re: Pentagon's New Strategy for Defeating ISIS. LONG

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Sure, they are legit...when compared to the regular Iraqi Army.

That's like thinking someone is NBA material because they beat a handicapped opponent in 1-on-1.

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There has been quite a few people who fought along side them say they are as top notch as they come. Iraqi military when under Maliki was never put in a position to succeed. Mosul didn't just fall in a day like so many people think it did. In Mosul, it was a shiite dominated army in a Sunni city that dealt with suicide bombers and snipers for months on end. They had no support from Baghdad and most had little training. A machine gun will only go so far against an armored vehicle with a suicide bomber driving it.

Even as of now there are only a few thousand well trained Iraqi soldiers and many are staying in Baghdad for obvious reasons. The taking back of Ramadi obviously was helped by air strikes but according to reports the Iraqi army, many of whom finally had the first units of well trained soldiers used pretty good strategy and overall did a nice campaign to take it back. Airstrikes, especially with the way we are doing it doesn't mean squat without a ground force.