One more Friedman ... or so

According to Major General William Caldwell, Iraq will command its own armed forces by mid-2007.

"We would expect to see the entire country having reached Iraqi provincial control by the fall of next year," Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad.

"We should see the complete transfer of command and control of all Iraqi army divisions by late spring [or] early summer," he added.

"This is all part of the accelerated timetable that was discussed by the prime minister and the president of the United States when they were in Jordan," referring to a meeting in Amman last Thursday.

Sounds good, and they may be right. But what about bringing our troops home?

Caldwell said, however, that increasing numbers of America's 150,000-strong force would be assigned to "transition teams" directly inside Iraqi units to speed their training and coordinate operations with US support units.

Yeah, that's what I thought. They aren't coming home in a Friedman or two ...