Iraq army unwilling to fight ISIS

[Sgt. Rock]

Iraq's security forces lost around 2,300 Humvees to ISIS when they retreated from Mosul last year, according to the country's prime minister.

The United States has supplied Iraq with hundreds of millions of dollars in military hardware, including Humvees, and Defense Secretary Ash Carter recently claimed the country's forces "just showed no will to fight" against ISIS.

Humvees — or high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle (HMMWV)— vary in price greatly depending on the specific hardware with which they are fitted.

However, the State Department last year approved the potential sale to Iraq of 1,000 Humvees with increased armor, machine-guns, and grenade launchers for an estimated $579 million, according to a report by AFP.

Other cities have fallen to ISIS when the Iraq army simply threw down their weapons and ran...while even having a greater force in men and vehicles. Now with more and more of these vehicles, weapons and tanks in the hands of ISIS it will make it even harder to defeat them..most of it supplied by the good old U.S. taxpayers. What a can of worms we opened up when Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq.

 

[kwo51]

Or when obama took all the trainers and support troops out. For anyone that believes they didn't have weapons of mass destruction think again. We gave them the plants to build them ( IE) fertilizer plants. The part that pisses me off the most is we built them and payed for them with tax money. There now is lots of poison gas all over that part of the world.

 

[SilvrSRT10]

I believe it was also Bush that said not to withdraw too quickly or this might happen. And he/we went in with the Congresses blessing (all though 21 dems voted against going).

In any event, it's a combination of things that have transpired that has created this mess. I don't think we can hang this on any one person.

 

[Jo6pak]

There's plenty of blame to cover a lot of people in this mess.

We shouldn't have invaded in the 1st place.
We should have had a better plan for rebuilding the country

And in fact, there's very little we can do about anything that happens there now.

The only ones that gained anything are the weapon industry and Haliburton stock holders

 

[kwo51]

ISIS got millions of $ in equipment and weapons. They got the gold and we got the shaft.

 

[SilvrSRT10]

And if they could, they'd use our own equipment against us in a heartbeat. In a round about way, we could be contributing to our own demise if through gaining all this equipment makes ISIS strong enough to get a more powerful weapon. And if they should get their hands on a nuke, who do you think they'll want to use it on? Ferris, Ferris?

 

[priell3]

The Iraq army is the France of the Middle East.

 

[kwo51]

The gay us forces, if the truth be told.

 

[#860]

And now the U.S. Is getting ready to send them more weapons & equipment. lugged:

 

[Sgt. Rock]

Yeah let's send them another $500 million in weapons and vehicles and let those Iraq cowards abandon it all on the battlefield..so our allies can order more airstrikes and blow it all up once again. Enough is enough I say..sorry but this middle east quagmire will go on and on with or without our help. Only peace there will be in that region is when everybody is buried six feet under.

 

[Jo6pak]

The less the west meddles in the region, the better it will be in the long run. It's been a few centuries of western colonialism, then after WW1 the region was divided up randomly, with very little thought of the actual culture of the area. The powers that be at the time often drew borders right through a culture, in an attempt to keep them from forming nations that might become united and stand up against the interests of the west.
The Kurds for example, instead of giving them an autonomous country, they were split between Iraq, Turkey, Jordan, and Iran.
Other borders were simply convenient land marks that had nothing to do with the tribal structure in the region. Competing factions were stuffed into a "country" and then put under the control of a strongman dictator to keep them all in line.

The fact that the region is rich in oil only exacerbates the problems. Our invasion of Iraq and toppling of Hussein created a power vacuum, and the "Islamc Spring" movements in other country further destabilized things.

People want to blame Obama for pulling the troops out too soon? Was 10 friggin years of blood and gold not enough? If we left our men and women there for 10 more years, if would just mean we would be dealing with this same thing in 11. And at what cost? Bush Jr's little war has already cost us too much and gained us nothing.
"If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you do is to stop digging"

Sadly, now the only way to "fix" things is to let them fight it out.

 

[kwo51]

Seems like you could be describing the US and its statehood. Leaving some troops could have given the impression of support for the home boys,and stopped the takeover by Iran so soon. Our involvement there is huge even if no troops are on the ground. It's all about the $$$$. Every war cost to much and requires gold in blood and what do we get in return.Wars have been raging long before the US was formed and will still be going on after we are gone. Nature of the beast.