and ask about them gaining momentum. what apparently happen was the iraqi forces showed no will to fight. they were not out numbered and they vastly outnumbered the opposing force, and they failed to fight and 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. we can give them training and we can give them equipment and we can t obviously give them the will to fight, but if we give them training and equipment and support and 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
but i guess the question is is not whether we re winning or losing but is the strategy in a state of disrepair? how do we fix this? i agree with the fundamental premise that we, the united states, cannot fix this in a sustainable way by ourselves, ultimately whatever victories we help the iraqis achieve will have to be sustained by the iraqis. but we have underresourced the strategy. we immediate to provide more training and advising down to the battalion level rather than just the division level. we need to provide more firepower support, more intelligence surveillance on why shouldn t they done that? you ve dealt with the administration. you ve dealt with this national security team. why not? i think there is a major hesitation to get too deeply involved in iraq again, and then i think there is, you know, a lot of americans are worried about that. the truth is isis is a threat not only to iraq and syria, but it is a threat to us,
time and again with the perb myrrh tkpwau and now they are asking for what they need to protect their families and communities, and yet unfortunately we are still not taking care and doing the obvious, and we have boots on the ground there that are ready to fight. jim, can i just congressman, we have to go but we appreciate your time. go ahead and skwrupl in that there if you have something to say. let me say quickly, the american military wants to defeat our enemies and i think they are ready to go and be unleashed which is necessary and that s what they are called to do. very good. we will have second ash carter coming up in the next segment, and he will talk about in pretty stark terms that he believes the iraqi forces don t have the will to fight. we will be talking about that coming up next. ash carter talking to our barbara starr, and he reacts to the huge loss by iraqi forces in ramadi. that s coming up next.
side of the aisle are saying look putting ground troops and air ground controllers and air strikes are not working. what do you foresee? what is your view on this? air strikes are effective but neither they nor really anything we do can substitute for the iraqi forces will to fight. they are the ones that have that to beat isil and keep them beaten. we can participate in the defeat of isil but we can t make iraq run as a decent place for people to live. we can t sustain the victory, only the iraqis can do that and in particular n. in this case the sunni tribes to the west, and if there comes a time when we need to change the kinds of support we are giving to the iraqi forces we will take into
just last month the u.s. and iraq claimed to have the upper hand in the fight against isis. cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr caught up with defense secretary ash carter and asked him why isis was able to capture the key iraqi city of ramadi and gain momentum on a march toward baghdad. what apparently happened was that the iraqi forces just showed no will to fight. 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.