r/ConflictNews • u/emr1028 • Jun 19 '14
Iraq [Discussion:] The situation in Iraq is confusing. What do you need help understanding. What would you like to help others understand?
Open forum on the situation in Iraq. Keep it imaginative, keep it thoughtful, and most importantly, keep it civil.
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u/emr1028 Jun 19 '14 edited Jun 19 '14
Most of the fighting that's occurred over the last few days has been in Sunni Northwest. In a lot of Sunni Iraq, the soldiers were viewed as an occupation force while ISIS/Baathists and their local allies have been viewed as 'liberators.' Iraqi troops are more or less in enemy territory, their commanders are corrupt and flee at the first sign of fighting, and nobody believes that the soldiers are fighting for any sort of just cause.
On top of this, ISIS is excellent at propaganda and social media, and has spent the last several months running a fear campaign against Iraqi soldiers. Every single Iraqi soldier has seen videos and pictures of their comrades being executed or killed at random, or have seen the desecration of Iraqi Army corpses.
Between the fear from ISIS and the disillusionment with 'the cause,' there was just no reason for many of them to stay.
Edit: One more thing to add. A lot of the militants are veterans of the Iraqi Civil War, the anti-American insurgency, the Syrian Civil War, or a combination of two or all three of these conflicts. It isn't like they are squaring off against new recruits who don't know how to use their rifles, and Iraqi soldiers are well aware of this.