Units lack equipment. They cannot carry out their missions without adequate equipment.
Congress has been generous in funding requests for U.S. troops, but it has resisted fully
funding Iraqi forces. The entire appropriation for Iraqi defense forces for FY 2006 ($3 billion)......................
The United States can take several steps to ensure that it has personnel with the right skills
serving in Iraq.
All of our efforts in Iraq, military and civilian, are handicapped by Americans’ lack of
language and cultural understanding. Our embassy of 1,000 has 33 Arabic speakers, just six of
whom are at the level of fluency. In a conflict that demands effective and efficient communication
with Iraqis, we are often at a disadvantage. There are still far too few Arab language– proficient
military and civilian officers in Iraq, to the detriment of the U.S. mission.
Civilian agencies also have little experience with complex overseas interventions to restore
and maintain order—stability operations—outside of the normal embassy setting. The nature of
the mission in Iraq is unfamiliar and dangerous, and the United States has had great difficulty
filling civilian assignments in Iraq with sufficient numbers of properly trained personnel at the
appropriate rank.
(source - Iraq Study Group Report posted here: http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/ )
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