"Those who don't learn from history..."

I have a concern about our training of the Iraqi troops to handle the security in Iraq. It reminds me a lot about something I heard from a professor in college who said that one of the Romans biggest mistakes was in training the barbarians to fight for them. The barbarians then took that training back to their own people and attacked the Romans.

I’m sure a lot of the Iraqi soldiers we’re training are loyal to the Iraqi government and are genuinely interested in stabilizing Iraq, but many are not. Many are just in it for the money, and they carry their own prejudices against the various sub groups within Iraq, and it seems inevitable that much of the training we’re giving them is going to make its way into the hands of the Shia militias and Sunni insurgency. The training that we’re giving them today isn’t going to go away once peace is achieved (if it ever is). Once we give it to them, it’s out of our control, and we don’t know where it will go. Some of that training will make its way to Iran, Hezbollah and Palestine.

I know that Americans are tired of the war, but training Iraqis troops is only adding fuel to the fire.

Don