Three Wise Men: Iraqi Soldiers Not "Standing Up"

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Three and a half years of training, and this is the result.

Nat-Wu said...: Well, you know, it takes a long, long time to build a professional army. We've been rebuilding ours since the dark days after the Vietnam war, and now I'd put our troops up against anyone in the world for readiness, training, and experience. Iraq's "professional" army was mostly a conscript army that had about enough much professionalism to be called a militia. The only units that were decent at all were their "elite" Republican Guards, guys who got to train using actual ammunition. They were still never in the same category ours were. The best thing to do would have been to remove these guys from Iraq for training, and keep them away for months. But we couldn't afford to do that. There are those who thought the Iraqi army was going to be rebuilt in the middle of a civil war. They've been proven wrong.; 11/1/06, 3:23 PM
Alexander Wolfe said...: Good point. I didn't mean to imply that after 3 1/2 years, Iraq's army should be completely ready to take the field a la our own military. And I agree with you completely that the need to throw these guys out as soon as possible has only made it less likely they'd be able to fight.; 11/1/06, 3:27 PM
Alexander Wolfe said...: Good point Fan Boy.; 11/4/06, 12:06 PM