As Clausewitz observed, war itself is the best teacher. This war has gone on so long that even those who were zealous but unskilled have "been to school" on American forces for so long that they have learned to so all the things mentioned in this article. When this is combined with the cadres provided by the former Iraqi armed forces, there emerges a "heady" brew endlessly capable of learning, adapting and improvising.
The Post story about the action fought by US SF and the Iraqi police recounts the relative incapacity of the police vis a vis the insurgents. If it had not been for American leadership in this engagement, the insurgents would probably have "bagged" the lot.
An interesting note in this story is the factoid that although the gadgetry developed by Meigs' IED Defeat Task Force is effective, the number of casualties is still rising because the insurgents are building and installing ever more IEDS, many of which are truly huge. So far the US has spent something over 3 billion dollars on the IED problem.
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