U.S. Report on Iraqi Troops Is Mixed

By Robert Burns Associated Press

The number of Iraqi army battalions judged by their American trainers to be capable of fighting insurgents without U.S. help has fallen from one to none since September, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

But the number of Iraqi battalions capable of leading the battle, with U.S. troops in a support role, has grown by nearly 50 percent. And the number of battalions engaged in combat has increased by 11 percent.

Chris from AmericaBlog has this post: Pentagon report on Iraqi troops is not good

The Iraqi forces, I believe, will never be able to fight at the same level, the U.S. forces do. First,they are shooting and killing their own people (the Iraqis). Second, during the first and second gulf wars, Saddam had troops trained and placed behind the regular Iraqi army forces. If the regular Iraqi army forces begin to run, Saddams troops would open fire and kill the regular Iraqi troops. The only difference today is that the U.S. forces won't fire upon the Iraqi troops (hopefully) unless fired upon themselves.
Semper Fi