The real reason "cowardly" Iraqi troops cave before ISIS . . .

[Scootaloo]

1. Three other reasons...

1) The Iraqi officers are largely corrupt and appointed to, rather than earned their rank. There have been no few cases of commanders cutting deals with Daesh, and splitting on their men to get away.

2) The Iraqis are over-equipped and under-trained. The Us sees the iraqi military as a customer, and has no interest in a capable Arab military existing in the middle east. So we basically just sell them gadgets and treat user manuals as "military training."

3) Perhaps the most obvious... this is not an overseas engagement for the Iraqis. If an iraqi soldier wants to abandon, home and family are within easy traveling distance. if Daesh is making gains against your position, are you going to stay there and fight and die, or are you going to break, drive the distance to your home and family and try to save what you can? Desertion was a HUGE problem for both sides of the US Civil War for the same reason