The headline says it all: Decline in Iraqi Troops’ Readiness Cited.

More:

The number of Iraqi army battalions that can fight insurgents without U.S. and coalition help has dropped from three to one, top U.S. generals told Congress yesterday, adding that the security situation in Iraq is too uncertain to predict large-scale American troop withdrawals anytime soon.

Gen. George W. Casey Jr., who oversees U.S. forces in Iraq, said there are fewer Iraqi battalions at “Level 1″ readiness than there were a few months ago. Although Casey said the number of troops and overall readiness of Iraqi security forces have steadily increased in recent months, and that there has not been a “step backwards,” both Republican and Democratic senators expressed deep concern that the United States is not making enough progress against a resilient insurgency.

Kevin Drum has more on this.

It sure would be nice if they could just be honest with us. Had they been open and honest about the difficulties ahead from the beginning, I suspect that their approval ratings might not be so low. Seriously, does anyone believe anything these guys say in an official capacity anymore?

Kevin Drum highlights a Times article talking about the latest plans for troop withdrawals. In the comments, craigie says:

Good thing none of this was suggested by a Democratic contender for President. That would have been treason.

The whole, no timetable so the terrorists don’t wait us out thing was a crock from the beginning. It was a crock in the 2004 elections and it’s a crock now. Clearly, we’re not going to stay there at our current force levels indefinitely. Second, this administration has done nothing about this war that hasn’t been timed to coincide with domestic politics. The war authorization and the push to get the U.N. to O.K. the war was pushed for the 2002 midterm elections. The presidential election saw several high profile captures and the other positive announcements about the Iraq war.

If the insurgents have the least bit of awareness about U.S. politics knows that the first batch of troop withdrawals will coincide with the 2006 mid-term elections. We’ve known this since the war began. The execution of this war from initial troop levels to the “sales’ pitch about the war to this discussion about troop levels has been motivated by one thing and one thing only: domestic U.S. politics.

But Bush listens to his generals on the ground, of course. And ignores them….

Looks like there may be a plan in motion to cut the number of U.S. and British forces in Iraq by mid-2006. Reuters reports on a leaked British memo that indicates that most of the provinces in Iraq will be turned over to Iraqi forces by then.

This seems to make sense based on what I’ve been reading. There are a few troublesome provinces, but most are returning to some level of normalcy. I still have some questions about the details, so I look forward to more reporting and bloggers analyzing the potential plan.