PENTAGON -- General Raymond Odierno said Wednesday that the partition of Iraq into separate administrative regions “might be the only solution” to the country’s crisis, although the outgoing US Army Chief of Staff was careful to soften his position.
“I think its [reconciliation] is becoming more difficult by the day and I think there might be some alternative solutions that might come sometime in the future, where Iraq might not look like what it did in past,” said Odierno, the US Army’s 38th Chief of Staff, at his last press conference at the Pentagon.
“[Partition] is something that could happen and might be the only solution, but I am not ready to say that,” he said.
Odierno will be replaced Friday by General Mark Milley, concluding a 39-year career in the US military.
The general said the United States has trained 16,000 Iraqis, including Sunnis and Kurds, as a part of coalition efforts to enable local forces to take on the Islamic State (ISIS).
“As of this morning when I was briefed, about 16,000 [Iraqi forces] have been trained by US forces in Iraq since the beginning of the year,” said Odierno.
The administration of President Barack Obama has refused to commit ground troops in the fight against ISIS, arguing that best strategy is to enable indigenous forces to dislodge the Islamic radicals from Iraq.
Odierno said that US can probably defeat ISIS by putting boots on the ground, but the problem is how sustainable the outcome will be. He added that if US troops are deployed to defeat ISIS,
“We’d be right back where we are today six months later.”
Odierno argued the problems in Iraq and Syria must be solved local through changes in “political and economic dynamics.”
“It's important for us to support that by training and trying to develop capability and capacity,” he said.
He said that, if no progress made in the coming months, the US should consider embedding US troops as direct advisors with Iraqi units,
“If we find in the next several months we’re not making the progress that we have, we should probably absolutely consider embedding some soldiers and see if that will make a difference,” he said.
“It’s an option we should present to the president when the time is right,”
There are approximately 3,500 US military advisors and trainers in central Iraq and Kurdistan Region.
The general called the situation in Iraq “frustrating,” blaming the Iraqi political parties for the current crisis in the country.
“The political factions simply could not work together and, based on that, people became frustrated and when people become frustrated, they tend to turn to violence,” he said.
Odierno said ISIS’s territorial expansion has been halted since the US started its air campaign and largely credited the Kurds for pushing back ISIS in Iraq.
“I think that ISIL [ISIS] has been blunted somewhat. They’ve not made any progress since we started airstrikes. In fact, I think we have gained back some territories, mostly by the great work of the Kurds and some work by the Iraqi security forces.”
