The military buildup in Iraq is about to end. But as the last of the five additional combat brigades now heads home, it leaves the country far safer than it was a year ago. Yet Iraq is still not ready to stand alone. The departure of the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division will lower U.S. troop levels there to roughly 142,000 U.S. personnel by mid-July - at least 7,000 more than before the buildup began early last year. But it also sets up pivotal questions about how many more can come home in this election year, and whether the decline in violence can be maintained by the fledgling Iraqi security forces. Two reports released Monday laid out significant political, economic and security progress in Iraq. But both cautioned that the country remains unstable and volatile. The quarterly Iraq progress report issued by the Pentagon warned that Iran and Syria continue to provide safe havens for terrorists, and allow them to travel across the borders into Iraq. It also repeated concerns that Iran's Quds Force, an elite unit of its Revolutionary Guards, continues to supply both weapons and training for militants in Iraq. On the domestic side, the report sounded a pessimistic tone, saying the government of Iraq still struggles to enact its budget and fund large projects to rebuild its infrastructure. The government, it said, "lacks the ability to execute programs on the scale required," and economic improvements remain "fragile, reversible a ...
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