7 News Quotes Paul Eaton on Military Response to the Islamic State

Islamic State: US facing long war to retake Iraqi territory and defeat Islamist insurgents

By Michael Vincent
January 12, 2015 | 7 News

The messaging from the Obama administration has been mixed.

The president has said he is not Iraq’s air force. But, for now, he clearly is.

So far the US Congress is backing him, budgeting $US5 billion for the air strikes and army training over the next nine months.

US secretary of state John Kerry clearly expects a concerted ground campaign against Islamic State soon.

He told a Washington DC forum on Mid East relations on December 7 that “Iraq’s national army is preparing to launch a counter-offensive. And we are confident that they will do so when the time is right, not in a matter of years but a matter of months.”

That’s a much more optimistic timeframe than America’s military has in mind.

Reconstructing Iraqi army ‘like building an airplane in flight’

“It’s easy to create an individual soldier. Eight weeks and you’ve got a man who is basically trained,” retired Major General Paul Eaton says.

General Eaton oversaw the last US mission to train Iraq’s military after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

He likens the current attempt to reconstruct the army during this conflict to “building an airplane in flight”.

The Iraqi defence force has multiple problems it must overcome, but it has to succeed in its impending counter-attack – or there will be dire consequences.

“Initial failure carries a severe penalty,” General Eaton warns.

“This should be a soft timeline based on success as opposed to [setting] an artificial date.

“[The aim] is to stabilise, contain [and] collapse the perimeter around ISIS until they are no longer a problem.”

 

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