The "Iraqis will solve all their own (and therefore our) problems" bugaboo needs to die a swift and brutal death. Since 2003, US forces have relied on a strategy of stabilizing the situation just long enough for Iraqis to do the actual work of enforcing law and order in their country. If you think that's worked great so far you can stop reading now.

Iraqi troops and police are:
-Poorly trained
-Undisciplined
-Cowardly
-Corrupt
-Affiliated with sectarian militias/criminals/sunni nationalists/al Qaeda
-Poorly equipped
and
-underfunded

Giving Iraqi troops more training, weapons, equipment, new uniforms, higher pay or ice cream sundaes will not quell the insurgency, disarm shi'ite or kurdish militias or produce safe streets for Baghdad or any other city or province. This is because we are ignoring the reasons for those problems listed above.

A major part of the problem is that many Iraqis have an axe to grind and they smart enough not to tell us about it. Thus, we get Interior Ministry death squads, cops on the take and soldiers who will happily look the other way while insurgents bury an artillery shell to blow up the next American they see walking past.

Another problem is that the insurgents are more than willing to commit the most heinous, barbaric acts upon the families of collaborators with the Americans - not to mention what they do to the collaborators, themselves. The most highly trained and best equipped Iraqi commando can still be turned by kidnapping his sister or his wife or his mother - who has no training or weapons.

This war will not be won by handing it off to such folk as currently fill the ranks of the Iraqi Army and Police. Nor are the problems there solvable until the long term political and social issues involved are worked out.

I'm not saying that this war cannot be won and that a shining beacon of democracy and goodness will never take root in Iraq. I am saying that holding on until the Iraqis take over is NOT a realistic outcome. The Iraqis will NEVER be ready, given the current political situation and current insurgent tactics. Iraqi government forces which are not blatantly sectarian will continually fail for reasons of cowardice, graft, ideology and (most importantly) family honor and self preservation.