By Fatih Abdulsalam
Azzaman, December 26, 2014
Since the Iraqi army was disbanded in the wake of the 2003 U.S. invasion, talk about training the armed forces on the latest weaponry has been part of political rhetoric in the country.
But the new army that has emerged in the wake of the former army was disbanded has been merely a rag-tag collection of militia groups with full allegiance to their sectarian factions rather than Iraq as a nation.
The new army was brought together, trained and armed at a cost of billions of dollars while the world’s most formidable army was occupying the country and fighting a murderous insurgency and often, as we were told, with Iraqi army units on its side.
The weaknesses and defects of the new army were not easily discernible as the real fighting was done by U.S. troops before their withdrawal.
Jordanian prime minister in a recent meeting with Iraqi defense minister said his country has helped train 36,000 army and security personnel and that Jordan is prepared to train more.
The former Iraqi army has had a long history of good training the hands of the best military trainers in the west.
In the 1970s Iraqi military academies were the mecca of Arab countries many of whose officers were trained in them.
Today, following each military fiasco there is talk about the training of the Iraqi army. There is no mention that this training has been there in the past 12 years in which any political and military leadership could have built highly efficient professional armed forces in such a long period.
The training that has taken place for the new Iraqi army has been limited to light weapons despite the expenditure of huge sums of money.
Iraq is facing a disaster in military terms and what is needed is the formation of a new army with allegiance to the national flag and the country as a nation; an army that is only dedicated to the protection of the country’s national soil, territorial integrity and national wealth.
