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Why isn’t the Iraqi Army “Standing Up”?
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We Americans have been expecting an Iraqi Army to be trained, and replacing coalition soldiers in Iraq for better than three years now. That hasn’t happened. Why?
It takes the US Army some 8 weeks to take a totally untrained American youth, who has in many cases, never handled a firearm in his short life, who may be unacquainted with violence, and train that youth to be a disciplined, fighting man, able to stand his ground against any military force on the planet. That’s in just eight week, two months.
It has been three years and we can’t train Iraqi men to be a cohesive fighting unit able to go toe to toe with an enemy, any enemy, in three years? And to make it even worse some of those Iraqi army recruits have had previous experience in Hussein’s army!
What, then, is the reason? There must be one.
Could it be they don’t really want to be soldiers? Could it be they joined-up only for the money? Could it be their tribalism just will not allow them to come together with other Iraqis of different tribes, different branches of Islam, and different families (klans) as a cohesive fighting force?
The first thing an effective training program, for any army, does is create a unit of men willing to stand by each other, and fight for each other, to the death. Only then can you have a reliable fighting unit. That is the foundation. (The all for one and one for all mentality of a unit.) A single unit made up of many personalities, and many skills, all focused on a single goal… and that is defeating the enemy.
From the viewpoint of an outsider looking in, it does not appear the Iraqis are able to do that. Centuries of tribalism, of hatred for each other’s sect within Islam, will not allow it.
So what to do? Well, frankly, there is not much that can be done. To create something, anything, you must have something to create from!! That does not exist in Iraq.
I never expected the US military would train an Iraqi Army to be anywhere near the effective fighting machine as our own. I mean, hey, we are going to have to fight them, again, at some point in the future, so that wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense, now, would it? But, so far, we have been unable to train them up to the level of a Cub Scout troop! It is hedging on being downright embarrassing!
Well, we’re going to be in Iraq for a couple of generations, in any event, so maybe, by then, we will at least have them trained up the level of say… para-military border guards. For that, it now appears, is about all we can expect, I’m afraid.
Now here is the sad ting. We cannot leave Iraq defenseless and if we leave now that is exactly what we will be doing. Overnight, Iran will move in and own Iraq… AND Iraq’s oil. As we have noted before, here on IOF, the US, as the World’s Policeman, is not about to allow that to happen.
See, I am convinced that the US government is exactly where it wants to be in Iraq. We are building not one, but several PERMANENT military bases in Iraq. It is a forward projection of power in the region. The US has coveted this position for a very long time and now we have it and we are not leaving anytime soon.
I know, I know. All the talk and promises from the candidates for the office of President of the US is nothing more than “blowing smoke”. They already know the US policy is to secure the region for the free flow of oil to the remainder of the world. They can’t turn their backs and walk away from that… not to mention the security of our own country. But, as long as weak-minded Americans believe them, when they say they will pull the troops out, they will continue to feed us that line of BS.
I am simple suggesting here that you should not fall for it. Look at all the pointers that indicate otherwise and base your own decision on your interpretation of the facts on the ground and not what some power hungry politician in Washington tells you. You’ll be ahead of their game and… you’ll be much better off for it.
Longstreet
We Americans have been expecting an Iraqi Army to be trained, and replacing coalition soldiers in Iraq for better than three years now. That hasn’t happened. Why?
It takes the US Army some 8 weeks to take a totally untrained American youth, who has in many cases, never handled a firearm in his short life, who may be unacquainted with violence, and train that youth to be a disciplined, fighting man, able to stand his ground against any military force on the planet. That’s in just eight week, two months.
It has been three years and we can’t train Iraqi men to be a cohesive fighting unit able to go toe to toe with an enemy, any enemy, in three years? And to make it even worse some of those Iraqi army recruits have had previous experience in Hussein’s army!What, then, is the reason? There must be one.
Could it be they don’t really want to be soldiers? Could it be they joined-up only for the money? Could it be their tribalism just will not allow them to come together with other Iraqis of different tribes, different branches of Islam, and different families (klans) as a cohesive fighting force?
The first thing an effective training program, for any army, does is create a unit of men willing to stand by each other, and fight for each other, to the death. Only then can you have a reliable fighting unit. That is the foundation. (The all for one and one for all mentality of a unit.) A single unit made up of many personalities, and many skills, all focused on a single goal… and that is defeating the enemy.
From the viewpoint of an outsider looking in, it does not appear the Iraqis are able to do that. Centuries of tribalism, of hatred for each other’s sect within Islam, will not allow it.
So what to do? Well, frankly, there is not much that can be done. To create something, anything, you must have something to create from!! That does not exist in Iraq.
I never expected the US military would train an Iraqi Army to be anywhere near the effective fighting machine as our own. I mean, hey, we are going to have to fight them, again, at some point in the future, so that wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense, now, would it? But, so far, we have been unable to train them up to the level of a Cub Scout troop! It is hedging on being downright embarrassing!
Well, we’re going to be in Iraq for a couple of generations, in any event, so maybe, by then, we will at least have them trained up the level of say… para-military border guards. For that, it now appears, is about all we can expect, I’m afraid.
Now here is the sad ting. We cannot leave Iraq defenseless and if we leave now that is exactly what we will be doing. Overnight, Iran will move in and own Iraq… AND Iraq’s oil. As we have noted before, here on IOF, the US, as the World’s Policeman, is not about to allow that to happen.
See, I am convinced that the US government is exactly where it wants to be in Iraq. We are building not one, but several PERMANENT military bases in Iraq. It is a forward projection of power in the region. The US has coveted this position for a very long time and now we have it and we are not leaving anytime soon.
I know, I know. All the talk and promises from the candidates for the office of President of the US is nothing more than “blowing smoke”. They already know the US policy is to secure the region for the free flow of oil to the remainder of the world. They can’t turn their backs and walk away from that… not to mention the security of our own country. But, as long as weak-minded Americans believe them, when they say they will pull the troops out, they will continue to feed us that line of BS.
I am simple suggesting here that you should not fall for it. Look at all the pointers that indicate otherwise and base your own decision on your interpretation of the facts on the ground and not what some power hungry politician in Washington tells you. You’ll be ahead of their game and… you’ll be much better off for it.
Longstreet
Filed under:
conservative+democrats+military+war+Iraq
We should bring our guys home and let them sort it out. Shoot if Sadam was still around I'd say put him back in charge and let him have the kids of all the people who voted for this occupation go serve in his military to replace the ones Bush murdered.....
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