Iraqi security forces ride in vehicles traveling to Mosul to fight against ISIS militants at an Iraqi army base in Camp Taji in Baghdad on February 21. AHMED SAAD/REUTERS
New York Times: Iraqi Army Seen as Ill Equipped to Retake Mosul From ISIS, Despite U.S. Aid
WASHINGTON — An exhausted and ill-equipped Iraqi Army faces daunting obstacles on the battlefield that will most likely delay for months a long-planned major offensive on the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, American and allied officials say.
The delay is expected despite American efforts to keep Iraq’s creaky war machine on track. Although President Obama vowed to end the United States’ role in the war in Iraq, in the last two years the American military has increasingly provided logistics to prop up the Iraqi military, which has struggled to move basics like food, water and ammunition to its troops.
Without the help, Americans commanders said, the offensive against Mosul would most likely fail.
Americans are ferrying equipment and spare parts directly to the battlefield by cargo plane, helping arrange purchases of ammunition for Soviet-era equipment and pressing the Iraqis to adopt measures to improve a supply chain that would run over 200 miles from Defense Ministry depots in the Baghdad area to Mosul.
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WNU Editor: The Iraqi Army is not great to begin with .... not having the logistics and support behind any offensive will only guarantee failure.
2 comments:
Maybe they should learn how to not abandon all of their equipment and flee when attacked. They will never be ready.
The Iraqis have been defeated so often there is no way they can muster up enough bravery. Having destroyed the traditional military of Iraq the US now expects the next generation to fight the good fight? No way. This generation must have no memories of what the country was like before it became what it is. If nothing else the Iraqis have learned that the devil you knew is better than the one they didn't know.
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