Matt Fecteau: Iraqis Need to Find the Will to Fight

Tuesday, June 02, 2015

Matt Fecteau, GoLocalProv Guest MINDSETTER™

Today’s Iraq headlines might as well be ripped from 2006.

It is a familiar story. We continue to train additional Iraqi brigades. We continue the escalation of United States troops in Iraq. We are going to turn the tide any day now. We are making “progress,” and we are the verge of winning against those genocidal, religious maniacs who brutally torture, and kill everyone, or so we are told.

Send in more US troops and everything will be hunky-dory, and I have a bridge to sell you too.

Breathing Room

Let me make this clear: even with the US troops, we didn’t win in Iraq. The 2007 Iraq surge, which I was proudly a part of, was designed to create breathing room for political reconciliation.

With the surge, as the narrative goes, we only temporarily won. US forces merely fought Iraqi insurgents to a draw, and teamed up with the more secular insurgents to combat al Qaeda in Iraq.

With the lull in violence, we took this as our cue to leave.

We crossed our fingers hoping the Iraqi government would get its act together. Unfortunately, you cannot tell a group of people fighting for thousands of years to grab a beer and reconcile. It doesn’t work that way.

While the corrupt, inept Iraqi government is nascent, Arab tribal linkage goes back before the beginning of time. Saddam Hussein kept them in line only through sheer brutality and tyranny, something incapable with any contemporary democracy.

Currently, Iraq is a quasi-functioning state more subservient to their respective tribal rules than national laws.

Flirting With Disaster

While US forces have yet to commit a massive force size, the flirtation with further intervention in Iraq continues unabated.

The Republicans seem to be the more hawkish on the subject. Republican presidential candidate and former New York Governor George Pataki calls for a robust US troop presence in Iraq. US Senator and Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio joined the chorus calling for an “expanded” US presence.

The list goes on. US Senator and Republican presidential hopeful Lindsey Graham called for a troop presence of at least 10,000 US troops, and former governor of Texas and potential presidential candidate Rick Perry is open to all options on Iraq.

Even Iraq War hating President Barack Obama tacitly, slightly agrees. The US government sent additional advisers over, and increased the troop foot print in Kuwait. Special Forces conduct covert and clandestine operations like clockwork.

The Ultimate Counterinsurgents

Let’s learn from history.

In mid-2007, with roughly 150,000 US troops on ground, just under half or only fifty thousand were committed to direct combat roles. The majority were absorbed by auxiliary or support functions, normally the case for a conventional US forces.

In contrast, during the same period, approximately 100,000 Sunni tribesmen joined with the Shia-led Iraqi government to destroy al Qaeda. Unlike conventional US forces, these respective armed militia members were maneuver or combat elements, spoke the language, understood the culture, and lived within the area. They were the ultimate counterinsurgents.

The tribal revolt tipped the scale in our favor. We did the best they could, but the success was attributed more to the tribes than US troops.

The ephemeral Sunni-Shia alliance was in response to a greater evil, al Qaeda. Once that evil dissipated and with US forces’ departure, they went back to fighting. The Islamic State took advantage of this chaos.

No Will to Fight

Embarrassingly, after nearly a decade in Iraq, with all the money, the weapon superiority and training, when confronted by a far smaller, less sophisticated foe, Iraqi troops just walk away as they did in the city of Ramadi.

As US Defense Secretary Ash Carter puts it, Iraqis have ‘no will to fight.’ That sums up the problem. US forces can do everything for the Iraqis, but fight their wars.

This is a lesson that should be heeded today. An expanded US role will likely do little, but infuriate the war-weary, despondent Iraqis giving our enemies a propaganda victory.

The United States should contain the Islamic State, but it ends there. We cannot afford to referee any more thousand-year-old conflicts.

In 2007, the Iraqis found the will to fight al Qaeda. They need to find that will again, whether with conventional Iraqi troops, or tribesmen. Increased US troop levels will do little to stem the tide in the new war against the Islamic State.

Matt Fecteau ([email protected]), of Pawtucket, lost to U.S. Rep. David Cicilline in last year’s Democratic primary. He is a former White House national security intern and United States Army veteran with two tours to Iraq