Former White House spokesman Robert Weiner and policy analyst Joseph Abay assert that centuries of ethnic strife and religious divisions, no loyalty, and drug funding have made “training” against ISIS and throughout the Middle East a “myth” and an unrealistic strategy goal, despite recent emphasis on “training opposition” to ISIS in recent White House speeches, national strategy meetings, and U.N. speeches. In theWashington Times today, Weiner and Abay assert that the upcoming Congress lame duck session, beginning November 12, from which President Obama asked for a new anti-ISIS authorization, must recognize and address the fact that training has been ineffective to date and is likely to remain so.
Weiner and Abay contend that the “training” of Iraqi and Afghani soldiers has not succeeded in the 13 years of war involving U.S. “trainers”. They argue that expanding the “training” program to Syria to train anti-ISIS rebels will not be a successful strategy component, given the lack of loyalty of the “moderate” opposition to U.S. goals, despite the U.S. recent emphasis. The article in today’s Washington Times is entitled, “THE MYTH OF TRAINING TO FIGHT ISIS”.
Weiner & Abay claim that Iraqi and Afghani troops function poorly as a unit, despite receiving the same training as their loyal and cohesive U.S. troop counterparts. They state, “U.S. troops are devoted and committed after nine weeks of basic training, or ‘boot camp’. Our men and women are in uniform are ready to fight to the death as soon as they show up. Yet we have been ‘training’ inAfghanistan and Iraq for 13 years and spent over $2 trillion dollars on the wars,” with little loyalty by foreign troops to show for it.
Weiner & Abay spoke to a U.S. trainer who considered the Afghani soldiers he was assigned to train “unteachable, untrustable and untrainable.” The source also stated, that “they pretend they are loyal and then they are talking with their Taliban friends. He said, ‘When mortars were coming in, Afghan soldiers would be on the roof on their cellphones saying where to aim, ‘To the left, to the left.'”
Weiner & Abay argue ‘vetting’ Syrian rebels to make sure they aren’t enemies is not effective. The authors cite accusations that moderate rebels are cooperating with ISIS. They point out, “The family spokesman for beheaded journalist Steven Sotloff, as well as Sotloff’s mother, said on CNN that one of the Syrian ‘moderate’ groups had sold Sotloff to the Islamic State for $50,000. ISIS then beheaded him. She said the ‘policymakers’ are ‘ignoring’ these facts.”
Weiner & Abay also discuss Iraqi soldiers on the frontline fleeing from ISIS. They cite a finding by MSNBC reporter Andrea Mitchell, who said the “Iraqi army has turned and fled when Mosul and other major cities were attacked.” Weiner & Abay also discuss the low morale and high desertion rates amongst Iraqi soldiers: nearly 300 troops were deserting daily from Iraqi army posts.
Weiner & Abay also discuss how Iraqi and Afghani foreign officials and citizens dislike U.S. presence in their countries. Weiner & Abay cite outgoing President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai’s speech slamming the United States, as well as a State Department report which showed that nearly “75% of Iraqis would feel safer if the US and other foreign forces left.”
Weiner & Abay state that another major problem is the rise of the narco-state due to the rampant increase of opium in Afghanistan, which now grows “90% of the world’s opium.” Weiner & Abay emphasize that opium is then smuggled through Iran and Pakistan, “our ‘ally’ whose bad guys hid bin Laden.” Weiner & Abay call for fixing this problem by supporting the “non-drug economy” given that only “3% of farmable land” in Afghanistan is used for opium, while wheat has “10 times” more land devoted to it according to the State Department. Weiner & Abay seek to reduce opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan by enacting a program “similar to Plan Colombia which reduced terrorist attacks by 79 percent in that nation, the No. 1 coca-producing country in the world, by reducing coca cultivation.”
The article quotes incoming Dean of the House and Democratic Leader of the Judiciary Committee John Conyers, who told the authors that “that the answer to fighting ISIS and terrorism is “international cooperation,” especially “from the region.” The writers conclude, “On that, the administration agrees and needs to make it happen. Following the same failed policy in Syria as we’ve carried out in Afghanistan and Iraq will only drag us deeper into Middle East conflicts caused by volatile and fractured ethnic and religious feuds.”
Robert Weiner was spokesman for the White House National Drug Policy Office and the House Government Operations Committee.Joseph Abay is senior international policy analyst for Robert Weiner Associates and Solutions for Change.
