A Full Spectrum Iraqi Military

Even though our direct large-scale combat role is declinging in Iraq and should pretty much cease by the summer, our military is still needed in Iraq and will be for years. Remember that we focused on Iraqi light infantry so they could take over the patrolling and combat roles. This is being done. But an army and a military must do much more than that to fight a war.

Our commander in Iraq reminds us of capabilities the Iraqis need to develop:

In the rush to create a security force to guard Iraq against violence from insurgents, the U.S. military has been providing the support networks needed to help the country's forces before the Americans leave by the end of 2011.

Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of all ground forces in Iraq, said U.S. troops now have to partner with Iraqis and work with them on a daily basis to provide the necessary additional training.

"Our intent is to make sure we have helped the Iraqis to have the right capacity, the right capability to handle the insurgent activity when we leave," Austin told The Associated Press during an interview Thursday in his office at the Faw Palace, headquarters of Multi-National Corps Iraq.

We need to help the Iraqis develop all the supporting arms that allow their light infantry and mechanized forces to fight the counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism campaigns.

And we need to keep troops in Iraq to protect Iraq from Syrian or Iranian conventional threats until the Iraqi ability to fight conventional enemies is developed.

And there's the whole rule of law thing to fight corruption in Iraq. Which is a difficult thing to develop, as our own experience with Chicago rules is demonstrating to us.