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<\/span><\/span><\/a>The United States military, in fact, provided the metal detector, the explosives-sniffing dog and even transportation on a joint mission at the end of July to find a weapons cache in an area of Diyala Province only recently cleared of insurgents.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe Iraqi company\u2019s sole armored Humvee, an American hand-me-down, had no spare tire, so they left it behind. Marching up the canal under a scorching midday sun was hot work, and the Iraqis soon used up their water. The Americans replenished it for them.<\/p>\n Yet this Iraqi Army unit, part of the 18th Brigade\u2019s Fourth Battalion, is filled with seasoned veterans \u2014 soldiers who American officials say can defend the state, even if constrained by the shortages and shortcomings of the country\u2019s army.<\/p>\n It is the kind of unit the American military has been training for years in the hopes of eventually turning over security control, which finally became a reality when American troops were required to pull out of all cities and towns on June 30<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere would be some hiccups, but these guys would be fine,\u201d said Capt. Richie Santiago, who commands an American platoon equipped with large, bomb-resistant vehicles. \u201cThey don\u2019t have the helicopters and all the stuff that we do, but they would make do without it.\u201d<\/p>\n And so the mission revealed a new dynamic between Iraqi and American troops since the pullout: a quiet acknowledging of continued Iraqi dependence on the Americans even as the Iraqis have begun asserting the sovereignty they longed for, with barely covered resentment and frustration on all sides.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are at the point where the Americans can go home,\u201d said Pvt. Haidar Fartos, an Iraqi soldier on the mission. \u201cWe have defeated the terrorists and insurgents, and we don\u2019t need them anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n It is statements like those \u2014 along with some episodes of tension and blurred command since the handoff \u2014 that prompted a top American military adviser to the Iraqis, Col. Timothy R. Reese, to draft a secret memo<\/span><\/a>. The memo, which was leaked last month, asserted that the June 30 deadline was a watershed moment in which the Iraqis realized that they no longer wanted American help and that, despite deficiencies, the Iraqi Army could now do the job.<\/p>\n The time has come, he wrote<\/span><\/a>, \u201cfor the U.S. to declare victory and go home.\u201d<\/p>\n Captain Santiago, the platoon commander, acknowledged that the relationship had changed greatly since June 30.<\/p>\n \u201cThe SOFA has kind of emboldened them, and some units have had trouble partnering with their Iraqis,\u201d he said, referring to the Status of Forces Agreement<\/span><\/a> that outlines a schedule for American troop withdrawal. \u201cThese guys are really competent, though.\u201d<\/p>\n His brigade\u2019s commander, interviewed later, said that had been the case throughout Diyala. \u201cWhen we started back up after June 30th, there were some challenges,\u201d said Col. Burt K. Thompson, whose First Stryker Brigade, out of Forward Operating Base War Horse near Baquba, covers all of Diyala Province.<\/p>\n![\"metal](\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2009\/08\/09\/world\/09diyala2_190.jpg\")
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