Submitted by Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
In one example of the difficulties in rousing the Iraq military to fully commit to engaging the Islamic State within Iraq, a Kurdish news source reports that soldiers are taking to bribery to escape their military responsibilities and returning home to avoid combat.
In some cases the bribes are so prevalent that up to half of military detachment soldiers are reported to have been released, making the army’s war efforts difficult and especially magnified in confronting terrorists waging war against their nation. Fear of war and the atrocities of their enemy is the primary motivating factor.
In a confidential meeting held earlier in week, hosted by Iraq’s Parliamentary committee on security and defense, a confidential source revealed:
“Participants in the meeting discussed the number of different sieges of the Iraqi army in the Anbar area and how many soldiers were being killed by members of the terrorist organization, the Islamic State.”
“Also discussed was the fact that there had been an increase in the number of Iraqi soldiers who were leaving areas where they could expect to see action – such as the provinces Anbar, Salahaddin and Diyala. This means that there are fewer than expected soldiers on the battlefields.”
Locals refer the deserters as “Astronauts” as they are said to float around not participating, eventually returning to their home world. The phenomenon is not new to the Iraq Army and often takes the form of the soldier offering their superior officer large amounts of cash such as partial or full salaries to not be reported for desertion, according to one officer, Kadhim al-Shammari.
Abbas al-Saadi was a soldier of a unit fighting the Islamic State in Tikrit but now has returned home to his employ as a taxi driver.
“If I was killed, who would look after my wife and three children? I love the military but I am worried about the IS group. They not only kill soldiers in battle, they behead them and burn them. That’s why I decided to give all of my salary to the officer in charge of our unit so that he would register me absent with leave.
Al Saadi’s salary is diverted to a superior officer while the unit is engaged in combat. He indicates he will return to his unit once it is transferred elsewhere in a “safer” location.
According to the parliamentary committee the numbers include Astronaut Soldiers who escaped upon the advance of the Islamic State and did not return. Iraqi units comprising five hundred soldiers now have to contend with three hundred.
Though the army imposes strict penalties against deserters, military law has proven to be ignored.
Member of Parliament Mathhar al-Janabi stated:
“Our security forces have a big problem when it comes to non-enforcement of military law. This makes members of the military unafraid of doing illegal things – such as being absent without leave, illegal killing and otherwise not carrying out their military duties.”
The remaining soldiers themselves experience difficulty in reporting desertions of the astronaut soldiers and the only available resource to receive their complaints is often the officers who took the bribes to begin with.
While the situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate, the corruption endemic within the Iraq Army is a contributing factor to the advancement of the Islamic State and makes the international effort to eject IS more difficult. The result possibly could lead to more international commitment due to necessity of prosecuting the war with reliable resources, a bad precedent to set as the west continues to be drawn in.
By Darren Smith
Source:
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Eric- that is one very selective choice of quotes to use in your blatant attempt to blame Pres. Obama for the current situation in Iraq. Why, I bet you blame Pres. Obama when you or someone in your family has a tooth ache! For starters, why don’t you look at what really happened at the end of Pres. Bush Jr.’s war with Iraq, you know, the one he declared was already won ( Mission Accomplished ring a bell?). It was Pres. Bush who signed off from further boots on the ground at the end of his term. American boots on the ground were not part of the deal when Pres. Obama became president. We’re not even talking about the costs it would have involved on top of the enormous expenditures American tax payers had already paid, not the least the lives lost and maimed on both sides. You don’t for a minute believe that the former leader, Maliki, and his successor aren’t engaged in cruel attacks on other groups, do you? If you do, then you’re once again selectively refusing to read about the horrible treatment of the Sunnis after Saddam Hussein found ‘his maker’. As an example, google whatever happened to many of the Iraqi women who are now forced to stay at home and make babies whereas before many of the Iraqi women were in school, university and working freely.
But, you seem the kind of fella all ready to go and solve the problems there, so, be my guest, strap on the boots and put actions behind your words. You can of course also pick one of the many other places where the US is meddling. Yemen, Syria, Lybia, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Somalia, Nigeria…
Darren, aren’t you tiring of Bush-bashing?
We need to put George W. Bu-shit into a uniform, and send him over to Iraq to straighten things out….. Let “Dummy” tell them to ‘bring it on’ again…
About the best the outside world can expect of a pirate territory like Iraq or Iran is a secular dictatorship which will keep the sects apart. The very best is to have the territories divided up by sect so that one dictator rules all the Kurds, one dick rules all the Sunnis, in a territory like Iraq and Iran and Syria. Never the Twain Shall Meet is a good parable. Forget any notion of Democracy Now. Maybe in fifty years. A solution to the ISIS thing would be for the formation of a truly international band of armies and airforces from Europe and the US to wipe them off the face of the Eartth with no exile into Nigeria. While we are at it deal with Somalia, Algeria, Nigeria, all the earias. Anything with an ear is somehow a bit queer. Take no quarter. Make em walk the plank. Drop the bodies of dead terrorists from planes onto their home towns and villages with simple name tags on them stating why they are dead. The only good ISIS is a dead ISIS. When the dust settles and all the perps are dead then set up a dictatorship in each area with boundaries warding off the various religions. Build Berlin Walls. Include the Russians in this endeavor.
Well, I am not at all surprised by this. The Chicken should be their national bird. Anyway, an Irish Poem for them!
Baghdad Knights???
An Irish Poem by Squeeky Fromm
No, the officers are not averse,
To fattening up their own purse!
And the Iraqi soldier?
He could not be bolder!
For he loves to advance, in reverse!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
There is a difference between our Civil War and the Iraqi army situation. People paid others to go in their place. That option didn’t last very long.
like american civil war
macat, I think you summed up very well the angst myself, and many feel. But, my gut tells me we need to destroy ISIS.
Nick – That’s what I wind up feeling. I hate this endless war, but ISIS/ISIL scares the shit out of me.
Top of the 9th, 2 outs…Nats up 1-0!!!
Sandi Hemming,
My understanding is that the Iraqi Special Forces are cohesive. I infer that the leadership breakdown is happening in non-elite units.
Obviously Iraq’s government needs to find the officers taking money and execute them. Other officers will be intimated. Punishment for deserters should be harsh. What happened to that Republican Guard?
Paul C. Schulte: “What was old is new again?”
No, just crappy officers.
War has done so much for Iraq … can’t they see that?
Some cultures evidently do not see the glory in war.
Imagine that.
These paper soldiers used to be a major part of the pay packet of an officer of His/Her Majesties Forces. As soldiers died or deserted, they were kept on the official rolls and their pay went to the commanding officer. Assuming the unit was not engaged in action, you could pick up a tidy packet over time.
What was old is new again?
maxcat06,
Don’t forget, the regime change didn’t cause this – our leaving Iraq prematurely caused this.
This was Iraq as we left it, as marked by President Obama in May 2011:
If we had left Europe and Asia prematurely in the early-mid 1950s, it’s likely bad things would have happened. Some folks would have blamed it all on FDR for WW2 rather than Eisenhower for leaving too early.
Don’t forget, too, the nature of Saddam’s regime.
From Situation of human rights in Iraq, [United Nations] Commission on Human Rights resolution 2002/15:
From the UN Special Rapporteur on Iraq, Andreas Mavrommatis in E/CN.4/2004/36, E/CN.4/2004/36/Add.1, 18-19 March 2004:
The right answer for Iraq is neither Saddam nor ISIS. The right answer was for the US to stay to protect and continue progressively building the peace with Iraq.
maxcat06: “Why, again, did we involve ourselves in Iraq?”
Saddam brutalized Kuwait and when the international community requested that he stop and go, he bit down harder and tried to expand the conflict.
maxcat06: “I’m not really going on a GWB tirade, but I believe that’s why his dad didn’t remove Saddam…he knew the horror to follow.”
Not really. HW Bush understood that Saddam in power as is, unreconstructed, was intolerable.
Excerpts from President HW Bush’s statements in Remarks on Assistance for Iraqi Refugees and a News Conference 1991-04-16:
http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/public_papers.php?id=2882&year=1991&month=4
HW Bush believed Saddam had to go, but instead opted to give Saddam a 2nd chance to show he could be trusted with the peace by proving compliance with a strict set of standards laid out by the UNSC resolutions of the Gulf War ceasefire. The UNSC resolutions of the Gulf War ceasefire were enforced under Public Law 102-1, which authorized the Gulf War.
Despite that Clinton had declared “Iraq has abused its final chance” in 1998, Bush, like his dad, opted to give Saddam yet another chance to comply with the GW ceasefire in 2002-2003. Saddam didn’t, and 12 years on, Saddam’s very extended 2nd chance to prevent regime change finally ran out.
This is where I have a terrible problem in that I’m of two minds about the entire mid-east situation. My knee-jerk position is that of rafflaw’s…why ARE we helping these people? Then I remember Colin Powell’s “Pottery Barn” rule, and I must admit that a lot of these problems were the result (and still are) of Western meddling, going back to Empire building in the 19th Century. I also don’t know whether to take the ISIS/ISIL threat to “our very existence” at face value, or if it can be considered a regional threat. I feel for the ethnic minorities facing what is basically existential horror, again if all is to be believed. HOWEVER, and I know I’m going in circles, fighting ISIS/ISIL now seems to put us on the Assad/Iran side of the equation. Why, again, did we involve ourselves in Iraq? I’m not really going on a GWB tirade, but I believe that’s why his dad didn’t remove Saddam…he knew the horror to follow.
rafflaw: “And why are we helping these people?”
This – http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2014/sc11520.doc.htm – for starters.
And why are we helping these people?