"Increasingly, they do it independently, and they come to me on a much
more reduced basis for specific help with certain enablers that they may not
have yet," McCaffery said in a briefing on Jan. 26.
In mid-2008, the U.S. military worked closely in operational planning
with the Iraq Army. Officials said most of the time American troops had
taken the lead in missions against Al Qaida and Iranian-backed Shi'ite
insurgents.
"We still provide, in partnership with them, some critical enablers that
they have not yet completely been able to field within their brigades,"
McCaffery said. "And we share routinely intelligence. And we share training
capability. And more and more what I find my units doing, with the Iraqis,
is stepping into the role of trainers and facilitators, on that side, as
opposed to leading on combat operations."
As a result, McCaffery said, the U.S. military would require fewer
troops in the Baghdad area. The colonel suggested this could take several
months as Iraqi brigades increase their logistics capabilities.
"The logistics battalions that we've worked with have had phenomenal
development, and I think they're working to integrate them in a broader
scale," McCaffery said.
"But at the brigade level, where they're out there
in the field and living in joint security stations and on checkpoints, they
seem to be supplying their soldiers with food, water, fuel, ammunition, as
required, those things, quite capably in our area. So at the tactical level,
the logistics seem to be working pretty well where I am across the brigades
that we operate with."