Iraqis unable to defend their borders as US exits
BAGHDAD (AP) - After billions of dollars and nearly nine years of training, American troops are leaving behind an Iraqi security force arguably capable of providing internal security but unprepared to defend the nation against foreign threats at a time of rising tensions throughout the Middle East.
Building up an Iraqi military and police able to protect the country became a key goal of the United States and its allies after they defeated and then disbanded the Saddam Hussein-era force in 2003. As America’s role in Iraq fades, the results appear at best incomplete.
Iraqi forces - currently about 700,000 strong - have been largely responsible for security in Baghdad and other cities since 2009, carrying out their own raids and other combat operations against insurgents.
More than 10,000 Iraqi soldiers and police have been killed since the new force was established - more than double the number of American military deaths. Few if any military forces in the Arab world have as much combat experience within the ranks.
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Iraqis unable to defend their borders as US exits
Well, imagine that. America has taught the Iraqi military everything they know and yet the Iraqis can’t secure their own borders.
America has done a horrendous job of securing its OWN borders. Do you see a pattern developing here by chance?
“They can kick a door in and knock out a network’s leadership as good as anybody I’ve seen,” said U.S. Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen, commander of the NATO training mission, which will soon be disbanded. “I would say that they have the discipline and the tenacity to fight as well as anybody I’ve ever seen.”
Nevertheless, Iraqi forces have their work cut out for them. They will be operating in a country which, although quieter than a few years ago, saw more people killed, wounded and kidnapped last year than in Afghanistan, according to U.S. figures.
Seriously, we can teach them tactics, we can teach them theory, we can teach them proper use of weapons and everything else, but we can’t un-teach them their Muslim ways.
At some point in time, shortly after ALL of our military forces are out of Iraq, I am almost certain that Iraq will explode into a civil war, or, perhaps more correctly, a sectarian war between the Muslim factions that are in place in Iraq.
In an Islamic society democracy is only a word, it’s not a word that is understood, because democracy is 180 degrees the opposite of Islam and Sharia Law.
Even when Muslims are practicing Islam they are attacked by fellow Muslims because the brand of Islam that is practiced is not in line with a more radical, a more violent sect.
There is no way to overcome that type of mindset.
The departure of American forces this month also leaves Iraq vulnerable to threats from its neighbors - Iran to the east, Turkey to the north and Syria to the west. A major Arab country of about 30 million people with some of the world’s largest proven petroleum reserves is incapable of defending its borders in one of the most unstable parts of the world.
Iraq did a pretty good job of defending itself under the regime of Saddam Hussein, not against the might of the U.S. military, but they held their own against Iran, and no one dared to cross Saddam when he was in power. Just sayin’…
The Iraqi military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Babaker Zebari, has said it would take until at least 2020 for Iraq to defend its airspace. Without a well-trained and equipped air force, Iraqi ground forces would be hard-pressed to defend against incursions across borders with few natural barriers and little cover from vegetation.
“An army without an air force is exposed,” Zebari was quoted as saying in a report last October by the U.S. agency responsible for overseeing Iraqi reconstruction.
Well, here’s an idea; Iraq has all that oil, we NEED oil. The Dems screamed bloody hell and have carried on forever about Iraq being a War for Oil. Maybe Iraq can compensate the USA for it’s efforts with FREE oil.
There’s no way that can compensate for the loss of life that we suffered by freeing a people that are too weak to stand, so, if we’re going to end up defending Iraq, and I feel we will, why not get OUR oil from them, at NO COST, in a swap of services. It seems like the least Iraq could do for us for saving them from Saddam and the evils of radical Islam. Right?
If you detect a note of sarcasm in this post it’s because I have NEVER believed for even one minute that Iraq was a place where we needed to expend American lives and fortune.
Iraq has been as terrible waste of American life and wealth. The wealth can be made back, but the American lives sacrificed in the name of Iraqi freedom are lost forever, and if the United States walks out of Iraq now, and IF Iraq devolves into a state of Islamic civil war, all that we have done will have been done in vain.
Right now there is a migration happening. Thugs are coming from Somalia, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt and all over the middle east headed to the borders of Iraq. Iran is going to be arming them with Intel, weapons and men. There is a vacuum of leadership in Iraq, there is a people with little ability to defend themselves against what is coming. And as far as I’m concerned so-be-it.
I’m betting by February we will be inundated with images and stories of horrendous atrocities occurring in Iraq. But the stories will only come from Fox News and NEW MEDIA bloggers. The other media outlets will only show the rosy pictures and normal life in Iraq. Beware, those images will be taken from areas that have IRANIAN support.
This is an election risk for Obama. He promised to be gone from Iraq this year. 2012 vote doesn’t occur until Nov. of 2012. Lots of time between withdrawal and election day.
My bet is we are about to see Ron Paul’s strategy of non-involvement in action and it will be interesting to see how long it takes for American bleeding hearts call for a measured return to Iraq to assist… March is my guess.
IF a sectarian war erupts it will be nasty, and in MY opinion, there is nothing we need to do or can do to save Iraq… You can just save the bastards so many times, and after all, it’s still an Islamic regime, no matter what…
Not all the troops are coming home Fred. Some are going to Jordan:
US units exiting Iraq deployed in Jordan to forestall Syrian attack
And that changes not ONE word I said about Iraq…
WHY in the hell are we having to use OUR troops and OUR money to protect these oil rich Arab bastards from killing each other? Somehow, I can’t help but think that letting them have at it, in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Jordan is the right thing to do.
If a free and peace loving group emerges, great, but the 1st cry of Death to America or Death to Israel should be met with a nuclear strike that causes death and destruction of biblical proportions…
And that changes not ONE word I said about Iraq…
WHY in the hell are we having to use OUR troops and OUR money to protect these oil rich Arab bastards from killing each other? Somehow, I can’t help but think that letting them have at it, in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Jordan is the right thing to do.
If a free and peace loving group emerges, great, but the 1st cry of Death to America or Death to Israel should be met with a nuclear strike of biblical proportions…
I totally disagree Fred, Nukes are expensive and if we use em up wasting raghead camel humping pedofks we won’t have them available when China comes bill collecting… Let the ragheads kill each other off and provide them with bullets if they run out… Matter of fact that same tactic can be employed with gangs and the POS’s in Mexico….
I’d suggest Iraq follow our example of open borders, it will be fine I promise. Matter of fact I’m betting they can borrow our AtGen and Nappytano to tell the Iraqi people that their border is more secure than ever….
Ya know, if I didn’t know better, I would swear there was a touch of cynical sarcasm in there…
In case you forgot - Charlie Wilson and the CIA had been arming the raggers since the 80s or so, with billions of $$ worth of weapons and ammo - mostly ammo - and they have been returning it to us ever since.
I think we’ve “helped” over there enough. It’s time to build a water proof wall, about fifty feet high, and turn on the taps.
Either that, or let ‘em smoke the offspring of Fatman and Little Boy.
Yeah, but back in Charlie’s day the Afghans were our *friends*, they were fighting the Russians, the enemy of my enemy and all that crap…
It IS time to pull in the troops, fire up the satellites and Intel folks and gird our loins against what is surely about to come…
I think we’ve been in agreement all along - we never should have sent troops, and that place should have been a reflective surface a long time ago.
Indeed..
you caught that did ya? LMAO… Yeah a little bit of sarcasm just a tad.
Nukes may be expensive but we’ve got a lot of them. All it would take is one free-fall bomb to get their attention.