Carter: Not enough good Iraqi recruits to train against ISIS

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told Congress Wednesday the Obama administration’s war on the Islamic State has been hampered by the lack of Iraqi recruits who can be trained by U.S. troops.

Training local ground troops to seize land taken by fighters from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, has been touted as the linchpin of the American effort to defeat the terrorist organization.

Last summer, it swept through northern Iraq, capturing its second-largest city, Mosul. Last month, its fighters took Ramadi, a provincial capital west of Baghdad without a fight — despite being outnumbered more than 10-to-1.

Carter acknowledged that one slice Pentagon’s piece of the strategy — training troops – has not gone well.

“Of the 24,000 Iraqi security forces we had originally envisioned training at our four sites by this fall, we’ve only received enough recruits to be able to train about 7,000, in addition to about 2,000 counter-terrorism service personnel,” Carter said. “As I’ve told Iraqi leaders, while the United States is open to supporting Iraq more than we already are, we must see a greater commitment from all parts of the Iraqi government.”

Carter called the loss of Ramadi “deeply disappointing.” It prompted a re-evaluation of the counter-ISIS strategy and led to the decision to deploy 450 additional U.S. troops to a base near Ramadi in Anbar province in Iraq, he said. They will be dispatched to western Iraq where they will help recruit and train Sunni soldiers, who are under-represented in the army, Carter said.

Carter and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared before the House Armed Services Committee panel on the Middle East.

Dempsey said the Pentagon’s role — airstrikes and training, equipping and advising local troops —is part of a larger strategy that includes efforts by the State and Treasury departments.

“Military power alone will not solve this,” Dempsey said.

Critics of the Obama administration’s counter-ISIS effort, including Sen. John McCain, who chairs the Armed Services committee, have called for more U.S. troops to be deployed to Iraq. McCain and others want to see specialized troops, on the ground, who can help call in more precise airstrikes.

Rep. Mac Thornberry, the Republican from Texas who chairs the House Armed Services committee, blasted the Obama administration for a failed strategy for six years to secure the Middle East, which has been riven by failed and failing states.

No strategy coming from the White House, Thornberry said, will “change that trajectory.”

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the ranking member of the committee, acknowledged the problem posed by ISIS but said deepening the U.S. commitment there without a reliable partner in Iraq would be useless.