Iraqi PM: Iraqi Military Needs Three Years to Rebuild

War Likely to Complicate Rebuilding Efforts

Iraqi Prime Minister Hayder Abadi says he believes that the Iraqi Army is going to need wholesale rebuilding and restructuring after its defeat at the hands of ISIS in 2014, and predicted this would take three years.

“The most difficult thing is to restructure and build the army while you are in a state of war,” Abadi said, saying he aims to create a balance between revamping the military and continuing the war against ISIS.

Abadi sought to downplay his three year reconstruction prediction, saying he didn’t think that the war against ISIS would last that long, and that reform would continue after the war.

That seems extremely optimistic, as even with the US and other nations joining the war to “save” Iraq they haven’t regained significant territory from ISIS in the past several months, and US officials have talked this up as another protracted war last many years.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.