Quote Originally Posted by Bill Moore View Post
How is the Iraqi army adjusting to these high and sustained casualty rattes? Are they expanding their recruiting pipeline and training base? Are they relying on militias? Can they control the militias? I doubt that the stats are available, but I would like to see their officer casualty rate. Are their officers even fighting yet? Are they recognizing and promoting effective combat officers?

How the military and government are adapting is important to understand to assess probable outcomes. Seems to me that Baghdad is at least at risk of being contested.
They had a huge surge of volunteers after Sistani's fatwa in June. Said to have been up to 200,000 joined ISF. Also relying upon militias heavily. They are integrated into supposedly almost 50% of army units now and run their own forces. The ISF has no real control over them. PM Abadi is also trying to clean house with the officer corps. He fired around 300 officers in two waves and got rid of the Office of Commander and Chief that Maliki was using as his own chain of command.