(Ray has been wondering whether you can train indigenous, whose hearts are not in it, to kill cousins. Clues to the answer – and to the credibility of our generals – may be found by clicking on the links below.)
It has to be embarrassing when, at the sight of ISIL troops, the Iraqis, so diligently trained and equipped by Gen. David Petraeus and others, ran away when they should have charged forward. A review of the record shows that the hasty retreat was the result of a mistranslation, as the first clip (below) explains.
Never mind; this time U.S. Army linguists are performing due diligence to develop a less misunderstandable Arabic translation for the word “charge,” as U.S. trainers prepare to find and train Syrian “moderates.” When a bunch of “our (Syrian) guys” is located and given recruitment bonuses, the $500 million earmarked for training and equipping them will surely not go to waste this time around. Further reassurance can found in Petraeus’s strong support for what passes for the new “point of departure for our strategy” – bombing.
Click and laugh/weep:
Gen. David Petraeus’s Hands-On Training of Iraqi Army
Connie Bryan skit; uploaded on December 18, 2006; 6 minutes
Petraeus Comments on Iraqi Army and ISIL
Sadly, this one is not a skit; Bob Schieffer in role of straight man
Petraeus Strongly Supports Obama on Bombing ISIL
He calls it a “good point of departure for our strategy” (now that the Iraqi army has run away). Again, sadly, this is not a SNL skit.