Posted on 09/24/2014 11:16:10 AM PDT by re_tail20
The U.S. military's top officer said Wednesday that almost half of Iraq's army is incapable of working against the Islamic State militant group, while the other half needs to be rebuilt with the help of U.S. advisers and military equipment.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey made the remarks to reporters while traveling to Paris to meet with his French counterpart to discuss the situation in Iraq and Syria. The general said that U.S. assessors who had spent the summer observing Iraq's security forces concluded that 26 of the army's 50 brigades would be capable of confronting the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. Dempsey described those brigades as well-led, capable, and endowed with a nationalist instinct, as opposed to a sectarian instinct.
However, Dempsey said that the other 24 brigades were too heavily populated with Shiites to be part of a credible force against the Sunni ISIS.
Sectarianism has been a major problem for the Iraqi security forces for years and is in part a reflection of resentments that built up during the decades of rule under Saddam Hussein, who repressed the majority Shiite population, and the unleashing of reprisals against Sunnis after U.S. forces toppled him in April 2003. Sunni resistance led to the relatively brief rise of an extremist group called Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. That group withered but re-emerged as the Islamic State organization, which capitalized on Sunni disenchantment with the Shiite government in Baghdad.
On Tuesday, Dempsey told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he would consider recommending the return of ground forces to Iraq if an international coalition sought by the Obama administration proves ineffective...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
yep, the middle east is a sold out show ...
Africa? .... yep, sold out too.
Huh, and half of the democrat party is incapable of working...what a coincidence.
Only half?
How many chances to the Iraqi’s get?
Nothing that a few hundred billion dollars can’t kick down the road.
So because Shiites have been victims he cannot trust them in military ranks?
Sounds familiar.
The US arming “friendly” rebels to fight ISIS is a bit like the cops arming the Bloods to help fight the Crips.
It’s pretty easy to see how this is going to turn out.
because its dead
Iraq is facing partition if it cannot defeat ISIS. Its army, like most standing Arab armies is dysfunctional mostly due to a corrupt and ineffective officer corp. Even the most motivated soldiers face catastrophe if they are poorly led. Bill O’Reilly is being mocked because he suggested mercenaries to battle ISIS. The idea is not farfetched and has historical precedent. Countries have hired experienced foreign officers in times of crisis. Iraq certainly has the money from oil exports. Mercenary officers and NCOs would help the Iraqi army become an effective fighting force.
“....almost half of Iraq’s army is incapable of working against the Islamic State militant group, while the other half needs to be rebuilt with the help of U.S. advisers....”
.
How do we separate the sheep from the goat before starting training?
If half of the Iraqi army is sympathetic toward ISIS, imagine how many ‘American’ Muslims secretly support these barbarians.
Returning American ISIS volunteers will have no problem finding safe houses.
Dempsey is being PC here. The Shiites will fight ISIS. It’s the Iraqi Army Sunnis that ran away rather than fight ISIS when this blew up a while back.
It was Sunni soldiers who threw away their weapons rather than fight ISIS. So now they are the only ones we can trust to fight them? And if that doesn’t work, send US troops? What a moron.
You miss his point. Half the Iraqi army is “incapable” of fighting ISIS, because they hate them and want them dead. You can’t expect us to support people like that.
Clown Prince nobama’s Kabuki war is going to end badly for all involved.
Obama is using our money to keep these nuts occupied with killing each other.
But the price of war goes up when it is not fought in a manner intended to end it.
More lives, more Money.
FU Obama you really f’d this up!!
Or we back Shi’ite fighters against ISIS, thus pitting the Sunni section of Iraq against us and them. We can’t win here. We need to just let them have it out. The law of entropy is at work here, and the hajis excel at chaos.
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