As violence continues to decline in Iraq, regional elections are set for January and disparate political and ethnic forces move closer to political reconciliation, the unfinished Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Iraq and the United States looms increasingly large.

A delegation of JINSA officers and members got the unique opportunity to get an up-close look at the Naval Special Warfare Groups (NSWG) based at the Naval Amphibious Base at Little Creek, Virginia in November 2007.

As gasoline in America has remained relatively inexpensive at the pump, the cost of protecting the sources of that energy supply has increasingly risen in terms of defending resources often located in steadily deteriorating regions and amidst the growing forces of criminality and religious radicalism.

More than four years after the 2003 invasion, a substantial portion of the U.S. military remains in Iraq, with worn-out equipment and weaponry and personnel exhausted by frequent tours of duty and insufficient time at home between deployments. Concerned observers are increasingly asking: "Is America entering into another phase of the 'Hollow Army', like that of the post-Vietnam era? Has the military become a broken force?"