Can The Iraqi Military Bounce Back?

Troops, guests and media representatives from throughout the world watch as the last convoy of U.S. service members enters Kuwait from Iraq, Dec. 18, 2011. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Lynette Hoke

Why Iraq's Military Was So Vulnerable — and How it Can Bounce Back -- John Beck, Vice News

It's still not clear where the 750 US troops now deployed to Iraq are going to be, or what they're going to be doing. On Tuesday, however, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that one of their most important tasks will be to assess whether Iraq's military and police are up to protecting their territory and/or taking back the parts of the country overrun by hardline Sunni militants.

Dempsey explained that some of the troops are there to man a joint operations center with Iraqi security forces to give a better picture of how the situation is evolving. Others, he added, will visit Iraqi units to help decide what possible actions the US could take if the situation worsened and it needed to step up assistance and protect a government it lost almost 4,500 lives and spent over $800 billion to install.

"Will they hold? What's their makeup? Are they still a force that represents all Iraqis?" Dempsey asked. "When we have that assessment in hand... we'll make some decisions about whether there's other kinds of support that we can provide."

Yet, the answers to Dempsey's questions are not immediately obvious.

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My Comment: I am sure the Iraqi military can bounce back if the U.S. (and others) are willing to spend tens of billions of dollars, send thousands of military advisers and combat soldeirs, deploy and administer air strikes, and be willing to have an open ended commitment that may last years. Hmmm .... oh yeah .... that is not going to happen.