Maliki Says Iraqis Can Take Over Security By June 2007

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki said that Iraqis could take over Iraqi security by June 2007.

"I can say that Iraqi forces will be ready, fully ready, to receive this command and to command its own forces, and I can tell you that by next June our forces will be ready," Maliki said in an interview with ABC News after his meeting with Bush. Asked whether he would disarm militias such as the Mahdi Army of Moqtada al-Sadr, an anti-American Shiite Muslim cleric, Maliki, himself a Shiite, said, "Definitely. And the government is doing that with all militias, with no exception. There will be only the arms for government troops."

Will anyone remember this promise in June 2007?