The Iraqi military is underequipped and riddled with members whose loyalties are ambiguous at best. They're worse then useless.

The militias moving out of a territory doesn't really mean anything. Time and time again, they'll leave an area to avoid a fight they can't win, and move right back in the moment things loosen up. That's a basic strategy for an insurgent force: only pick fights you can win. The reason they couldn't make a move against Hussein was that they didn't exist and the Mukhabarat would have learned of such a move and introduced the would-be plotters to a short and violent fate. And no, Iraq isn't becoming a free country. It's becoming a bloody mess, and falling apart at the seams.
Sometimes I feel like my shadow's casting me