Quote:
Originally Posted by Rikao4
I don't see a stable Iraq or region in my lifetime..
good genes here, I just need the luck to go with.
Dan, do you serve with Iraqi soldiers..
do you trust them further than you can shoot...
And while I trust my Lab. to run free,
the Rott's. stay on the leash,
It seem's Iraqi's do best on a spiked choke collar .
Rika
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Rika,
My experience with IA (Iraqi Army) is limited. But the GCE (Ground Combat Element) that our engineering cell works with have generally optimism at least as they relay to me. The security forces seem to be sorting themselves out the police are still in there infancy. We have seen this directly. SO what does this mean? Time will tell. In some of our operations we are seeing an eagerness for the IA to engage, but that is second hand.
Let me express some observations on the recent uprising in Basra. I don't want to go into how this happened, at least how the situation was allowed to fester but in a nut shell this was due to some stupid policy by the CF based on politics.
Some interesting observations is first, the IA engaged in the main fighting. Yes you have heard the stories regarding some IA units that are said to refuse to go in and take the fight to the enemy, but the vast majority of the IA fully engaged. Now think about who sought the cease fire? It was the Mahdi forces not the IA. This is cause for contemplation. First of all it is usually the side getting the shellacking that presses for the ceasefire. So I think and this is my opinion at this time is there is a high probability that the IA was kicking the crap out of the Mahdi Shia Forces.
The other take away is that this was Shia vs. Shia. This leads me to consider that the message in this is that both Maliki and Mahdi desire an Iraq. They are both Iraqi. Otherwise Mahdi would be pressing Iran to take over the south. Just food for thought, time will tell. But it does illustrate the complexity of the situations for westerners to understand.