THE WAY OUT.

This article looks at the efforts of the U.S. to train Iraqi forces. U.S. military's exit strategy in Iraq rests on the shoulders of men like Marine Gunnery Sergeant Kenneth Kurre. Kurre is beginning a seven-month tour as adviser to a platoon of Iraqi soldiers. He lives with the Iraqis at their base on the banks of the Tigris River and observes them on patrol. His job is to advise, not command, but the line often gets blurred. The Pentagon wants to insert more advisers like Kurre into Iraqi units that someday will lead the fight against the insurgency, part of a strategy to accelerate the handover of combat duties to Iraqi forces and pull U.S. troops back from the front lines. In briefings for TIME, Pentagon officials and military commanders outlined a two-pronged strategy aimed at easing the U.S. footprint in Iraq after Jan. 30--which the military hopes will relieve the combat burden enough for a drawing down of U.S. forces to be contemplated. Pentagon officials say they plan to begin deploying a U.S.-trained Iraqi force salted with 10,000 or more U.S. military advisers. The U.S. training of the new army in Afghanistan is the model the Pentagon is taking to Iraq.