Almost No Foreign Money and only 40,000 Iraqi Troops to Help Next Year

The new goal is 27 battalions organized in three divisions within 12 months, twice as fast as in initial plans. The projected total of 40,000 is less than one-10th of the former Iraqi armed forces.

El -- You do know don't you that all the experts said the former Iraqi Army of 400,000 was needed to keep order and the Rumsfeld ignored this? Also, we did not save any money by this - we are paying former Iraqi troops anyway to try to keep order, instead of paying them to keep order we nearly every soldier a pension so they don't have to loot to feed their families.

The United States is pushing hard to raise as much as $10 billion for Iraq at a donors' conference in Madrid next month.

But the European Union, which accounts for 20 percent of the world's wealth, has offered only $250 million, European and American officials say, adding that the United States may get no more than $1 billion at the conference.

EL - this is the alliance of the coalition donors which is as powerful the alliance as the coalition troops. We contribute $100 billion a year, they chip in one or two billion. Some international support..