US audit: "Security gains in Iraq could crumble if U.S. forces leave on schedule..."

  

"Hard won security gains..." 

"... The Obama administration could be overstating what U.S. diplomats can do to contain Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian tensions without U.S. military forces, a State Department audit concluded Tuesday, raising fresh concerns about the planned pullout of American troops next year. The auditors also questioned whether American diplomats who remain behind will be adequately protected against insurgent violence, and their report faulted Washington for its planning of the transition from a U.S. military-led mission in Iraq to one run by American civilians in 2011. The audit’s findings echo worries expressed by some U.S. defense analysts and former diplomats. They say hard-won security gains in Iraq could crumble if U.S. forces leave on schedule.... Ryan Crocker, ambassador to Iraq from 2007-09, said last week that the U.S. military’s departure from Iraq will likely create a security vacuum and set Iraq on a dangerous course. He doubted whether the State Department has the means to keep Iraq stable. “I worry that what we’re seeing is a transition from a military lead to no lead,” he said. “Simply put, the capacity does not exist on the civilian side to take on the vast array of roles and missions that the military has so ably performed in Iraq.”"