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:
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
Annie: “Thanks Bush for creating the vacuum that created ISIS.”
Consistent with President Obama’s view on Iraq in May 2011, which I quoted upthread, while our peace-building forces were still in Iraq, is the State Department view of Iraq at that point:
http://iraq.usembassy.gov/american-iraqi.html
Clearly, blaming President Bush for current events in Iraq relies on the fallacy of attenuated causation.
The proximate causes of the crisis in Iraq are, one, the construction of ISIS in Syria that combined with, two, the U.S.-abandoned vulnerability of Iraq. Both conditions arose from post-Bush events, such as the degeneration of the Arab Spring, that are related to policy course changes made by Obama that opted to ‘lead from behind’ and fundamentally deviated from Bush’s progressive liberal foreign policy.
Sandi Hemming: “Yes, I think Iraq had a chance at democracy.”
Correct. But Iraq needed our help and protection to continue its progress.
From the United Nations Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic
Review *Iraq, 15 March 2010:
After 9/11, it was the Saudis who should have been punished. Unfortunately, we not only didn’t go after them we continued to treat them like honored friends or masters. Scraping and bowing. We attacked Afghanistan but we allowed the Saudis to continue to fund terrorists and immediately after the attack allowed the BinLaden Family to leave by plane with our blessings, no interrogations nothing. The Saudis behead humans and apply sharia law, a justice system the Justice Minister of SA has said is perfect because it comes from god. Afghanistan was attacked because it was going to be so easy according to the folks in the White House and they couldn’t upset the Saudis.
Bush was “in charge”. These were his decisions. End of story. We are now paying the price.
Justice Holmes – I know that you would not want evidence to get in the way of a good myth but here is snopes on the whole Saudi thing. BTW, Richard Clark was in charge of making decisions and it went no higher. He said no.
http://www.snopes.com/rumors/flights.asp
Yet we continue to pretend that Iraq is a bona fide nation.
Mike A – since it is recognized as such by a number of nations, yes Iraq is a nation. Not sure whether you are trying to make a joke or what?
maxcat06, Annie. What would you have done after 9/11? Say Gore was Pres, what would he have done? Do you know what other countries had pledged? No, well Japan pledged to restore Babylon to what it was before Saddam drained the water. Schools were built, desks, books, paper, pencils, etc., were sent to Iraq. Little girls were going to school for the first time. Medical supplies were sent, and Doctors went to teach the new equipment and procedures. Yes, I think Iraq had a chance at democracy. I do think other countries should have done more. The military, not just Generals, wanted to stay. They had worked with the people and knew what would happen. How many wars did this country fight to get our democracy? Revolutionary, 1812, Civil (lost a million Americans in that one). WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam, Gulf wars. Freedom comes at a great price and democracy takes constant vigilance. Btw, the vacuum came after the troops came home. Read Panetta’s book, I plan to. Already have Gates and 13Hours in Benghazi. As to the water’s edge comment, did you feel that way when Reid announced we had lost the war, while our military was fighting in Iraq? He was wrong. We won the war, Obama lost the peace.
Sandi –
I know exactly which countries offered help. I also know how many also offered actual military assistance. Sure, schools were built, doctors and hospitals flourished, but you know what? Democracy has to be a groundswell, a people generated movement. Purple fingers mean nothing when people vote for their Sunni or Shiia representatives over the religious opposition. We trained up an army in Iraq that deserted at the first sign of fight. Is that the sign of democracy? I know all about United States history; in fact, majored in it. We desired democracy and came from a history of a free people. That’s a major difference from the mid-east. We WON the war?? With Nouri el-Maliki left in power? Are you kidding? Iran was running him from the moment he took power, and no American contingency force would have stopped it. He was the democratically elected head of Iraq. The Shiias wanted him as he was their man after years of Sunni backed Saddam. The U.S. Generals thought they could control the Shiias, then had to turn to the Sunnis in the middle of the war when things started to go bad, and they did prop things up for awhile. Read all the books you like, especially by those once in power who now want to cover their behinds. We never should have been in there in the first place.
Oh, and as to what Gore would have done? Perhaps would have read the “Bin Laden determined to attack in U.S.” PDB…perhaps not invade a country that never attacked us. I don’t know. You tell me…you seem to know what Democrats would do.
maxcat06 – if you had majored in US History you might have learned that we were NEVER a democracy, we are a republic, except for a few town halls on the East Coast there are no democratic governments at any level in the US of A. Somewhere in your history courses you should have learned that. 😉
Paul – The majority of Americans call us Americans. Yes, we are a Republic. I imagine that negates all I have written, as I chose to take the easy route. Mea culpa, it won’t ever happen again. In fact, I’ll be too busy scrutinizing your posts for nit-picky mistakes to post much at all. It’s posts such as yours that pulled me away from here several months ago.
You win…I don’t know history.
maxcat06 – please don’t leave. I enjoy your comments even when I do not agree with them. There are times when I nitpick as you say, but I would say it is pretty basic to the knowledge of our government to know its form. Annie, falls back on Jonathan for his take. I go with mine. Whatever it is, it is not a democracy. 😉
You are free to nitpick as you wish. Many before have. Most of them have left because when they do, then I do the same to them. For instance, JT does not edit his blog. I wish he would. As a former English teacher it drives me crazy when he makes grammar and spelling errors. However, I have grown used to it. Still, from time to time I have jumped on something that I think is factually wrong in the material he has written. He misspelled a word the other day that gave a whole different meaning to the topic. Someone else got to him before I did. 🙂 I am embarrassed when I reread something I have posted and see I have made an error. WordPress needs an edit feature. Sometimes I can correct it in the next line and sometimes I just move on to the next thing.
When I visit my family we’re always so happy to see them, and they us, we have no time for commenting on blogs.
We shouldn’t have meddled in Iraq to begin with. Who cares about Bush? He was a joke and bit off more than he could chew with Iraq. Thanks Bush for creating the vacuum that created ISIS.
We could have had a better Iraq. Lots of expats with money were going to return and invest. We never got the place safe enough. Probably could have but for constant yammering at home. The Marshall Plan saved Europe after WWII. Austrian Prime Minister said that in a speech last year. More important to Dems that Bush not have success than Iraq becoming a democracy, plain and simple. Obama could have continued that course, but he’s just against war for anything. What if he’d been President on 9/11?
Thank you Sandi, for letting this Democrat know what she has been thinking. I never knew what was in my own mind, but now I’ve had someone articulate it. Please stop. The “constant yammering at home” is called democracy, similar to the yammering I hear now from the Republicans. It’s quite amazing that you should presume to speak for all. I never believed that Iraq would become a democracy, because they weren’t really wanting one, but that didn’t mean that I wanted it to fail because of President Bush. That’s a juvenile assumption, I’m sorry. Democracy? Pakistan and Iran hold elections; are they democracies?
There used to be a slogan that “politics ends at the waters edge”. That would be lovely to put back into practice, but I doubt that either party wants to.
I would like, however, to see how you imagined we’d pay for the new Marshall Plan when we can’t even seem to fix roads and bridges.
The Austrian Prime Minister, along with countries around the globe, could have made far greater contributions to the Iraq war, or to the situation now. So far, I don’t see much evidence.
Mango, you can stop with “…in a continuous conflict”. No need at all to define a location. Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, other smaller affairs, all have to be paid for, and that is just the direct US involvement. Sure there are other colorable reasons for conflict, but money is none the less being spent, and lent. There is probably no stopping it, but tat is an entirely different game than the ones we each play every day. (It is not “dis” analogous to the advertising that funds NFL, but certainly a much lower level of potential harmful impact.)
maxcat, We’re supporting each other. I picked the Nats v Tigers in the WS back in March. I just crapped out w/ the Tigers.
Well, Nick, if the Nats go down, I’m backing KC for the series. I’m not ever abandoning my Nats, but do need someone to pull for in October. It’s bad enough that there’ll be five months without baseball!
Well, if you go the excuse for war route, you are begging the question. Then you have to see the look of glee on the face of the banks, as it has been since the banks found life. Funding is consistent and need not choose a side, since it could be that both sides loose at the expense of cash. (See this all the time in the courthouse.)
Oil is one answer but so is an excuse for war: it makes money for some quicker than oil & drugs.Hopefully my post using the ‘b’ word on the Illuminati will be cleared or moderated.
So I can say Illuminati, but not the ‘b’ word for illegitimacy…
tl – children are no longer b**tards by birth.
Raflaw, I did not see an answer to your original pose, but the answer is OIL.
Not so much helping them, but helping the business interest that are mining the oil in the country. Really, isn’t that obvious by now?
I have a general question to pose. Is it possible that the “educated” in this locale have developed, over the centuries in which they have survived, a different view of who will be in charge as we have in America? There is more, but that is a good start.
Well, that’s just wonderful.
maxcat, I went out to dinner w/ friends last night. It was a great restaurant w/ no TV. I can abide that. Anyway, the Nats were up 1-0 when we went in and it was tied 1-1 in the 15th when we got out. I have XM Radio and listened to the Giant’s feed. I like Jon Miller. Got home and saw Belt hit his bomb. What happened in that game is what happens all the time now w/ the “walk off homer” syndrome. Obviously only the home team can have a walk off but both teams fall into the heroic homer syndrome. Players forget about manufacturing a run. We can thank Sports Center for this diminishing of our sport. Sorry for your loss, kid. Just got to win 2 on the road and get home. That’s the way to look @ it. They’ve won 2 on the road many times. Scratch and claw your way to game 5.
Nick –
Don’t I know it. That game was agony. Odd thing about the Nats, and this was all season long, one game they’d score one run, or lose by one, and then the next, it was an 8 run blowout. They know base-running, and the 1 and 2 spots are particularly good at a one, two punch. I had worried, however, towards the end of the regular season, that most of the games, even though won, were low scoring. You’re right, though, and we have been capable of winning three in a row. Thanks for the support!
The Iraqi soldiers are no more cowardly than the privileged princes of Saudi Arabia. I don’t know how the President expects to “win” anything in the Middle East with people who don’t want to fight and in many ways agree with ISIS at least until ISIS is in their neighborhood and working their dark magic.
We need to bring our money home. We are still going to be pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into Afganistan. I guess the new “rulers” want a Karzi size bank account before they too start “talking” to the Taliban.
Our roads are crumbling. We cannot even make sure a traveler from Liberia who becomes sick gets quarantined properly in our own cou try. Our people are struggling but WE are going to fix the world. Crazy.
BarkinDog
Sects, sects, sects. Is that all you ever think about?
Add:
Me: “… eg, the the peace operations following the recent regime changes in the Balkans and Afghanistan.”
Els DL,
Note that the Kosovo and Afghanistan peace operations, both of which began before the Iraq mission, are still on-going. So even setting aside the post-WW2 peace-operation precedents, even by the standard of peace operations contemporary to the Iraq mission, our 2011 departure from Iraq was distinctly premature.
Els DL,
See http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/29/blame-the-obama-doctrine-for-iraq.html# .
Els DL: “Mission Accomplished ring a bell?”
“Mission Accomplished” was a banner on the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier which had indeed accomplished its mission. The mission of enforcing the credible threat of regime change that enabled Saddam’s “final opportunity” (UNSCR 1441) to comply with the Gulf War ceasefire resolutions was accomplished.
At the same time, peace operations – including the security and stabilization mission – following regime change in Iraq were “expected” in US law and standard in UN and US policy, eg, the the peace operations following the recent regime changes in the Balkans and Afghanistan. (Obama’s Libya intervention with regime change but without peace operations was a radical departure from standing US policy.)
President Clinton, 1998:
President Clinton, 1998:
Public Law 105-338, 1998:
President Bush, 2002:
Public Law 107-243, 2002:
PL 107-243 again:
UN Security Council Resolution 1511, 2003: