After the invasion of Iraq, I was asked by the Pentagon to assist in developing viable Iraqi security forces. I spent nearly three years in Iraq living and fighting alongside Iraqi security forces in places like Fallujah, Mosul and Ramadi. Their lack of effectiveness — except in the case of the Kurds — was and continues to be caused by a serious lack of effective professional leadership, not a lack of equipment or training.

The Iraqi military has never been a particularly professional force. They folded quickly during the first Gulf War and again in 2003. We made things worse in 2003 when we failed to judiciously reconstitute the Iraqi military. Our mindset was that we had just destroyed the Iraqi army, why would we want to reconstitute it? Furthermore, we might have risked alienating Iraqis opposed to Saddam, especially the Shias.