I think they are just overburdened with this, though the UK is helping out a lot, the brunt of the work/casualties is American. Each soldier's tour of duty is being greatly extended and it looks like there is no end in sight to all of this, aside from death.
They are burnt out. Not to excuse any of this, just to provide some insight.
In other news, Australian PM John Howard says this one day after Sen. Barack Obama's announcement to join the race:
“If I were running Al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory not only for Obama but also for the Democrats.”
STFU!
140,000 American troops versus 1,400 Australian troops; if PM Howard doesn't like it then maybe he should step up and increase the number of his troops in Iraq.