For the first time since 2011, American troops have shown up in Iraq to look at the state of the Iraqi military, which they trained. What they have found is a jumble.

The United States invested billions of dollars into training military forces in Iraq in order to help preserve stability in the area and, ultimately prevent the country from collapsing. At its peak after the military invasion of the country, the Iraqi Army had almost 280,000 troops. Official numbers now from the Foreign Ministry of Defense in Iraq say there are 141,000 active duty soldiers in the country. However, some say the actual number could be as low as 50,000.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced in November the renewal of training for Iraq’s military. Now the 5-37 Squadron of the 82nd Airborne Division has returned 300 of its members to Iraq as part of the operation.

Lieutenant Colonel John Schwemmer characterized the current state of the Iraqi military as “pretty incredible.” In addition to the military disarray, widespread corruption is well known. In one case, several top Iraqi officers used official military funds to buy commissions for themselves. Also, there is the case of the “chicken guy,” an Iraqi general who sold personally sold military-purchased poultry to his very own units.

In addition to their monitoring duties as part of the agreement to remove American soldiers from Iraq in 2011, the soldiers from the 5-37 Squadron are now also involved in helping build up a defensive line against the advancing, self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group.

One of the reasons for the enormous loss of soldiers since 2011 is that, in the wake of the ISIL blitz and then takeover of the city of Mosul, four entire military divisions disintegrated overnight, despite facing just a few hundred ISIL fighters. In the end, thousands had deserted.