Honestly, I don't take anyone's opinion seriously, unless they've stepped boots in that country. I was there in 03-04 then again in 05-06, there's a lot of change going on. It's not the Army's (biggest force there doing the most work ) fault for the country. It's the Government of Iraq that needs to get it's shit together. Our politicians were the ones that were "supposed" to get the government up and running. The Iraqi Police and Army are both basically ready to go and have been. Granted they're sometimes worthless as tits on a boar, but some have a true balls to the wall attitude. Sometimes these Iraqi Army/Police don't get paied jack shit, or even at all for months. I can see why they tend to take sides with Mahdi and his band of merry men. The sooner the government isn't a cluster fuck, the sooner we remove the bad apples, and the more responsibility Iraq takes for itself, the faster we'll be on our way.