With friends like this...

The National Guard is the centerpiece of U.S. plans to turn over security responsibilities after elections slated for January and guardsmen have been targeted repeatedly by insurgents who are trying to undermine Iraq's interim government and drive out the U.S.-led coalition.

But the threat may not only come from outside the force. Guard Brig. Gen. Talib al-Lahibi, who previously served as an infantry officer in Saddam Hussein's army, was detained Thursday in the province of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad, a U.S. military statement announced.

and this...

Even before the arrest of General Lahibi, other signs had emerged of the fractured loyalties of the Iraqi security forces. In August, the Marines said they had arrested the police chief of volatile Anbar Province, which includes Falluja, and were investigating him on suspicion of ties to the insurgency. Like General Lahibi, the police chief, Jaadan Muhammad Alwan, was a high-ranking Baathist during the Hussein years.

...I find myself oddly nostalgic for loyal, effective allies like the ARVN...