AS THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION has faced growing pressure to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq, the Pentagon has claimed that as greater numbers of Iraqi forces are able to assume the task of defending their own country, American troops will be able to leave.

But U.S. commanders are finally beginning to express caution at the pace of the training, counseling that as the instruction quickens and the number of Iraqi forces in the field swells, the quality of the army standing could be degraded. Rather than training Iraqis as “quickly as we can”–as the president has argued–slow it down, and give the fledgling army a chance to mature and gain experience, the commanders argue.