We’re not talking about any army, ever, we’re talking about this one, now. We trained them for years already, and gave them modern equipment that was better than what ISIS had too. Yet, they folded like a cheap suit.
So, what exactly are we doing differently this time that we should expect different results?
I don’t think the Iraqis lost because they lacked training. I think they lacked the will to fight, and that is something we can’t give them.
This is true. The image of the average Muslim soldier as a vaunted warrior crumbles in reality. I could see signs of this even when I had Muslims as lab partners many moons ago when I was in college. There were / are individual exceptions, of course, just as the Jordanian Armed Forces are reasonably competent. And, the Kurds have been quite good warriors throughout their recent history. But, more generally, the really tough Muslim warriors are those fighting with true religious fervor, like (at least some) in ISIS.
The average Iraqi soldier fears ISIS more than ISIS fears the Iraqis. How we overcome that, is the question.