It has been unimpressive, primarily, I would argue, because given the sectarian environment, sunni officers are not going to follow Maliki's orders. Likewise Kurdish officers will follow their own community's leadership.
Like Assad, Maliki is going to weed out the armed forces and integrate shia fighters into the forces. The US attempted to create an inclusive Iraqi armed forces which is useless in a civil war. The new shia forces with Iranian training will not suffer anywhere near the same level of desertions/corruption that the US trained forces suffered from.
Unlike Assad, Maliki has the demographic advantage for manpower, oil money for arms funding, and even easier access to Iranian support. He's already made a statement that he should have bought Russian arms given all the strings the US is attaching to him for help.
If the US keeps insisting that the shia's share power with a community that is allying itself with ISIS they will find themselves losing out whatever influence they have with the majority group in Iraq to Iran.
It has been unimpressive, primarily, I would argue, because given the sectarian environment, sunni officers are not going to follow Maliki's orders. Likewise Kurdish officers will follow their own community's leadership.
Like Assad, Maliki is going to weed out the armed forces and integrate shia fighters into the forces. The US attempted to create an inclusive Iraqi armed forces which is useless in a civil war. The new shia forces with Iranian training will not suffer anywhere near the same level of desertions/corruption that the US trained forces suffered from.
Unlike Assad, Maliki has the demographic advantage for manpower, oil money for arms funding, and even easier access to Iranian support. He's already made a statement that he should have bought Russian arms given all the strings the US is attaching to him for help.
If the US keeps insisting that the shia's share power with a community that is allying itself with ISIS they will find themselves losing out whatever influence they have with the majority group in Iraq to Iran.