2 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, December 2, 2005 NATION/WORLD Gen faults military for confusion NEWS IN BRIEF HADLNE FRO ARUN TH W' WASHINGTON (AP) - If the American public has a distorted pic- ture of the combat readiness of Iraqi troops, the U.S. military is largely to blame for it, the most senior Ameri- can military officer said yesterday. "We have done ourselves a disser- vice in the way that we have defined how we are tracking the progress of Iraqi forces," Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an audience of military and civilian students at the National Defense University. It was his first public speech focusing on Iraq since he became Joint Chiefs chairman on Oct. 1, and his remarks came one day after President Bush outlined his admin- istration's strategy for achieving vic- tory in Iraq. Also yesterday, Bush's chief of staff told GOP congressional leaders that the White House would communicate more with lawmakers about Iraq. The leaders welcomed Andrew Card's commitment and followed it by pro- viding "constructive criticism," said a Republican official who attended the GOP retreat in St. Michaels, Md. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the meeting was private. Pace was among several senior officials who spoke publicly yester- day about the strategy for winning in Iraq. Eric Edelman, the under secretary of defense for policy, was speaking to members of the Council on Foreign Relations, along with Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, the senior assis- tant to Pace. Edelman, whose predecessor, Douglas Feith, was considered one of the architects of the Iraq war, said senior U.S. military commanders told him on a recent visit to Iraq that they are very optimistic about stabilizing the country. "Overall, when one considers the challenges that the Iraqis face - not least that of overcoming the political and social effects of 3 1/2 decades of monstrous tyranny what is most impressive is not how much remains for them to do, but rather how far they have come in less than three years," Edelman said in remarks prepared for delivery. An important element of Bush's strategy is building Iraqi security forces that can defend the country on their own. Pace said the U.S. military's own means of measuring progress in training Iraqi forces have created confusion in some quarters. "In an attempt to be very precise with ourselves, to give ourselves met- rics that we could all understand, we have done ourselves and everyone who is listening to us a disservice," he added. Pace made the remark after men- tioning that people often ask him, "How can there be only one - count them - only one Iraqi battalion capable of independent operations?" He was referring to the public stir that arose when Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told Congress in September that the num- ber of Iraqi army battalions rated at "level one" proficiency - meaning capable of combat with no U.S. sup- port had dropped from three to one. Some interpreted that as evidence the Iraqis were regressing. Insurgents in Iraq attack U.S. bases BAGHDAD (AP) - Insurgents attacked several U.S. bases and government offices with mortars yes- terday before dispersing in the capital of western Iraq's Anbar province, residents and police said. Iraq's interior minister yesterday also fired his top official for human rights in connection with a torture investigation. Gunmen, meanwhile, attacked the six-vehicle con- voy of a Saad al-Obeidi, an adviser to Iraq's defense minister, seriously wounding him along with two of his bodyguards in the predominantly Sunni Arab Yarmouk neighborhood of Baghdad, police said. The attacks in Ramadi occurred as local tribal leaders and U.S. military officials were to hold their second meeting in a week at the governor's office in the city center. The insurgents apparently tried to shell the building, but reporters inside said there was no damage or injuries. Police Lt. Mohammed al-Obaidi said at least four mortar rounds fell near the U.S. base on the eastern edge of the city, but that there were no reports of casualties. An AP Television News video showed the insur- gents walking down a shuttered market street and a residential neighborhood, as well as firing four mor- tar rounds. The masked men, however, looked relaxed and did not engage in any battles, and no U.S. bases or government buildings were shown. Residents said that within minutes, scores of masked gunmen, believed to be members of Jorda- nian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq group, ran into the city's streets but dispersed after launching attacks with mortars in what U.S. officers said may have been little more than a pro- paganda stunt. The U.S. military reported that only one rocket- propelled grenade was fired at an observation post and there were no injuries of significant damage. Life in Ramadi quickly returned to normal after the VIENNA Two U.S. allies pull forces from Iraq Two of America's allies in Iraq are withdrawing forces this month and a half-dozen others are debating possible pullouts or reductions, increasing pressure on Washington as calls mount to bring home U.S. troops. Bulgaria and Ukraine will begin withdrawing their combined 1,250 troops by mid-December. If Australia, Britain, Italy, Japan, Poland and South Korea reduce or recall their personnel, more than half of the non- American forces in Iraq could be gone by next summer. Japan and South Korea help with reconstruction, but Britain and Aus- tralia provide substantial support forces and Italy and Poland train Iraqi troops and police. Their exodus would deal a blow to American efforts to prepare Iraqis to take over the most dangerous peacekeeping tasks and craft an eventual U.S. exit strategy. "The vibrations of unease from within the United States clearly have an impact on public opinion elsewhere," said Terence Taylor of the Interna- tional Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington. RALEIGH Landmark execution slated for today A man who killed his wife and father-in-law pinned his hopes on last- minute intervention by the governor as he awaited lethal injection early today in the nation's 1,000th execution since capital punishment resumed in 1977. Kenneth Lee Boyd, set to die at 2 a.m., spent the day receiving visitors. Among those expected to visit were two sons who watched Boyd gun down their mother and grandfather in 1988. "He would love to live and he would love to have the governor and the courts step in, but he's also facing the possibility that won't happen," said Boyd's lawyer, Thomas Maher. Larger-than-normal crowds of protesters were expected at the prison in Raleigh, and vigils were planned across the state. Prison officials planned to tighten security. The U.S. Supreme Court and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected appeals by Boyd's lawyers yesterday. WASHINGTON Prolific jewel thieves sweeping across nation Jewel thieves in hooded sweat shirts have knocked over nearly five dozen stores from New Hampshire to North Carolina in the past two-and- a-half years, eluding capture with an efficient operation that has netted $5.1 million in men's watches, chains, bracelets and rings, the FBI said yesterday. Targeting jewelers in malls and passing up high-end merchandise, the thieves cut through security gates and clean out display cases filled with men's gold jewelry and watches - especially Movado watches, FBI officials said at a news conference in Washington intended to enlist the public's help in dismantling a group informally labeled the gate-cutters crew. MONTGOMERY, Ala. City marks 50th anniversary of Parks's refusal About 2,000 children marched arm-in-arm yesterday, singing "We Shall Over- come" as this once-segregated city marked the 50th anniversary of Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man. "Because of the action of Rosa Parks we have witnessed - here in Montgomery, in the state of Alabama, all across the South - unbelievable changes," Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said after laying a wreath at the site where Parks was arrested on Dec. 1, 1955. The children, both black and white, marched eight blocks from the downtown site to the Capitol, singing anthems of the civil rights era and chanting "Thank you, Rosa Parks." -Compiled from Da iy wire repyts CORRECTIONS Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com. be £bichtigUuiadlg 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com 01 0 0 9 U.S. marines provide security at the back of their amphibious assault vehicle in Saadah, Iraq yesterday. Amid growing pressure to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, President Bush is refusing to set a timetable. shooting. The insurgents did leave behind posters and graf- fiti saying they were members of al-Qaida in Iraq and claiming responsibility for shooting down a U.S. drone. There were no reports of any U.S. drones being shot down, though. Ramadi is the provincial capital of Anbar prov- ince, a Sunni stronghold, where clashes between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi troops have left hun- dreds of people dead in the past two years. U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a joint operation near Ramadi on Wednesday, sweeping through an area used to rig car bombs. About 500 Iraqi troops joined 2,000 U.S. Marines, soldiers and sailors in a move to clear insurgents from an area on the eastern side of the Euphrates River near Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad, the U.S. command said. The offensive came as President Bush said he hopes to shift more of the military burden onto the Iraqis as part of a strategy to draw down American forces. In a statement, the military said the Hai Al Becker region "is suspected to be an al-Qaida in Iraq safe area and base of operations for the manufacture of vehicle car bombs, roadside bombs." It described the area as a transit point for foreign fighters and Iraqi insurgents infiltrating from Syria into Iraq. 01 JASON Z. 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