Odierno Wades Into GOP War Over Iraq War

The US Army’s outgoing chief of staff warned Wednesday that reconciliation between Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq is becoming harder and that partitioning the country “might be the only solution”. In a major national security speech on Tuesday, Jeb Bush criticized Clinton and President Barack Obama for removing U.S. troops from Iraq.

“It is frustrating to look at what has happened inside of Iraq”, said Odierno, recalling that in 2010 and 2011, the U.S. “thought we had it in a place that was really headed in the right direction”. But he said the campaign has succeeded in killing many top Islamic State leaders, forcing the group to replace them with less able commanders.

“And they have shown some significant capability in Ukraine to do operations that are fairly sophisticated”. Without being specific, Odierno said that an advance by the Iraqi military was imminent.

Asked if the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was a mistake, Odierno said, “All I know is that Saddam Hussein was an incredibly ruthless person who was suppressing his population”.

“We’d probably be right back where we are today six months later”, Odierno said.

Odierno responded with a discourse on the unintended consequences of military action in the context of the Middle East. Pressed on whether he disagreed with Trump, he said, “I do, I do”.

The Army’s retiring top officer says the time may come when the U.S. should consider embedding American forces in Iraqi units to help advise them.

“We have deterrent there and I think we’re doing a good job with that”, he said. I think we could do that by pre-positioning equipment, we can do that by helping to increase interoperability between North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces to have an understanding of what North Atlantic Treaty Organisation capabilities are available.

“We could probably go in there with a certain amount of American force and… defeat ISIL. The U.S. can’t solve this”, he said.

In May, Odierno said that embedding U.S. troops, who have been training and advising the Iraqis since last year, “probably would make this more effective”, but could possibly could deepen sectarian or ISIS violence. “And we must be aware of that, and we must assume that some of the money they get if the sanctions are lifted will be used to continue some of this activity”, he said. If they pass they will become the first ranger-qualified women in the history of the U.S. military.