Gordon Duff | Veterans Today | 29 Oct 2014

During the ten years of occupying Iraq, the US deliberately refused to rebuild Iraqi military capabilities, an analyst tells Press TV.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV_-5Vx3_OE?feature=player_embedded&w=640&h=360]

The current military situation in Iraq would not have existed “if the United States had genuinely built a military force for Iraq in the ten years it was supposedly doing it – with the trillion dollars they spent doing it,” Gordon Duff, a senior editor of Veterans Today, said in an interview with Press TV on Tuesday.

“Iraq can’t function without an air force; they can’t function without combined force capabilities; and the US saw to it they would have none of that,” he added.

Iraq is currently facing deadly violence by Takfiri ISIL militants in the country.

The Iraqi army, backed by volunteer forces, recently liberated the town of Jurf al-Sakher, located just 40 kilometers from the capital, Baghdad, and 30 kilometers away from the holy city of Karbala. In addition, the operations led to the liberation of neighboring towns Hojeir, Fadliyah and Farsiyah.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said the Iraqi forces’ success in Jurf al-Sakher is considered the key to future operations for liberating other Iraqi territories.

The Iraqi army and volunteer forces have now headed toward Amriyat Fallouja, where it is believed the ISIL Takfiri militants are regrouping.

The army continues its military operations as well in the north and west of the country, inflicting heavy losses on the ISIL militants and gaining more ground.