Security And Stability

The Pentagon just released its latest report on security and stability in Iraq. The report notes that due to the U.S. drawdown of forces in Iraq and the gradual handover of security responsibilities to Iraqi forces, information regarding the situation in that country may not be as reliable as in the past:

As a consequence of the movement of U.S. combat forces out of Iraqi cities on June 30, 2009, the United States has reduced visibility and ability to verify Iraqi reports. Without a robust U.S. presence, United States Forces-Iraq (USF-I) metrics include host nation reports that are not independently verifiable. The overall trends between U.S. force data and host nation data are very close, but some values may differ. Current charts show a combination of U.S. and host-nation reported data. The combination of these reports causes baseline numbers to increase, making it difficult to compare these charts with those from previous publications of this report. Each slide is annotated to indicate the types of reports included.

With that caveat, though, the report states:

Although stability is improving, it is not yet enduring. Looking ahead, the United States will continue to use a "whole of government" approach to help build Iraq’s governing organizations as legitimate, representative, and effective institutions serving all Iraqi citizens.