Iraqi Army Taking 'Baby Steps' to Secure Country

Feb. 2, 2006 — -- The elite commandos of Iraq's Cobra Brigade are the pride of the country's fledgling armed forces.

The unit is the key to America's exit strategy in Iraq.

Its first major assignment a year ago was to secure Baghdad polling stations. One year later, the unit is responsible for securing half of Baghdad -- everything west of the Tigris River.

"We call it baby steps," said Lt. Col. Mark Meadows, who has experience training soldiers. "We gotta keep working and working on it."

The Iraqis' barracks are spartan. There's no mess hall, and at meal time the Iraqi troops get take-out food. Maintaining supplies is also a major difficulty.

Some Iraqi soldiers now have night-vision goggles, but no batteries to power them. There's a shortage of armored cars, too. With 600 armored cars for 220,000 soldiers, there is one vehicle for every 300 men.

In convoys with U.S. troops, the Americans ride in armored Humvees. Iraqis say when insurgents strike, they're often the cannon fodder.

"Give us armored cars," begged one Iraqi soldier through an ABC News translator. "We're fighting with machine guns. The insurgents have RPGs [rocket propelled grenades]."

An ABC News team found some future noncommissioned officers, who were training at the Iraqi Army's NCO academy, watching a pirated DVD of the movie "Blackhawk Down."

They were using the movie, which depicts the failed 1993 raid of Mogadishu by American soldiers, as a training film.

"We can learn from their mistakes," said one Iraqi soldier.

He said it was "absolutely" good training for Baghdad. He's watched it three times already.

ABC News' David Wright filed this report for "World News Tonight."