Thursday, March 5, 2015

Is The Iraqi Army A Lost Cause?

Sgt. Shawn Miller/US Army

Peter W. Galbraith, Daily Beast: Should We Give Up On The Iraqi Army?

The U.S. is training a national army for a nation that does not exist.

The Iraqi Army and Shiite militias have now launched an operation to retake Tikrit, a Sunni city 95 miles north of Baghdad that was Saddam Hussein’s hometown. The Americans are standing back. The U.S.-led coalition air forces are not flying missions in support because this is essentially an Iranian-organized and -led operation dominated by Shiite militias that answer to Tehran as much as Baghdad.

This may be the shape of things to come.

In mid-February, a Pentagon official made headlines by announcing an April-May time frame for an Iraqi offensive to take Mosul from the so-called Islamic State. Mosul is the second-largest city in Iraq. As The Daily Beast reported last week, the Pentagon now says the April/May date is no longer operative. The Iraqi Army, it was explained, is not ready.

WNU Editor: Iraq as we know it does not exist anymore. It is divided along sectarian lines .... and the Iraqi Army is now reflecting that.

No comments: