Vice President Joe Biden was deployed by the White House on Monday to de-escalate a war of words over whether Iraq will be able to repel the Islamic militants that recently seized Ramadi.
On Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Iraqi forces “showed no will to fight” in Ramadi, and that prompted a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to say Carter had “incorrect information.”
“Carter was likely given incorrect information because the situation on ground is different,” Saad al-Hadithi told the Associated Press. “We should not judge the whole army based on one incident.”
Biden made an effort Monday to smooth over the tensions, by calling Al-Abadi to reaffirm U.S. support for Iraq’s efforts to defeat the Islamic State. Biden recognized the sacrifices of the Iraqi forces, welcomed the country’s recent decision to mobilize additional troops and pledged U.S. assistance in these efforts, according to the White House.
Iraqi military and paramilitary forces have been able to regain some ground east of Ramadi, and on Monday, the forces retook part of al-Tash, a rural area south of the city.
But the Islamic State has held Ramadi itself for 10 days, in its biggest military advancement since last summer, when the U.S. began assisting Iraq in trying to turn back the Sunni militant group. The group is attempting to fortify itself there, bringing in more fighters on Monday.
The situation has cast major doubt on Iraq’s ability to repel the insurgents — and led to questions of whether a U.S.-led strategy to defeat them will ultimately succeed. President Obama has resisted involving the U.S. in ground fighting in Iraq, instead opting to help train Iraqi forces and limit combat activities to airstrikes against the Islamic State.
On Sunday, Carter appeared more skeptical of the Iraqi forces than ever before, telling CNN’s “State of the Union” that even though they vastly outnumbered the insurgents, they allowed Ramadi to fall because they lacked the “will to fight.”
Those comments prompted quick pushback from Iraqi and Iranian leaders. Al-Hadithi said he believes Ramadi fell due to mismanagement and poor planning by some senior military commanders, although he didn’t detail exactly how those failures contributed to the current situation.
And a top Iranian general quickly blamed the U.S. Iran’s daily newspaper Javan quoted Gen. Qassim Soleimani, a leader in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, as saying the U.S. showed “no will” in fighting the Islamic State and didn’t do a “damn thing” to stop the advance on Ramadi.
“Does it mean anything else than being an accomplice in the plot?” he reportedly asked.
