U.S. Training of Iraqis Falls 17,000 Short

The Obama administration is training fewer than one-third the number of Iraqi security forces it planned to prepare to fight ISIS, thanks to a lack of recruits, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter testified before Congress on Wednesday. “Of the 24,000 Iraqi security forces we originally envisioned training at our four sites by this fall, we’ve only received enough recruits to be able to train about 7,000,” Carter told the House Armed Services Committee. “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.” Training Iraqi forces is an integral part of the U.S. campaign to permanently defeat the self-declared Islamic State, which in May took control of the city of Ramadi. Carter said then that Iraqi forces lost the city because they “just showed no will to fight.”

— Tim Mak