No Iraqi Battalions Can Fight on their Own
by James Buchanan
Believe it or not, there are precisely zero Iraqi battalions capable of fighting the rebels on their own. A recent news article reports “The number of Iraqi army battalions judged by their American trainers to be capable of fighting the insurgency without U.S. help has slipped from one to none since September, Pentagon officials said Friday… However, in the longer run, the Iraqi military will have to reach a level of full independence so it can take over the battle against the insurgency and allow the Bush administration to withdraw American troops from the country eventually. When Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last September that the number of Iraqi battalions capable of fighting independently of U.S. troops had dropped from three to one, the news triggered an uproar among Democrats arguing for an early exit from Iraq.”
Just last summer Bush was throwing around a figure of 100,000 Iraqi army recruits ready (or almost ready) to fight the rebels. The same article notes “The size of an Iraqi battalion varies according to its type but it usually numbers several hundred.” We can’t even form one group of several hundred men that is willing and competent to fight?!! This is a disaster.
The truth of the matter is that the Iraqis see us as a foreign occupying power intent on stealing their oil. Any Iraqi who joins the so-called Iraqi army or police is seen as a collaborator. The Iraqi police have suffered worse casualties than the US military. We had a much better time in the Vietnam War. At least there, we got some traction with the “democracy versus communism” argument. Japan, Taiwan and South Korea stood as examples of relatively prosperous Asian democracies. Also, a large percentage of the population of Vietnam was Christian so there was some religious commonality.
In Iraq we are the “infidels” and the rebels fighting us are called “freedom fighters” by ordinary Iraqis. The population is overwhelmingly Muslim and suspicious of any apparent neo-colonialism by the West. The Iraqis defeated a British attempt at occupation in the 1920s so they know if they resist long enough, they will win. They also know that America will have a new president in the year 2008 and a new Congress in 2006.
The Communists in Vietnam stepped up attacks on South Vietnam just prior to the 1968 presidential election. The carnage and surprising resiliency of the Viet Cong convinced many Americans that Vietnam was hopeless. Nixon won the ‘68 election promising to bring peace with honor.
The current level of fighting in Iraq is enough to convince many Americans that Iraq is a hopeless quagmire. If the fighting gets worse or if terrorists infiltrate our leaky borders and attack within the US, the 2006 election could be a disaster for the GOP.
Bush has told the American people that US forces will stand down when the Iraqi army stands up. After almost three years, we can’t even produce one battalion of Iraqis capable of fighting on their own. It’s hard to imagine a more pathetic or futile situation. Clearly there will NEVER be an Iraqi army capable of fighting toe-to-toe with the rebels. There is only one sane course of action and that is to cut our losses and withdraw from Iraq. The only alternative is to continue to take losses with no end in sight.
If we want stability in Iraq, there’s always Saddam. He is literally the one man who could restore peace to Iraq, get the oil flowing at full capacity and get al Qaeda out of Iraq. Unfortunately our mentally-challenged president is committed to executing the one man who could solve our problems in Iraq.