On 60 Minutes last night, reporters interviewed Leon Panetta, former Secretary of Defense, White House advisor, and all around Washington authority. He talked of the failings of various efforts to train and arm rebel and national military groups in the countries of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. Outcomes were not predictable, and in recent news, the Iraqi army did not display much training results.
Now, the US is putting through a rush program to train Kurd pesh merga militia in an attempt to confront ISIS forces on the ground in Iraq and Syria. Is there a possibility of success? If recent history is any lesson, in a word, no. So, why do we persist in following a path that is known to fail? Is it the "do something, anything to look like an action plan'? Only the President can really answer that question. With little accurate information available to the public(voters), not much can be said about the "plan".
Over the past 20 + years, our combined efforts in the Middle East look rather thin on outcome. Is this time better? Can we believe in light at the end of the tunnel(to borrow a 60's phrase)? Not hardly. Our diplomats and security advisors, including the vast army of private think tankers, have yet to come up with a viable, sustainable "plan".
The Kurds appear to be an ally. We have had some good relations with the group going back at least to 1991-92 when US Marines, under then Colonel James L. Jones, the future commandant of the Corps, led a regiment into the area to step in between Turks and the Kurds to prevent a wholesale slaughter. Even former CentCom CO, Gen. Anthony Zinni, spent time with the Kurds a few years later. Their parliamentary leader, who appeared on 60 MIns, expressed hope that results could and should be worth the effort.
Time will tell.
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