US Defense Chief: Iraqis 'Showed No Will to Fight' ISIS in Ramadi

[DallasNE]

8. Exactly What Has Been Predicted

Lessons of Vietnam were not learned so we are seeing a repeat here in Iraq. ISIS is like the Viet Cong and the Baghdad government is so like the ARVN. We have attempted to train government forces for roughly a dozen years so the answer is obviously not more training. Shiite troops have no interest in defending Sunni residents so they turn and run. Who couldn't see this coming? So the "will" Ash talks about applies less to the troops that refused to fight than to the central government that lacks the will to govern effectively or appropriately. Nation building is something that we still have not learned how to do so we just put in place the conditions that are ripe for failure -- now how stupid is that. And, no, we did not have it "won" but left too early as Republicans now charge. Indeed, the "surge" and awakening planted the seeds for what we see today as it just force al Qaeda in Iraq to retreat into Syria when we failed to secure that border and where they regrouped, changed their objectives and returned with vengeance.