Iraq's Biggest Enemy? Corruption, Says Army Commander -- Richard Engel, NBC
MAHMOUDIYA, Iraq -- Iraq troops say they were never ready for the kind of challenge they’re facing now.
The Iraqi army is struggling to confront the thousands of Sunni extremists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al Sham (ISIS), many of them battle-hardened after years of fighting both U.S. troops in Iraq and the Syrian army. One western diplomat described ISIS as a result of “combat Darwinism”: their leaders survived U.S. marines in Fallujah and Syria’s barrel bombs and chemical weapons -- facts which have aided their recruitment and boosted their numbers. They are pushing hard against the Iraqi army, which so far has been unable to push back.
Iraqi soldiers blamed the United States for not giving -- or even selling -- Iraq enough advanced weapons to fight. They blamed the Iraqi government even more for refusing to make a deal with Washington that would have kept a residual U.S. force in Iraq. Even more, they blamed corruption and political infighting for rotting the Iraq army after U.S. troops pulled out in 2011.
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My Comment: Here is another analysis on why the Iraqi Army is crumbling .... Why Iraq’s army crumbled -- The Economist
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