NPR said this morning (prepare for the big shock ...) that this wasn’t really true, the Iraqis are still incompetent and that al Qaeda is growing in strength because we suck.
That US military training and culture is worth its weight in platinum to the Iraqis.
And the US military experience of the congress abandoning the ARVN to face an enemy with unlimited logistics, which they still held out against for two years with no support or resupply, left a bitter taste in the mouth, and a strong impulse that this should never happen again.
So the Iraqis have been given training and knowledge reserved for only the top armies in the modern world. Once they are fully up to strength, with their own combat air force, they would likely defeat a larger Russian army in the field. A war against Iran would be a joke, as the Iraqi forces would occupy Tehran before sundown, after having utterly routed their military and Qods forces.