U.S. Forces In Iraq Fight On Amid Chaos

Handing over control of areas like the town of Balad to Iraqi forces doesn't mean U.S. soldiers can pack up and leave.

They're still needed by the Iraqi police who've just taken incoming fire, CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan reports. The Americans quickly take charge, moving their heavily armored Humvees into position to fire back.

The Iraqi police watch as the U.S. soldiers unleash their 50-calibre machine guns, the kind of firepower the Iraqis just don't have — and they're only too grateful for the help.

"Thank you, thank you," an Iraqi policeman says to U.S. troops.

Capt. Kevin Carter, a third-generation soldier with the 1-8 Infantry, is a little frustrated that the Iraqi police weren't better able to defend themselves.

"Where's the machine guns? Where are the guys with the machine guns?" he asks.

Still, he says, the Iraqis have improved dramatically from where they were a year ago.

"It's coming along. It's just going slow," Carter says. "But at the same time, look at what we're trying to accomplish — of course it's going to go slow."

Some senior commanders in Baghdad now describe their mission as "treading water," trying to buy time for an Iraqi government and political process that so far is failing.

Also failing is the U.S. mission to reduce bloodshed in the Iraqi capital — something military commanders finally admitted, as the death toll for American troops surged with more than 70 dead this month.

While leaders in Washington work on a new strategy, American soldiers are forced to keep on with the operation in Baghdad.

"We go out and get guys killed and we say, 'this is dumb, why are we doing this? We're just gonna get guys killed,' and they're like: 'do it'," Staff Sgt. Joshua Staggs says. "OK, well, we'll do it. And you just get guys killed again."

Sgt. Staggs and his unit didn't lose a single soldier on their last deployment here. They've already lost two in their first month.

"Our mission, it's not an infantry mission anymore," he says. "It's wasting our time because we're not really ... being effective at all."

The optimism of the soldiers who swept so triumphantly into Baghdad has now turned to frustration at what lies ahead.