By Rod Nordland / New York Times

“Yes, we are in charge now,” said an Iraqi Army soldier, Sgt. Salman Fallah Jassim, as he led a mixed Iraqi and American patrol through the saw grass of a dried up irrigation canal, sweeping the ground in front of him with the long wand of a metal detector. “But we need help all the time.”

 

The United States military, in fact, provided the metal detector, the explosives-sniffing dog and even transportation on a joint mission at the end of July to find a weapons cache in an area of Diyala Province only recently cleared of insurgents.

The Iraqi company’s sole armored Humvee, an American hand-me-down, had no spare tire, so they left it behind.

Marching up the canal under a scorching midday sun was hot work, and the Iraqis soon used up their water. The Americans replenished it for them.

Yet this Iraqi Army unit, part of the 18th Brigade’s Fourth Battalion, is filled with seasoned veterans — soldiers who American officials say can defend the state, even if constrained by the shortages and shortcomings of the country’s army.

It is the kind of unit the American military has been training for years in the hopes of eventually turning over security control, which finally became a reality when American troops were required to pull out of all cities and towns on June 30.

“There would be some hiccups, but these guys would be fine,” said Capt. Richie Santiago, who commands an American platoon equipped with large, bomb-resistant vehicles. “They don’t have the helicopters and all the stuff that we do, but they would make do without it.”

And so the mission revealed a new dynamic between Iraqi and American troops since the pullout: a quiet acknowledging of continued Iraqi dependence on the Americans even as the Iraqis have begun asserting the sovereignty they longed for, with barely covered resentment and frustration on all sides.

“We are at the point where the Americans can go home,” said Pvt. Haidar Fartos, an Iraqi soldier on the mission. “We have defeated the terrorists and insurgents, and we don’t need them anymore.”

It is statements like those — along with some episodes of tension and blurred command since the handoff — that prompted a top American military adviser to the Iraqis, Col. Timothy R. Reese, to draft a secret memo. The memo, which was leaked last month, asserted that the June 30 deadline was a watershed moment in which the Iraqis realized that they no longer wanted American help and that, despite deficiencies, the Iraqi Army could now do the job.

The time has come, he wrote, “for the U.S. to declare victory and go home.”

Captain Santiago, the platoon commander, acknowledged that the relationship had changed greatly since June 30.

“The SOFA has kind of emboldened them, and some units have had trouble partnering with their Iraqis,” he said, referring to the Status of Forces Agreement that outlines a schedule for American troop withdrawal. “These guys are really competent, though.”

His brigade’s commander, interviewed later, said that had been the case throughout Diyala. “When we started back up after June 30th, there were some challenges,” said Col. Burt K. Thompson, whose First Stryker Brigade, out of Forward Operating Base War Horse near Baquba, covers all of Diyala Province.

Permission for a unit to escort contractors to a job site was denied, so reconstruction work was halted. The provincial police commander ordered police stations to refuse entry to United States troops, even in rural areas; as a result, American training missions were suspended. Angry residents and local police officers stopped an American patrol at a roadblock in Baquba because it did not have an Iraqi escort, even though there are exceptions for force protection and logistics missions.

“Most of the problems were at the lowest levels,” said Colonel Thompson, adding that the issues were soon resolved. “One more step on this journey to sovereignty with these guys.”

Now, he said, the challenge is for the Iraqis to take control after years of depending on the Americans. “We got to kick the crutch out from under them,” he said.

Judging from the weapons-hunting patrol, that kick is still a way off in reality, even if expectations on the Iraqi side have significantly changed.

At least Sergeant Jassim had already been trained on the metal detector.

The goal was to sweep about two miles of canal bed; after a bit over one mile, the Iraqis stopped and insisted that it must have been about two miles by then. Then they complained that the saw grass was getting too thick to continue; one of the American sergeants urged them on, demonstrating how easy it was to break the brittle fronds and move them out of the way.

“We haven’t had our lunch yet,” one of the Iraqi soldiers said. Nor had anyone else.

First Lt. Dawood Zaman, the Iraqi company commander, found something on the banks of the canal, and he called out that it looked like a cache of bombs. One of the American soldiers scoffed. “He probably took it out of his trunk so his guys could stop walking,” the soldier said. The find proved to be a false alarm.

Prodded on by the Americans, the Iraqis finished the last leg of the sweep, finding nothing.

Some of the Iraqis clearly considered the mission a waste of time and the Americans’ continued presence unnecessary.

Lieutenant Zaman was more cleareyed. “We’re only 85 percent ready,” he said. “Fortunately we have a bigger army now and a smaller number of terrorists.”

“People feel much more comfortable when they see that we are out with the Americans,” he said, and then thought about it for a moment. “They also feel much more comfortable when they see that the Americans are out with us.”

One soldier, Pvt. Anwar Sabah, was scornful. “The Americans still haven’t really pulled out of the cities,” he said. “And their convoys still throw bottles of water out on the people when they pass by.”

Despite the criticism, he added, “We’re O.K. together, we work hand in hand.”

An Iraqi second lieutenant, Adil Komall, said, “Nothing has really changed since June 30.”

His troops were waiting to board their own beat-up trucks, which had belatedly arrived. “We don’t have good weapons, good vehicles or a good life,” he said.

An American soldier, Sgt. Marcus Harmby, walked up, and in that sergeant sort of way he barked at Lieutenant Komall that the safety on his AK-47 was off, and then flipped it on for him.

After Sergeant Harmby walked away, Lieutenant Komall rolled his eyes. “We always leave the safety off when we’re out on operations,” he said.

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