Building Iraq's Army: Mission Improbable

[jzodda]

I just read a great article on the training and overall performance of Iraqi forces who are supposed to take over for us in Fridays edition of the Washington Post. Its a disturbing article because no matter how bad you may have thought things were, this article will leave you with the impression that the war is not something we can win.

Not only do the Iraqi forces have inferior training and equipment, they do not appear to have the will to win. They do not trust the US forces training them and our forces do not have any trust in them either. It reminds me of the situation in South Vietnam back in the early 1970s. Without US forces they could not hold out against the NVA. This tells me that if we stay we could be looking at a time frame of 10+ years if ever before the forces who are supposed to take over are ready to fight on their own. Very disturbing indeed.

You can check it out here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/09/AR2005060902245.html

[FreedomAngel82]

1. It's kinda hard

to do if everybody keeps getting killed. They won't have an army as long as we're there and doing the training. It's my understanding some Iraqi's think of them as traitors working with the US. I don't blame them.

[Erika]

2. The Iraqis neither threatened us or asked us to be there.

They have zero interest in our attempts there. Other than some rich Bush backers and protegees might see a profit.

Meanwhile, our taxes are being drained.

[gordontron]

3. sigh

you know we definitely won't leave until Bush is out of office. He has never admitted a mistake, and why change that policy now. The administration gets all of its Iraq news through a rose colored filter (mother Jones flash animation I think) so they will never be able to accept the mess that it is. with all the news coming out about prewar and postwar problems and corruption its amazing that anyone still supports this war.

[DrDebug]

4. Welcome to DU, Gordon :)

:toast:

[newyawker99]

5. Hi gordontron!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[jzodda]

6. I have noticed that

even among people who supported the war from day one are having a harder and harder time making arguments for it. All of the Bush spin is not translating well in the real world. The american people may be pretty stupid as a whole but even they have their limits when it comes to being manipulated. I would imagine articles like that do not make them happy over at 1600 Penn ave. Wonder if we will ever see an article like that ever get any play on something like Fox news or national review? How the conservative media can flat out lie to their listeners is beyond me.

BTW: Welcome to the forums! Its a fun place :)