Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said during an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” that Ramadi fell to the Islamic State because the Iraqi people themselves simply lack the “will to fight.” (VIDEO: Former Obama Official On ISIS: ‘Mistakes Were Made. Presidents Make Mistakes.’)
“What apparently happened was that the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight,” he said. “They were not outnumbered; in fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force. And yet they failed to fight, they withdrew from the site, and that says to me, and I think to most of us, that we have an issue with the will of the Iraqis to fight ISIL and defend themselves.”
“Now, we can give them training, we can give them equipment… we obviously can’t give them the will to fight,” he said. “But if we give them training, we give them equipment, and give them support, and give them some time, I hope they will develop the will to fight. Because only if they fight can ISIL remain defeated.”
“A lot of people in Washington that you deal with on the other side of the aisle are saying, look, putting ground troops, putting in air ground controllers and air strikes are not working,” noted CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. “What do you foresee? What is your view on this?”
“If there comes a time when we need to change the kinds of support we’re giving to the Iraqi forces, we’ll make that recommendation,” he repeated. “But what happened in Ramadi was a failure of the Iraqi forces to fight.”
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