75% of the Iraqi army left the Anbar province

Nearly 75 per cent of the Iraqi army has left the Anbar province, a member of parliament revealed yesterday, calling on the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces Haider Al-Abadi to investigate the situation which he described as "serious".

Adel Mahlawi said during a press conference on Tuesday that the "Anbar Operations Command is fighting with only 25 per cent of its officially registered soldiers." He urged Defence Minister Khalid Al-Obeidi to visit the province and look into the battles there where the main fighting against the Islamic State (ISIS) is taking place.

The Iraqi defence minister called earlier to "build a professional army far from nepotism" stressing on the need to "eliminate sectarianism from within the military", and to select "professional and fair soldiers".

In a statement the defence ministry said: "Al-Obeidi discussed with a US military delegation the details related to arming the Iraqi army and supporting it with all it needs to continue the war on terrorism, and strengthen the bonds of cooperation between the Iraqi people."

Cowards.  75% of them fled.  Even though ISIS hasn't advanced much in recent months.  They are so scared that they just dropped their weapons and disappeared.

Sure.  It makes sense that they want the US to come and die for their freedom.  They aren't capable of defending it themselves.

No not cowards, good men led by corrupt officers. From what I have been able to ascertain, the officers were mostly in the pockets of Maliki, and when ISIS came in they bailed, leaving their troops leaderless. I have heard allegations that they did so upon Maliki's instruction, but have not seen proof. Had the troops been well led, by honest and competent officers, they would have stood their ground.

I place a large share of the blame squarely on the shoulders of our president. He pulled our troops out not because the job was done, but because it was politically expedient to do so. In so doing, he opened the door for cronyism, and corrupt and ineffective leadership to come in. Now the people of Iraq are paying the price for his political tomfoolery.

I know that corrupt officers is one of the storylines out there for the blame of the failure of the Iraqi army.   Left unspoken is what role the Non Commissioned Officers had in this.  The senior enlisted who arguably do the work and hold things together.  If they were part of the corruption, that's just more reason in my mind to let the militias and Iran have at it for a while.  You cannot build a functional army when the whole chain of command is corrupt, in my opinion.

I confess that I don't have enough information to know whether that is true or whether it's a strawman.  I could be convinced, I suppose.  And yes, I get that I might be condemning the majority for a minority's inaction here.  Until I get some indication that a renewed non-corrupt officer corps is put into place and gets people to stop running, I am inclined to stick with it.

There is no escaping the fact that the army disintegrated quickly and upon rumor.   

Something happened.  I take a darker view of it to be sure.

I can't argue with placing the blame on our current president.  Blame that is shared by Maliki to an extent.  But we did pull out to leave them on their own.  And we are seeing the result.

Yes, I have a bad feeling that ultimately we will pay the price in American blood.