MEANWHILE, THERE ARE STILL U.S. TROOPS IN POST-NAZI GERMANY:

Little by little, Iraqi armed forces lift burden from U.S. troops (TODD PITMAN, 8/10/04, Chicago Sun-Times)

A single muzzle-flash from a rooftop 200 yards away sends a 14-man patrol of U.S. and Iraqi troops crouching behind mud-brick houses in a poor Baghdad neighborhood at dusk.

The joint patrol is key to Washington's exit strategy: putting Iraqis in charge of their own security so American troops can go home.

Since the June 28 transfer of sovereignty, Iraqis are patrolling more -- both with U.S. troops and without. But ill-trained and poorly equipped, Iraqi security forces are still dependent on American support and firepower to combat the more than 15-month-old insurgency.

"We're trying to push them out as much as possible," U.S. 1st Lt. Christopher Gebbia said of the six Iraqi national guardsmen accompanying his group.

The U.S.-dominated coalition of 160,000 troops retains ultimate responsibility for security. But for months it has worked with Iraq's 130,000 police, 41,000-strong national guard and 10,000-man army, which is expected to grow to about 30,000 soldiers by early 2005.

MORE:
Rebuilding of Iraq picks up speed (Betsy Pisik and Sharon Behn, THE WASHINGTON TIMES)

Normally, the sounds of hammering would be an annoyance in this health clinic, but young Iraqi mothers with small children pay little heed to the construction din overhead.

The Baghdad clinic's new second story will be devoted to modern diagnostic equipment such as sonograms, magnetic resonance imaging and new-model X-ray machines.

It is an ambitious addition to the renovated ground floor of the Al-Zewyia Primary Health Care Center, a spacious and clean facility where general practitioners diagnose fevers, obstetricians monitor pregnancies and dentists fill cavities.

"The American army has done this beautiful thing," says Dr. Sarra'a Abdul Jalil Habib, senior doctor in the Al-Zewyia clinic. "They are rehabilitating everything, the air conditioning, the furniture, even the instruments."<>/blockquote>
They have better medical facilities than Canada.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 10, 2004 11:51 AM