When did the Iraqi military become such a crack squad of hot-shots?

[underpants]

In all this "surge" conversation by the administration and thier minions in the press it seems to me that everyone has been taking a big leap and making another huge assumption.

The assumptions that this war was not planned around are numerous and well documented so I don't need to go back over those.

All I hear about the Iraqi military is that there are ___ battalions ready to go ....well maybe a few less than that actually only __ are ready to go well maybe less than that

Then there is the fact that there is a steady stream of infiltrators in and out of these units. They join up and get a uniform ( not sure if that is real or an excuse) or they learn the techniques or they just leak schedules so their buddies in the "insurgency" can either hit or evade the Iraqi forces and the US soldiers in or around them.

I also SEE what looks like a ragtag operation of flunkies who seem barely able to line up their zipper with their belt and shirt buttons let alone be competent in any other phase of life.

Oh and there was the classic footage of the Kurd unit instaneously quitting when they found out they wouldn't be protecting Kurdish areas but Sunni areas instead (The Daily Show if you want to look it up on YouTube).

So the questions are:

When did the Iraqis go out and get people who can actually fulfill this mission?
Why is no one else asking these questions?
Are the Iraqis just going to be used as a good excuse for why this failed too?

[Norquist Nemesis]

1. And when all else fails, they can just call in air support strikes

from US.

[underpants]

3. Funny story

We had a guy in my unit whose answer to everything was "MLRS" Multiple Launch Rocket System-this is the box of missiles that fires off the back of a flatbed. It will kill and entire gridsquare on a map (1K x 1K).

Sgt"Okay you see a platoon of unfriendlies walking..."

Solder (interrupts) "MLRS!!!"

We all laugh

Sgt "You can't just..."

Soldier (interrupts again) "MLRS!!!"

:rofl:

He used to have us rolling.

[eleny]

2. Dust off your hip waders and grab a manure bailer

[JohnnyRingo]

4. I don't see how the Iraqis can "stand up" to defend their own country

I haven't seen or heard of any kind of Air Force. Pix of young Iraqi fighter jocks training in the F/A-18s would be a propaganda slam-dunk. Apparently that will be our job.

Artillery and helocopter regiments are vital to any desert warfare. I guess that'll be up to us as well.

Tank Corps? gotta have it to protect any country in that neighborhood. Saddam had the largest in the Middle East. I suppose we'll have to up our commitment there too.

Just as the White House planned.

The Administration said from the beginning that we wanted the Iraqis to maintain a 250,000 man "security force" and a 12,000 man army.

It's seems apparent that our goal is to create an "army" of policemen to enforce our rule over their own cousins, neighbors, and friends at the barrel of obsolete rifles with limited ammo. Good luck with that.

There is no exit strategy...ever.

[twilight_sailing]

7. Well said, JohnnyRingo

[underpants]

9. Just because you haven't seen them doesn't mean they don't exist

see gratuitous's post below about the leaps of faith in magic necessary to truly show your patriotism.

psst :hide: from what I hear they have an air force but .... (looks around) :hide: they have it hid out IN the sand.

and you don't even want to know about their Unicorn Cavalry.

[gratuitous]

5. Elementary, my dear underpants

When Bush, the Great and Powerful, called them into being. See, in unguarded moments, the Republicans have shown that they believe in magical thinking. That simply by naming something, it happens. For example, the war is going badly not because of any concrete physical things that have happened, but because some dirty fucking peacenik hippies haven't believed strongly enough in war as a solution to all problems. Bush and Cheney have both been caught in front of open microphones saying that the solution to many problems would be to sit down with someone and tell them to "knock that shit off," and wa-la! problem solved.

So, by telling us that the Iraqis are fully trained and capable of providing for their own defense, and that ethnic considerations (which to the untrained, unmagical eye seem insuperable) have simply faded away. Mr. Al Maliki, being on notice that everything is hunky-dory with Iraq's military, should now simply act as if Sunnis, Kurds and Shiites will all work together seamlessly because Bush has said it is so.

Jeez, it's like all you Bush haters just don't understand anything!

[underpants]

8. I notice that I haven't seen any footage of these Iraqi troops

or are they so high-speed that they can't be filmed either because they move faster than the camera can capture or because that would tip off the enemy to their methods and techniques-or somewhere in the middle?

Do they have a Cav unit that rides unicorns?

[The_Casual_Observer]

6. It's just a replay of the con job about the capabilities of South Vietnamese

"army". It's been 30 + years & they figured everybody has forgotten.

[nada republic-cons]

10. they became hot-shots when the stolen, solid gold

rifle was returned to its rightful owners - the Iraqi people.

I don't remember who was caught with it - a US or a Brit?

I think it was found in Britain? Who has possession of it
now - Blair? the Queen? Deadeye Dick?

[underpants]

11. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[nada republic-cons]

12. Thanks! I like your name ;)