Malak Ghobrial of Reuters is reporting that:
Iraq may need three years to rebuild and restructure its military, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Sunday, as the country battles Islamic State militants who pose the biggest threat to its security since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
There was an Iraqi army and it had been amply funded, equipped, and trained by the United States. That army consisted of:
… at least 14 divisions on paper before Islamic State toppled the north’s biggest city of Mosul and soldiers deserted en masse.
Now:
… creating a more effective army could be challenging while [the country] fights Islamic State, seen as far more dangerous than al Qaeda, its predecessor in Iraq.
Also, ISIL may not just wait while the new Iraqi army is trained and equipped.
“The most difficult thing is to restructure and build the army while you are in a state of war,” Abadi told Reuters in an interview during a visit to Cairo.
Three years might be an optimistic figure.
