This sound familiar to anybody?

Todays Washington Post:

Building Iraq's Army: Mission Improbable
Project in North Reveals Deep Divide Between U.S. and Iraqi Forces
By Anthony Shadid and Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 10, 2005; A01

BAIJI, Iraq -- An hour before dawn, the sky still clouded by a dust storm, the soldiers of the Iraqi army's Charlie Company began their mission with a ballad to ousted president Saddam Hussein. "We have lived in humiliation since you left," one sang in Arabic, out of earshot of his U.S. counterparts. "We had hoped to spend our life with you."

Not surprisingly the US combat soldier does not have a lot of confidence in their erstwhile allies:

"We can't tell these guys about a lot of this stuff, because we're not really sure who's good and who isn't," said Rick McGovern, a tough-talking 37-year-old platoon sergeant from Hershey, Pa., who heads the military training for Charlie Company.

My father, a Vietnam vet chuckels when he hears stuff like the above and usually comments, "Christ, now where have I heard that before. "

Frustrated U.S. soldiers question the Iraqis' courage, discipline and dedication and wonder whether they will ever be able to fight on their own, much less reach the U.S. military's goal of operating independently by the fall.

Overall, the number of Iraqi military and police trained and equipped is more than 169,000, according to the U.S. military, which has also said there are 107 operational military and special police battalions. As of last month, however, U.S. and Iraqi commanders had rated only three battalions capable of operating independently.

So our soldiers not only have to watch for road-side bombs, snipers, and ambushes but we have to babysit the Iraqi security forces as well. This is not progress people this is a quagmire. If the Iraqi forces do not believe in their mission they will NEVER be effective an effective fighting force.

Along dirt roads bisected by sewage canals, the men of Charlie Company crouched, their weapons ready. Before them was their home town, dilapidated and neglected. Cpl. Amir Omar, 19, gazed ahead.
"Look at the homes of the Iraqis," he said, a handkerchief concealing his face. "The people have been destroyed."
By whom? he was asked.
"Them," Omar said, pointing at the U.S. Humvees leading the patrol.

Hence another problem with this whole fiasco. When your allies believe you are part of the problem we are simply arming and future terrorists. In part who can blame the members of C company. We dropped the bombs, promised to rebuild and have sat on our thumbs.

We cannot blame our soldiers for this one. We have placed them in a no win scenario and from what I have been gathering our men and women in uniform are starting to get it. They have been forced to stay undermanned and under equipped for the course of this debacle.

I dont know if cut and run is a viable option at this point. We owe our soldiers a real "Mission Accomplished" and the Iraqi's a stable country.

How before the lid, which has been rumbling from the steam, blow off this pot?