WASHINGTON
The Iraqi military’s will to fight has been hollowed out by a lack of proper leadership and resources, Army Gen. Mark Milley said Tuesday.
President Barack Obama’s pick to be next Army chief of staff told senators during his confirmation hearing that shortly before U.S. forces withdrew from Iraq in 2011 “Iraqi security forces were willing to fight”.
Since then, however, “their chains of command have been decimated, and they weren’t getting proper pay and training went down the tubes,” he said.
“Bottom line: if three or four years go by and you lack training, you lack money and you lack equipment, you lack spare parts, and most importantly you lack a competent, capable, committed leadership, then you can certainly understand why units fell apart last year during ISIS’ offensive.”
Iraqi security forces notoriously melted away during Daesh’s incursion into Mosul last year, allowing the extremists to capture Iraq’s second largest city largely uncontested.
And earlier this year, Iraqi security forces retreated from the embattled city of Ramadi when Daesh launched a separate offensive to reclaim Anbar Province’s capital from government forces.
The city’s fall was a major blow to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, and Obama, as they seek to oust Daesh from Iraq and Syria.
