Before and after

General Jamal Ahmed, commander of a 1,500-man brigade near Baghdad. And Colonel Stan Wilson, head of the American “transition team” helping to train the Iraqi brigade. From The Times.

“One hundred per cent we need the Americans in Iraq now,” Ahmed said last week in his office at the Taji base, 20 miles north of Baghdad. “The army can’t stand. We will be killed. We need training. Weapons. Equipment.”

“We’re not training them to be the US army,” Wilson said. “There’s not going to be a magic day when they’re ready. We’re training them to suffice.”

Ahmed says that although he cried when Saddam fell, it was because he felt dishonoured as a soldier who could not defend his country. Now he is proud.

“The difference is that the Iraqi army under Saddam fought the Iraqi people,” the general said. “The new army is fighting to protect the people.”