What about the "hold"?

Thinking about the article referenced below that the US controls 40% of Baghdad, I got to wondering what's next?

If the Iraqi forces can't, or won't "stand up" to "hold" as in "clear/hold/build" there will never be more than that 40% control.

The BBC reports on just how bad things really are, and just how deep the Iraqi forces are penetrated.

Why isn't the surge working? The strategy is to clear, hold and build. The Americans are clearing, but - they will tell you privately - the Iraqi security forces are failing to hold.

A Western company recently brought a new generator by truck up from an industrial estate in southern Baghdad. They had no paperwork for it but it sailed through 12 checkpoints with the driver paying small bribes. No-one looked to see if it was a bomb.

A US general told about this said: "Our working assumption is that if there are only Iraqis on a checkpoint, you have no checkpoint at all."

And, take just a minute to notice,

One measure of how bad things have become is that Western diplomats will no longer visit the Iraqi Defence ministry, even though it is inside the Green Zone.

In fact, militia infiltration is believed to be such that no-one walks anywhere in the Green Zone for fear of being snatched off the street.

If this is true, I would have thought we'd have heard of this somewhere else by now. So judge the veracity for yourself.