And with that, let me pass it over to Jim for his opening re-
marks.
STATEMENT OF LT. GEN. JAMES DUBIK, U.S. ARMY, COM-
MANDER, MULTI-NATIONAL SECURITY TRANSITION COM-
MAND—IRAQ
General Dubik. Thank you, Chairman Skelton, Representative
Saxton, distinguished members of the committee. Thanks to each
of you for the opportunity to appear before you today.
I am delighted to have with me my lovely and, I would add, tal-
ented wife, Sharon Basso, who has been and is a steadfast sup-
porter of all of our deployed troops and their families and spouses.
Like you, she appreciates the impact of our current pace of oper-
ations, that is, that impact on our families and our people. And like
you, she has worked hard over the years to mitigate that impact.
I would like to thank her here publicly for her support and her
efforts.
I would also like to thank you for your continued support of the
men and women in uniform, for the repeated visits that many of
you have made into theater, and for the hard work that you have
done on our behalf.
I am sure I don't need to tell you how much it means to our sol-
diers and our civilians to see their representatives with them in
theater. All of us who are helping the Iraqis develop their ability
to defend themselves and their citizens and their newfound free-
dom appreciate your work.
The work in developing security forces is hard, it is slow, and,
if I may say so, it is among the most significant and rewarding that
I have been able to do in my career. Personally, I am proud of it.
And I know our troops and our civilians are proud of it.
But I want to assure you, most importantly, the Iraqis are proud
of what they are accomplishing. They are proud of themselves.
They are in the fight. They are committed to their own success.
And we are meeting some success, as you noted, Mr. Chairman.
To summarize the main point of my testimony, the success is
mixed.
The security forces are, in fact, bigger and better than they have
been at any time since we have begun this effort, but the progress,
of course, is mixed with some continuing challenges. It is my intent
today to describe to you both the successes and the challenges.
In the last year, the Iraqi Army has grown by almost 550,000
soldiers. There are 15 more combat battalions in the lead at the
end of the year than there were at the beginning of the year.
The national police has grown by 7,500 police, with nine more
battalions rated at the operational readiness assessment (ORA)
Level Two than there were at the beginning of the year. And the
Iraqi police themselves have grown by about 45,000.
So much of this growth has taken place throughout the year; a
good amount has taken just in the last six months.
I attribute this growth and this improvement to three major
areas. First, the opportunities that have arisen from the increased
offensive operations conducted by conventional forces coalition, spe-
cial operations forces coalition, as well as Iraqi Security Forces,
conventional and special.