18 against an army

2015-01-13T00:47:00-05:00

Everyone bad mouths the Iraqis, but is it deserved?

From the Deseret Morning News

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765666145/At-Yazidi-shrine-Iraqis-recount-Islamic-State-battle.html

SHARAF AL-DEEN, Iraq — As thousands of Yazidis fled up the rocky slopes of Mount Sinjar to escape the Islamic State group during its rampage across northern Iraq last summer, 18 men armed with assault rifles remained behind to face the extremists and defend a holy site.

Behind their meager number stood the Sharaf al-Deen temple shrine, one of the holiest for the Yazidis, a religious minority whom the Islamic State group considers heretics ripe for slaughter. But despite the heavy machine gun fire and mortars lobbed at them, the men held the line and soon were joined by others, locals recounted recently.

"We really believe in it, and it's holy for us. That's why we are here to protect it from ...

18 against an army: Iraqis recount battle to protect holy site from Islamic State

As thousands of Yazidis fled up the rocky slopes of Mount Sinjar to escape the Islamic State group during its rampage across northern Iraq last summer, 18 men armed with assault rifles remained behind

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 13 at 2015 2:06 PM

2015-01-13T14:06:02-05:00

Hi, Colonel.

I'll lambast the Iraqi military. After Mosul fell so easily because they dropped their gear and ran in the other direction, I have yet to see anything that would make me change my opinion.

But these 18. That's heroic.

Response by COL Jason Smallfield, PMP, CFM, CM made Jan 13 at 2015 2:50 PM

2015-01-13T14:50:15-05:00

- All generalizations are just that. Generalizations. It is a way to understand a complex event, situation, or problem by breaking it down into a simple model.
- A math analogy would be standard deviation (think of a bell curve). There is a 95% probability that a data point is within one standard deviation of the center. This is a generalization.
- Are there data points which show that some Iraqis are competent and fierce warriors. Sure. The Kurds and Yazidis are two data points that support this statement.
- Are there data points which show that some Iraqis are not competent or fiece warriors. Sure. This is self evident when an enemy force of about 300 ISIS fighters are able to defeat an Iraqi force of 20K fighters.
- At the end of the day, however, ISIS controls significant portions of Syria and Iraq for several international, national, tribal, cultural, religious, and individual reasons. The key to countering this fact is a proper understanding of the current situation, how we/they got here, and what do we need to do going forward. Unfortunately, the US senior leaders can not or will not use the words "Islamic Terrorist" and think that ISIS is not Islamic (I wonder what the first "I" stands for then). Because of this we do not have a proper understanding of the situation which means the probability of coming up with a correct solution is very low.

Response by LTC David S. Chang, ChFC®, CLU® made Jan 13 at 2015 2:53 PM

2015-01-13T14:53:11-05:00

When I look at history, any new country (new type of government, leadership, etc) will always have difficulty in standing up their military. Many don't realize that during the Revolutionary War we had quite a few deserters, couldn't match up to the British in almost every account (in the beginning at least) and was very close to losing the War.

When the Korean War broke out shortly after the creation of South Korea, South Korea's military was virtually non existent and without the support of the US would have lost the war. There are quite a few other examples of this.

Bottom line I see is that in today's day and age we expect things to happen immediately. With social media, the internet, technology, when things take longer, we get upset and think something is going wrong.

With culture, and people's mindset, that can take generations to change. Most of the Iraqis lived through Saddam's reign and know little about being proactive and self-reliant. So when we came in, they didn't know what to do since they were used to only taking orders. I am generalizing here. The point I am trying to make is the the Iraqi military was weak not because of training, arms, resources (they had our support), but their mindset wasn't ready yet.

This is why I disagree with pulling out so early. South Korea would have been invaded again if the US pulled out, but as a result of taking the 65 years since the Korean War to help build the country, we now have Samsung, LG, Hyundai (and people like me!).

It took three generations before the success came through. I would it expect it to be the same for Iraq.