Iraqi Troops Not Ready for Mosul, Nor What Comes Next, Says Top US Commander
What’s different about the end of this Iraq war from the end of the last one? Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, who commands U.S. troops there now and also fought to liberate Ramadi six years ago, says he will leave the country this month confident that Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga troops have proven they can fight […]Kevin Baron writes for Defense One:
What’s different about the end of this Iraq war from the end of the last one? Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, who commands U.S. troops there now and also fought to liberate Ramadi six years ago, says he will leave the country this month confident that Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga troops have proven they can fight and defeat the Islamic State, or ISIS.
What comes after the fight, however, is up to Iraqi politics and even this veteran of Iraq would not venture to guess how well that will turn out.
“I’m not going to speak to the political stuff because I’m not wearing a tie,” MacFarland said Wednesday in Baghdad, giving likely his last battle assessment via video link to reporters at the Pentagon. “That’s not my place to talk about. But what I’ll say is, on the military side, the Iraqi security forces and the Peshmerga have proven that they can fight and defeat the enemy with really a fairly light touch from us. We’re only doing ‘advise and assist’ at a remove — and in specific locations. In the vast majority of the battlespace, they’re on their own, for the most part.”
