What began as the ING is now the IA. The big question on the whole world's mind is "Can this group defend their country against the forces that will surely come? And more importantly, do they have the heart and soul of the warrior?"

Our last block of instruction began four days ago with a three-mile march to the training site. We American soldiers were wearing all of our basic gear, about 40 pounds worth, and the IA had AK-47's and about 12-pound vests. We started falling behind right off the bat and had to start running to catch up. At that point, less then a half mile from the start point an IA soldier sat down. I asked him to get up and at least try to keep walking as fast as he could, he tried. He would soon have to be treated for heat exhaustion and ride in the "Meat wagon" or ambulance. One of the soldiers that fell out was sitting on the ground, and when I went to lift him up, his whole body felt like Jell-O. It seems that not many of the IA have much muscle and have a very difficult time with the heat and the activity of a soldier. I also noticed that dental care is nonexistent, all had very yellow rotted teeth, just an observation.

At the end of the march, those that made it were very proud of themselves, and that was most of them. We had noticed that none of them carried water with them, and this greatly contributed to the rather poor performance. As we tried to account for their poor showing, some of us simply said "Their quitters and just don't have any heart." Others took the position that "their farmers and uneducated and just don't understand the concept of physical conditioning and proper hydration." When the IA soldier is dropped for pushups, it is an accomplishment just to do 10, no upper body strengths. The average Joe here on the FOB can do 30 or 40 a pop, many can do between 80-100, and we rarely have soldiers go down for dehydration.

I believe a big reason is also the fact that so many of the local people draw water from the ponds and creeks, I think it's almost everyone. I learned from one of our Terps that it is part one of a long process to get water for personal use, cleaning, boiling and storing of water is all part of life here. For this reason, most people just don't see themselves drinking a lot of that precious fluid. The locals also prefer to work at night and really aren't used to heavy exertion in the heat of day. We've had a few days recently over 100.

We are stressing hydration and conditioning to them constantly, and I believe they understand how important it is. On the last day of training, we did not have a single heat injury, and all the soldiers were carrying water and drank at every halt in movement, as do we. On that first day our medic, Doc Karella, treated nine people. The point I want to make here is that they do want to learn and improve, and again will stress that good things take time and we ought not expect everything from them today. They are doing their best and the training provided is outstanding, we just have to work past the language thing.

I noticed one soldier had duct tape around his boots to hold them together and was concerned for his well being. I asked his sergeant if anything was being done about the situation and how long the condition existed. I was told that "Yes, something was being done about it," and the condition had only existed since that morning. I then told them if the situation cannot be corrected by tomorrow morning to come see me, and I would see if I could help. The next morning the soldier's boots had been replaced.

The purpose behind this effort was to reinforce to the IA the need for the leadership to take care of their soldiers and that the U.S. soldiers will be doing less and less each week and the IA more and more. I was quite pleased to see the sergeant had taken care of the soldier, In the old regime this would never had happened. Soldiers' families were forced to reimburse Sadaams government for all soldier expenses to include uniforms, boots, bullets and food.

Many of the soldiers came to Doc Karella for treatment of things like stomachache, athletes feet and sore knees. He was eager to help, and I had to remind him to always ask the soldiers if their leadership had been informed they had come to the Americans for help. This also goes to our efforts to empower the IA leadership and become self reliant.

We could all see steady improvement in the battle drills and various scenarios we put them through. All the U.S. soldiers were impressed. The point was made time and again that the heroes of Iraq will be the IA and the security of its people. The IA soldiers insisted on correcting any shortcomings immediatly, they all say in almost perfect english "Go again" upon completion of a task.

I cannot say what goes on in the rest of Iraq. But I can say this, if the rest of the IA is identical to those I spent the last four days with, we will all be home very soon. But ask any IA soldier, and they will not say it's up to them or the Americans, they will say it will only be so if God wills it so. And that is today's phrase. Ins Allah - if God wills it so.