They gave him room and board, too

It has now been almost three years since George W. Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq. And still the Iraqi army is not strong enough to replace our own. Why is this? One clue comes from Major Gen. Paul Eaton, who was the first officer assigned to create an Iraqi army. He says he got the assignment on May 9, 2003, a week after Bush's speech.

As an indication of just how seriously the Pentagon took the task even that May is the staff given Eaton. He explained to Thom Shanker of The New Fork Times: "I set out to man, train and equip an Army for a country of 25 million--with six men."

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