50,000 troops needed in order to defeat ISIS, says U.S. Retired Gen. Odierno

090508-D-9880W-023 Commander of Multi-National Forces-Iraq Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, U.S. Army, provides an operational update during a press briefing in the Pentagon on May 8, 2009. Odierno centered his presentation on the challenges of on-going security operations in Iraq as foreign allied troop levels drop and Iraqi forces assume an increasingly larger security responsibility. DoD photo by R. D. Ward. (Released) — Commander of Multi-National Forces-Iraq Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, U.S. Army, provides an operational update during a press briefing in the Pentagon on May 8, 2009. Odierno centered his presentation on the challenges of on-going security operations in Iraq as foreign allied troop levels drop and Iraqi forces assume an increasingly larger security responsibility. DoD photo by R. D. Ward. (Released)

Retired United States Army General Raymond T. Odierno said it will take a coalition of 50,000 troops on the ground to defeat the ISIS, while also pointed out that it is becoming harder to have a unified Iraq due to the division between shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.
Odierno said in a press statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “[It will take] probably around 50,000,” noting that, “It’s becoming harder and harder to have a unified Iraq … and the reason is I believe the influence of Iran inside of Iraq is so great, they will never allow the Sunnis to participate in a meaningful way in the government. If that doesn’t happen, you cannot have a unified Iraq.”
He also added, “We lost what we call our human intelligence network on the ground … I mean we used to have a pretty significant human intelligence operation. So as we pulled out, our U.S. military, we lose it. So we have to depend on Iraqis, which they collect intelligence, but they do it a little bit differently than we do and they look for different things.”
Article Link

Share this:

Related Articles