iraqi forces, particularly police, also faced endemic corruption among their ranks and a "shortfall of loyalty."