Wall Street Journal: Iraq Struggles to Revive Military for Coming Battles With Islamic State
There is widespread distrust of their leadership among troops
BESMAYA BASE, Iraq—Sgt. Abbas Adwani is helping to train a brigade of fellow soldiers for what promises to be one of the toughest battles yet against Islamic State: an offensive on the city of Mosul—the extremist group’s stronghold in Iraq.
But he and many of his trainees say they still can’t shake the bitter aftertaste of previous fights—some in northern Mosul a year ago, others in Anbar province, where they said they were left without ammunition or altogether abandoned by their commanders.
Their lingering hostility reflects a widespread mistrust of military leadership among Iraqi troops, one of a host of problems hampering U.S.-backed efforts by Iraq’s central government to revive the security forces after a meltdown last year as Islamic State advanced.
WNU Editor: A sobering and depressing assessment on the current state of the Iraqi Army.
1 comment:
Low morale, history of defeats but most importantly the fear of being taken prisoner by ISIS. Terror works especially when it is close at hand and examples are many. You might think that the Iraqis would rally to protect their homeland but then how many defeats do you need to simply give up.
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