**Some things arent adding up***

[ezrapound]

id agree Maliki last ditch effort to remain in power so to me this was all staged.  Also how can 4k terrorists take over an entire country that has apache helicopters, drones etc.. makes absolutely no sense lol and then we have everyone sitting idle watching their billions of dollars go up in flames.

 

P.S i do appreciate all the posts to start this discussion i have been noticing our media is taking advantage of this crisis.  NEVER ever trust our mainstream media they have been caught numerous times lying about benghazi, syrian war etc.. BBC is known to doctor fake pics of wars for propaganda they have been fined numerous times for such actions and yet they continue to do so.

When William Randolph Hearst sent his prize reporter down to Cuba to report on the "Spanish American war, supposedly caused by the sinking of the Maine in Havanna harbor, his reporter cabled back and said " W.R. there IS no war here". Hearst's now famous reply was " You supply the pictures, and I will supply the war"

[Maggie123]

I think I can speak to this one. This is not really an official analysis – but my opinion based on some personal knowledge, bits and pieces of public sources and some political analysis.  Excuse the length of the article – but this is a complicated one.

(Kind of feel like Rayzur on this one – LOL)

 

The US - and also other countries, particularly the UK - did spend copious amounts of money, manpower, and time to train and equip Iraqi forces. One of the goals of this training was to create a professional force - integrating all the demographics of Shia, Sunni and Kurd, into a cohesive unit that was as apolitical as possible. They set up training programs that mirrored a professional career progression, weeding out those who just didn't have the leadership skills. They tried to bring in an esprit de corps of belonging to something that transcended being Sunni, Shia, etc.

 

This took time - but by around 2009, you could see that it was having an effect. The Iraq Security Forces were actually taking the lead in most operations against terrorist groups – and they were being effective.   These were small scale operations for the most part, but the leadership and planning was done by Iraqi’s .

 

However – we knew that Iraq was still in the middle of “growing pains” when the US Military was pulled out. They had next to nothing for logistic operations – sot trying to get troops and equipment moved is a big problem. That, and now the control has become centralized. Maliki has taken the “commander in chief” title literally, and in many cases, Iraqi generals have to wait for an OK from the Prime Minister’s office to move troops.

 

Communications are actually sketchy at best, and intelligence gathering suffers because of that. They also have very few intelligence gathering systems, and primarily have to rely on observations from people in the area.  They don’t have any effective drone type observation platforms, they don’t have satellite capabilities, and they have almost no aerial observation assets – either fixed wing or rotor wing.   

 

They also have almost no air support capability. They were just receiving training for their first F-16 aircraft, and they have a few Apache helicopters, but very few trained pilots.  As a “grunt” – I can tell you I feel a lot more confident when I know I have some flying backup I can call if I need it.

 

So – now let’s look at what has happened to the actual leadership of the Iraqi Forces after we left. Maliki stopped most of the leadership training we had set up.  Instead of those who displayed leadership being moved into the positions, it became corrupt – much like the old Iraqi Army. Cronyism, extortion, bribes – those are what started to determine who became commanders. In just a few short years, the IA degenerated back into basically being sectarian militia.

 

That – I believe – has become the major issue. Even though the Iraqi Army outnumbers the ISIL fighters – and I’ve heard by as large a margin as 15 to 1 – if your leadership has already left, are you – the rifleman actually facing the guy shooting at you – going to stick around?  Because there is no longer a feeling of being part of an elite group - You ask yourself “Do I want to die for Maliki?”, not “Do I want to show them that I’m Iraqi Army and willing to defend Iraq?”  Huge difference – especially if you happen to be a Sunni soldier.

 

In total – this is really just my opinion, but I’ve given you a couple of articles that support these suppositions.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/collapse-of-iraqi-army-a-failure-for-nations-premier-and-for-us-military/2014/06/12/25191bc0-f24f-11e3-914c-1fbd0614e2d4_story.html

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/06/13/why-the-iraqi-army-collapsed-and-what-can-be-done-about-it/

 

Great Post Tankdude...

 

All I can add is this won't make sense until folks recognize this has become a civil war... it's not exclusively a terrorist intrusion.

 

Maliki's rule divided the country a long time ago... not only in the military but in the guberment too.

 

That is a big part of why the Iraqi military fell apart when ISIS came in... soldiers were forced to choose sides against Maliki.

 

Kurds in their part of Iraq... Sunnis in their part of Iraq... It's too late for Maliki to try and get a unified force together now.

 

They (Sunnis and Kurds) are now fighting for their own territories... while at the same time fighting to get ISIS out.

[Maggie123]

There was news yesterday about about how the Kurds have taken "friendly fire" from the air two times now... dropped by the Maliki.

[SnowGlobe7]

I think I can speak to this one. This is not really an official analysis – but my opinion based on some personal knowledge, bits and pieces of public sources and some political analysis.  Excuse the length of the article – but this is a complicated one.

(Kind of feel like Rayzur on this one – LOL)

 

The US - and also other countries, particularly the UK - did spend copious amounts of money, manpower, and time to train and equip Iraqi forces. One of the goals of this training was to create a professional force - integrating all the demographics of Shia, Sunni and Kurd, into a cohesive unit that was as apolitical as possible. They set up training programs that mirrored a professional career progression, weeding out those who just didn't have the leadership skills. They tried to bring in an esprit de corps of belonging to something that transcended being Sunni, Shia, etc.

 

This took time - but by around 2009, you could see that it was having an effect. The Iraq Security Forces were actually taking the lead in most operations against terrorist groups – and they were being effective.   These were small scale operations for the most part, but the leadership and planning was done by Iraqi’s .

 

However – we knew that Iraq was still in the middle of “growing pains” when the US Military was pulled out. They had next to nothing for logistic operations – sot trying to get troops and equipment moved is a big problem. That, and now the control has become centralized. Maliki has taken the “commander in chief” title literally, and in many cases, Iraqi generals have to wait for an OK from the Prime Minister’s office to move troops.

 

Communications are actually sketchy at best, and intelligence gathering suffers because of that. They also have very few intelligence gathering systems, and primarily have to rely on observations from people in the area.  They don’t have any effective drone type observation platforms, they don’t have satellite capabilities, and they have almost no aerial observation assets – either fixed wing or rotor wing.   

 

They also have almost no air support capability. They were just receiving training for their first F-16 aircraft, and they have a few Apache helicopters, but very few trained pilots.  As a “grunt” – I can tell you I feel a lot more confident when I know I have some flying backup I can call if I need it.

 

So – now let’s look at what has happened to the actual leadership of the Iraqi Forces after we left. Maliki stopped most of the leadership training we had set up.  Instead of those who displayed leadership being moved into the positions, it became corrupt – much like the old Iraqi Army. Cronyism, extortion, bribes – those are what started to determine who became commanders. In just a few short years, the IA degenerated back into basically being sectarian militia.

 

That – I believe – has become the major issue. Even though the Iraqi Army outnumbers the ISIL fighters – and I’ve heard by as large a margin as 15 to 1 – if your leadership has already left, are you – the rifleman actually facing the guy shooting at you – going to stick around?  Because there is no longer a feeling of being part of an elite group - You ask yourself “Do I want to die for Maliki?”, not “Do I want to show them that I’m Iraqi Army and willing to defend Iraq?”  Huge difference – especially if you happen to be a Sunni soldier.

 

In total – this is really just my opinion, but I’ve given you a couple of articles that support these suppositions.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/collapse-of-iraqi-army-a-failure-for-nations-premier-and-for-us-military/2014/06/12/25191bc0-f24f-11e3-914c-1fbd0614e2d4_story.html

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/06/13/why-the-iraqi-army-collapsed-and-what-can-be-done-about-it/

 

OOOps I re posted the whole thing...sorry guys....this is a great great piece if you ask me......thank you so much tankdude!!!!