Iraqi Security Forces

Police Gen. Ahmed Ibrahim gathered hundreds of his men during a ceremony at the Police Academy here last week to tell them a few truths about the enemy they face. The regime of Saddam Hussein let Iraqis suffer, he reminded them, while its leaders lived in unimaginable luxury. At that, a Rolls-Royce was driven onto the pavement where Ibrahim was speaking. "Look at that car," he said. "It used to belong to Uday!"

A U.S. military convoy sliced through the flat Iraqi desert before first light, carrying the last troops safely into Kuwait and ending America's costly and divisive war in a troubled land. When relieved soldiers got out on the other side Sunday, shouts of "Going home!" and "It's over!" mingled with bear hugs and high-fives. One soldier hollered, "I'm going to Disneyland!" Another, "A sweet, sweet Christmas. " The final vehicle passed a fortified Kuwaiti border police post eight years, eight months and 28 days after U.S. forces poured across the same frontier, 150,000 strong, sweating inside bulky chemical and biological protective suits, but convinced of a swift and certain victory.

Two U.S. generals gave poor marks Sunday to Iraqi security forces for a lack of readiness, assessments that bode ill for Iraq's ability to fend for itself as pressure builds in Washington to draw down American troops. Though both military leaders said Iraqi soldiers had made progress in recent months, one said the Shiite-led Iraqi army lacked top-notch senior officers. Both described the national police force as riddled with corruption and sectarianism.

Iran has just defeated the United States in Iraq. The American withdrawal, which comes after the administration's failure to secure a new agreement that would have allowed troops to remain in Iraq, won't be good for ordinary Iraqis or for the region. But it will unquestionably benefit Iran. President Obama's February 2009 speech at Camp Lejeune accurately defined the U.S. goal for Iraq as "an Iraq that is sovereign, stable and self-reliant. " He then outlined how the U.S. would achieve that goal by working "to promote an Iraqi government that is just, representative and accountable, and that provides neither support nor safe haven to terrorists.

The U.S.-led coalition will accelerate the training of Iraqi security forces to help combat an increasing number of attacks targeting police and civilians, Coalition Provisional Authority head L. Paul Bremer III said Saturday. The coalition plans to cut in half the training time for 27 battalions of a new Iraqi army, Bremer said.

The question was direct. So too was the answer. "Where's your biggest threat area?" asked Marine Maj. Phillip Zeman. "Anywhere, everywhere, sir," answered Cpl. Phil Shy as their Humvee sped through what was left of Fallouja's commercial district Friday. Two months after Marines wrested control of the Sunni Triangle city from insurgents in a weeklong battle, some of the war-weary units involved in the fight are close to going home. But the U.S. job here is far from over.

A few days after one of Iraq's first female soldiers returned from basic training, she heard that her commander was locked in a battle with insurgents on Baghdad's volatile Haifa Street. Despite the objections of male comrades, she and another female soldier strapped on armor and automatic rifles and joined the fight. "We said, 'We're going to help our commander like you are,' " said the soldier, who asked not to be identified for fear she would lose her job.

Four Islamic extremists escaped from a prison in the Baghdad airport compound that the U.S. military had handed over to the Iraqi government with great fanfare last week, state television reported Thursday. The escape from under the noses of Iraqi and U.S. military forces was sure to raise questions about the competence and loyalties of officials running the prison system as the number of American troops falls to 50,000 by the end of next month. The detainees who escaped included men who served as de facto finance and interior ministers for the Islamic State of Iraq, a militant umbrella group dominated by Al Qaeda in Iraq, the report said.

About one in every 10 members of Iraq's security forces "actually worked against" U.S. troops during the recent militia violence in Iraq, and an additional 40% walked off the job because of intimidation, the commander of the 1st Armored Division said Wednesday. In an interview by satellite from Baghdad with news executives attending Associated Press' annual meeting, Army Maj. Gen. Martin Dempsey said, "We have to get this latest increase in violence under control.

Portugal announced Saturday that its 120-member police mission in Iraq would end Feb. 12 as scheduled. A government statement said Portugal would continue to fully support its allies in Iraq but in different ways, such as providing humanitarian relief. The contingent had been scheduled to return to Portugal in November, but the mission was extended until Feb. 12 because of "Portugal's need to assist in the electoral process in Iraq within the U.N.-proposed date of Jan.

Under an agreement between Iraq and the George W. Bush administration, virtually all U.S. troops are to be out of that country by the end of the year. But the Obama administration, and apparently the Iraqi government, favor maintaining a residual force. To which our response is: "Yes … but. " After this country's long slog through a bloody and unnecessary war, one that has cost 4,474 American lives, the idea of prolonging any U.S. presence is extremely unappealing. But if the military deems this absolutely essential, then so long as the force were kept small — 5,000 or so — it might be acceptable as a way of shoring up Iraqi security forces and continuing training operations.

Insurgents launched four attacks early Wednesday against Iraq's security forces, killing 27 people as the Persian Gulf nation prepares for the departure of U.S. troops at the end of the year. A car bomb exploded outside a restaurant where police officers were dining in Madhatiya, near the city of Hillah. The blast killed a dozen people and wounded 43, according to security and health officials. In Baghdad, a drive-by shooting at a police checkpoint in the Qahira neighborhood left two police officers dead and two wounded.

Armed men stormed the provincial council today in the eastern Diyala province's capital of Baquba, killing at least eight people in the latest assault on government buildings in Sunni parts of Iraq, police said. The Tuesday morning attack lasted nearly two hours before army and police personnel seized back control of the council building, according to reports from state television. Around 9 a.m., a suicide bomber blew himself up by the heavily guarded entrance of the provincial council, which is surrounded by giant cement blast walls.

Two U.S. soldiers were killed and a third was injured when two Iraqi soldiers opened fire on U.S. troops during training in the northern city of Mosul on Saturday, Iraqi army sources said. The incident occurred while U.S. soldiers were training an Iraqi military unit at al-Ghazlani U.S. military camp in southern Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, they said. "According to available information, two American soldiers were killed today during a shooting at a training session inside al-Ghazlani military camp.

To the Iraqis who were there, the revelations from the WikiLeaks organization that the war they lived through was brutal and bloody have hardly come as a surprise. Americans carelessly opened fire at checkpoints when Iraqis failed to stop. Militias and insurgents roamed the streets, randomly killing members of the other sect. Iraqi security forces rounded up suspects at will and tortured them. Iran infiltrated, armed and influenced the Shiite Muslim militias responsible for thousands of the deaths.

A massive leak of classified U.S. documents from the Iraq war Friday details hundreds of incidents in which American troops found evidence that Iraqi security forces were abusing prisoners, including reports that U.S. soldiers did not always take steps to stop the violence. The accounts of prisoner mistreatment by Iraqi forces are the most explosive element of the nearly 400,000 classified reports made public by WikiLeaks in one of the largest leaks of classified material in American history.

Two American soldiers were killed and nine were injured Tuesday when a man wearing an Iraqi army uniform opened fire on them in an Iraqi commando compound in the province of Salahuddin, an attack that highlighted the danger U.S. troops continue to face in Iraq despite the formal end of combat operations announced by President Obama last week. The soldiers were members of a security detail guarding a U.S. company commander who was meeting with Iraqi security forces, according to a statement issued by the U.S. military.

A top U.S. military commander in Iraq called for more Iraqi troops to police troubled areas Sunday, a day in which at least 26 people were killed in attacks on civilians and police across the nation. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, said the shortage of Iraqi troops was forcing him and other commanders to recruit residents to police their neighborhoods. "We need to add confident, capable Iraqi forces to maintain security," he said.

A U.S. government study released Monday found that Iraq has a budget surplus of $52.1 billion, with $11.8 billion that is readily available for spending on its security forces. The study by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, comes as lawmakers prepare to debate a $2-billion funding request from the White House for the Iraqi security forces. "Billions of dollars that Iraq has budgeted for security have gone unused. As U.S. troops withdraw, the Iraqi government must take a larger role in providing security throughout the country," the report said.