What do you think about the New Iraq Army?

[Sierra]

Do you think they will turn to a good nation and fight for Iraq or do you think they will become trained and turn on the U.S.? I personally think everything will be ok and I am hoping that everything will go smoothly.

[ChuckThunder]

Do you think they will turn to a good nation and fight for Iraq or do you think they will become trained and turn on the U.S.? I personally think everything will be ok and I am hoping that everything will go smoothly.

The ICD remind me of the ARVN. They have a few great guys that get into the insurgent cells from what I hear but they have a long way to go to become a standing army.

[16 OBr SpN]

I'd say it's too early to make any assessments of their quality and usefulness.
But personally, I'm rather pessimistic.

Regards,
16 OBr SpN

[Seoulstriker]

i'm rather optimistic. although some might use their training against the new iraq (there are always going to be some), most will be fighting for their country to establish freedom. i try not to be pessimistic. ;)

[Jooglae]

When I first read the news of Green Beret A teams training new counterinsurgency troops, it kinda reminded me of the CIDG and the Mike Force, during the Vietnam War. Both units were widely feared among VCs and NVAs for their ferocity in combat. If the US special forces are taking care of their training and drilling, I think that the new Iraqi forces would become indispensible for US troops in quickly stabilizing Iraq.

[Argyll]

Fighting for their country...............just like the insurgents are doing just now?
The Sunni's who are no doubt the majority behind the insurgents all had everything under Saddam,a Leader ,a Country a Currency,Law and Order to a degree,........now they have nothing......literally!
If someone like the Chinese invaded the USA and tried to change their way of life,their culture,and tried to impose Communism on everyone would you fight for your country with your last breath?

The new Iraqi Army will be needed to fight the Kurds when this whole thing goes **** up,and the Kurds start shouting about autonomy!

[Uncle Sam]

I give them credit for making it this far...It's really too early to tell what they will actually be like as a fighting force. But hey, gotta start somewhere.

[2Sheds_Jackson]

Fighting for their country...............just like the insurgents are doing just now?
The Sunni's who are no doubt the majority behind the insurgents all had everything under Saddam,a Leader ,a Country a Currency,Law and Order to a degree,........now they have nothing......literally!
If someone like the Chinese invaded the USA and tried to change their way of life,their culture,and tried to impose Communism on everyone would you fight for your country with your last breath?

The new Iraqi Army will be needed to fight the Kurds when this whole thing goes **** up,and the Kurds start shouting about autonomy!

The insurgents aren't fighting for Iraq, they're simply fighting against the US.

If a sense of national unity can be established and maintained for Iraq, the new Iraqi army will gladly fight the insurgents - as they are foreigners & are killing Iraqi civilians.

Your example of China invading the US isn't really the best example of what's happening. I think the imposition of communism on a former democracy is a completely different story than the reverse.

Society, left to its own, always moves to the left - thus the natural progression is towards democracy. So the people are naturally a lot more predisposed to agree with the development of democracy than with the imposition of communism.

Within your example though, disregarding the communism thing...it would still be inaccurate. It would be more like if China invaded the US & conquered us, then the Canadians and Mexicans streamed over the unsecured borders to fight the Chinese. After a while the Americans would be pissed off at the Canadians & Mexicans for constantly blowing up our infrastructure and killing our civilians.

[Dalleer]

Well, at this point I can't really say if the new Iraqi army is of any good, let's wait for a few years and see...

[Argyll]

National Unity?Between the Kurds the Sunni's and the Shia's.....fat chance,maybe for this short term to get the Iraqi Government set up.
They all hate each other with a vengeance,it's going to be interesting in 5 years time!!
The insurgents in Iraq have nothing left,so they fight whoever,in their country,I'd say the vast majority of them still believe that they can win against the invaders,otherwise why bother?,we've seen then become more organised and more sophisticated in rescent attacks

Same as Afghanistan,the Warlords have already started clashes with each other

[chushes]

they will be armed with bulgarian AKs :)

[usa320]

http://www.xbox-connection.com/hostedimages/1_4_34.gif

rofl

[StarvingStudent47]

I don't think they have nearly enough watch covers.

[haze99]

Chushes, the ICDC has been armed with not just Bulgarian rifles. But, Romanian, Hungarian, Chinese and East German, as well!

[mustamato]

http://a1112.g.akamai.net/7/1112/492/03312000/news.lycos.com/news/ot_getImage.asp?op=img&id=512797

http://a1112.g.akamai.net/7/1112/492/03312000/news.lycos.com/news/ot_getImage.asp?op=img&id=510719

http://eur.news1.yimg.com/eur.yimg.com/xp/ap_photo/20040102/all/l1011939.jpg

ICDC, equipped with old looted equipment. One of them lucky enough to atleast be wearing the old US bodyarmour. But in general no kevlar helmets or bodyarmour. Not to mention modern weapons. I think that for ICDC it would be a psychologically boosting factor if the americans atleast showed that they cared about their lives and equipped them properly, in a more "western" way. I mean, the cost of equipping them is not a very big one compared to what it costs to have 100.000+ soldiers there.

But it´s even worse for the Iraqi police. I can easily understand why US troops are killing them by mistake.

http://a1112.g.akamai.net/7/1112/492/03312000/news.lycos.com/news/ot_getImage.asp?op=img&id=510664

[scoone]

I think that it is well trained in police actions, the equipment should be better ,but , time will tell....

[garyfanclub]

Mustamo, Jesus Christ. Give us a chance, the Army has only been in existence for a few months, equipment standardization and uniform standardization are going to take time.

Body Armor? There are US troops still using the old style body armor and it's not because the Government doesn't care about their lives, it's because there simply aren't enough Interceptor vests to go around. You're so ****ing critcal of our actions yet you don't bother to reason through why these problems might exist. God forbid you place a suggestion on how to fix the problem.

[Seiyuuki]

It is better than nothing.