COMMENTARY | Nine years and $1 trillion later, we now find out Iraqi security forces are incapable of defending their own borders. This is ominous news for the U.S. military, which spent nearly a decade training the Iraqis.
They number more than 700,000, but Associated Press reported the Iraqi security forces are more trained for inner city and terrorist network combat than they are for protecting their own borders. That's not a good sign right now considering there are fewer than 7,000 American forces remaining in Iraq. The withdrawal will be completed before month end, leaving the Iraqis to protect themselves ? for a change.
Iraq doesn't really have that many external concerns at the moment. Iran is always a threat, but I suspect it is sufficiently distracted by the Israeli threat to worry about invading Iraq at the moment. Saudi Arabia isn't an aggressor, so that's a nonthreat as well.
Iraqi military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Babaker Zebari said defending air space will take until 2020, citing limited training, insufficient personnel and inadequate aircraft. All of those will take time and money to establish -- something Iraq needs to pay for on its own.
With Americans leaving en masse, Iraq will still be able to rely upon the expertise of a 16,000-man strong embassy detachment, including several hundred Marines. It might need to rely on their neighbors for additional military training, although it's hard to believe that after nine years of instruction it will still need more intense training.
CNN reports several hundred U.S. soldiers will remain in Iraq to facilitate arms sales and tie up loose ends. That has to be a disappointment for the Pentagon, who undoubtedly hoped for a more permanent base in the Middle East.
Regardless of Iraq's ability to protect itself, the American soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines that served there can stand proud for a job well done. Those who gave the ultimate sacrifice are patriots not only of this country, but of Iraq as well. It now rests with the Iraqis to defend Iraq.
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