The Special Forces team in Mosul trained three Iraqi scout platoons in everything from surveillance techniques to marksmanship to special driving skills, using their collection of Toyota Hilux trucks and beat-up civilian cars. Last month, the team's medic patiently corrected a new class's ham-handed attempts at surveillance in a trial run outside a Saddam-era bunker. "You would've been killed if this had been for real," he told them gravely. The team has also worked with the civilian police advisers to improve the Iraqi police, who lag far behind. The Special Forces pick up Iraqi detectives on their way to raids so the latter can collect evidence. They are also helping to figure out why Mosul judges are reluctant to bring cases to trial or impose sentences. "If we can't get them convicted," the Special Forces captain in Mosul says, "we're just running a catch-and-release program."

One point virtually everyone agrees on is that the number of U.S. forces backing up the Iraqis in the Mosul area shouldn't be reduced anytime soon. The American force here has already been reduced from a division to two battalions in the past two years. The Stryker brigade that has arrived to replace the 172nd lived through an abrupt drawdown in 2004, when insurgents from Fallujah flowed into the city and began killing policemen by the dozens. Summing up his tour in Mosul, the Special Forces master sergeant said, "I think we made a difference here."

"Make me afraid!" Like Mosul, Kirkuk to the south is a volatile mix of Sunni and Kurd, with the additional prize of the northern oil fields and production facilities. A Special Forces team there trained scout platoons and started a leadership course for Iraqi lieutenants, platoon leaders, and sergeants in a kind of mini-Ranger school. The team's master sergeant drew a page from Vietnam to create a monthlong program built on the Military Assistance Command Vietnam Recondo model. Under the blazing sun at the K1 base, Iraqi officers and sergeants swapped roles, learned to plan missions, and honed basic soldier skills. Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division became instructors. In addition, two Special Forces soldiers were farmed out as advisers to each Iraqi company. On the shooting range with his company one day, a cheery blond weapons sergeant shouted above the din as the Iraqis fired tentative bursts from their Soviet-made PKC machine guns: "Make me afraid! Make me s - - - my pants!"

A burly Iraqi scout platoon sergeant named Omran has plenty of reason to be afraid. He has personally suffered from the violence that still plagues Kirkuk. His brother was killed outside his house, in a neighborhood that has been named Kabul for its violence. Omran was also kidnapped during a harrowing visit to Baghdad last month. At a roadblock manned by armed members of the Jaish al-Mahdi militia, he was accused of being Sunni and thrown into the back of a van. Omran, who is Shiite, finally related enough details of his Shiite birthplace that they let him go. "If they had known I was a soldier," he said, finishing his sentence by drawing a finger across his neck.