Analysis: The state of Iraq's security forces

The Iraq Study Group

Can Iraq's new army and police forces take over responsibility for security across the country within 15 months, thereby allowing the majority of American combat troops to withdraw?

That is the ambitious - some say unrealistic - proposal at the heart of the Iraq Study Group report given to President Bush last week.

Opinion on the report has become more divided as its 79 recommendations have been fully digested.

But almost everybody still agrees that any hope of restoring stability depends on the Iraqi government being given the lead on security and better forces of its own.

The reality though is that this is nothing new.

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