ISIS did not so much win as the entire Iraqi army simply evaporated.
The people in uniform only served to collect their salaries and not to defend the country.
Iraq’s defeat was self-inflicted.
Same thing will happen in Afghanistan .... eventually.
Their inaction could have been bought with the money that ISIS stole from the banks. $450M can buy a lot of officers who earn $100/mo. Once you remove commanders at the middle level, what can the generals in Baghdad do if nobody answers the phone in Mosul?
ISIS couldn't rob the banks without silent approval of the officers, and the officers couldn't rob the banks themselves. But when they cooperated they could do it all. How convenient.
“The people in uniform only served to collect their salaries and not to defend the country.”
We have the same problem in the US Armed Forces senior leadership - no senior officer offered any resistance to Obama in leaving Americans to die in Benghazi. They wanted to keep their jobs, not do what is right. Nobody resigned.
No senior officer offered any resistance to Obama in his social engineering of the US Armed services, or Afghanistan policy.....
We have a senior officer corps whose behavior is indistinguishable from these cowards.