Iraq begrudgingly asks U.S. for help in battle of Tikrit

[PLC1]

and the US begrudgingly assents, but if and only if....

Instead Iraq turned to military advisers from Iran to help its fighting force of more than 20,000 men -- many of them from Shiite Muslim militiamen with Iranian links.A condition of the U.S. strikes is that the militias go home.

Al-Muttalibi admits that Iraq's army is feeble - despite the $20 billion spent by America to train and equip it.
"I think the American money was very badly spent by the Americans," he said. "The Americans produced for us a very weak, disorganized army filled with corruption that fell within the first battle."

Hmm... seems to me that 20B badly spent is just the tip of a very large money wasting iceberg, but how many troops did that 20B fund?

fighting force of more than 20,000

That's a million bucks per Iraqi soldier, isn't it?

source

 

[BigRob]

The list of mismanagement and bad decisions by the United States in handling the political situation in Iraq and training the Iraqi Army is far too long to list - frankly from day 1.

Failing to secure a SOFA agreement all but assured Iran would be a major player in Iraq - and here we are.

 

[Iolo2]

Crazy to get involved in sectarian wars. Support a united Kurdish state, and support it all out!

 

[BigRob]

Crazy to get involved in sectarian wars. Support a united Kurdish state, and support it all out!

If the goal is to stay out of "sectarian wars", why would we rush to support a Kurdish state?

 

[pocketfullofshells]

and the US begrudgingly assents, but if and only if....






Hmm... seems to me that 20B badly spent is just the tip of a very large money wasting iceberg, but how many troops did that 20B fund?


That's a million bucks per Iraqi soldier, isn't it?

source

a fighting force of 20,000 does not mean thats thats who all money was spent on....there are far more logistics and intel people who move supplies that all need to be trained but would not count as fighters....not to say we did not waste alot of money on training....what would have been a better idea would be to not break apart the whole military and they try to rebuild it...but that would have required planning and thought before the war started,

 

[pocketfullofshells]

The list of mismanagement and bad decisions by the United States in handling the political situation in Iraq and training the Iraqi Army is far too long to list - frankly from day 1.

Failing to secure a SOFA agreement all but assured Iran would be a major player in Iraq - and here we are.

more like day a year before started +

 

[Cruella]

The list of mismanagement and bad decisions by the United States in handling the political situation in Iraq and training the Iraqi Army is far too long to list - frankly from day 1.

Failing to secure a SOFA agreement all but assured Iran would be a major player in Iraq - and here we are.

Iran is Shiite, and for decades, Iraq, which has a Shiite majority, were suppressed by the Sunni minority. The split between Shiite and Sunni happened right after Mohammed died in 635, and they've been fighting ever since.

It makes sense that Iran and Iraq would become allied.

ISIS is Sunni, and they are trying to re-establish the Caliphate from the 700's.

 

[Aus22]

I think the West will have problems if it intervenes in the Middle East. For example does a united Kurdish state include parts of Turkey. If Iraq is to be Shiite what about Yeman, Why are we supporting Sunni Saudi Arabia against Shiits there/

 

[Walter]

if it intervenes in the Middle East

If? The west does so since tens of years...

 

[Cruella]

I think the West will have problems if it intervenes in the Middle East. For example does a united Kurdish state include parts of Turkey. If Iraq is to be Shiite what about Yeman, Why are we supporting Sunni Saudi Arabia against Shiits there/

The Kurds and are in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey in an area referred to as Kurdistan. They've been there since ancient times.

Yemen sits at the end of Saudi Arabia and is very strategic in shipping. All these countries depend on the waterways to export their oil. Yemen is Arab and I believe mostly Sunni. It's the Shiite Iranian backed rebels, the Houthis that Saudi Arabia is fight with. But they also have another problem, al Qaeda in southern Yemen is considered one of the most dangerous in the world.

ISIS and al Qaeda are both Sunni, and they have no problem killing their own.