Iraq needs state-building more than military assistance now.
Our posture in Iraq must focus a lot more on helping the Iraqis build defense institutional capacity so they can take full advantage of all the hardware we’ve given them and protect the security gains they’ve made.
The main hindrances to the Iraqi army’s tactical and operational effectiveness are serious weaknesses on the strategic level, where policies, strategies, plans, and material and human resource management systems typically are formulated.
Yes, building Iraqi defense bureaucracy effectiveness is vital to using what they have. But the problem is far broader than making the military Iraq has more effective. The Iraqi state needs to be stronger to resist Iranian influence that exploits Iraqi corruption.
Early in the Iraq War, before the armed threats were gone (and indeed before the war itself), I was calling for a future battle to improve rule of law.
So yeah, work the institutional capacity problem to solidify victory--yes, we won the Iraq War--rather than bug out and issue an invitation to our enemies to win as we did in Afghanistan.
