New Zealand and the war against Isis Part 1

Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant General Tim Keating says there will be 16 specialised trainers in Taji and the rest made up of logistics and protection personnel.

"A training mission like this is not without risk. Because of that a force protection element will be part of the deployment to support the training activities carried out at the base," he told a news conference.

 Full story
Article
Article

This is the first of a four part series of articles that covers New Zealand's military contribution to the war against Isis. In part one I will examine the decision made by Cabinet to deploy troops to Iraq .

In part two and three of the series I will outline strategies/Military deployments that I believe would have had a greater impact in combating Isis. The alternatives I will put forward are build around the NZDF training ,equipping and fighting alongside the Kurds and the taking part in the defence of Jordan. The respective strengths and weakness of each alternative will be examined. Why the coalition won't come close to defeating Isis and the coming wider war will be the subject of the last installment in the series.

Paul Buchanan is correct about the decision to deploy the NZDF to Iraq had already been made before yesterdays Cabinet meeting. The John Key lead dance around the decision to send troops to Iraq was nothing short of disgraceful. When Isis was taking over Iraq Key should have been straight with his electorate about the imperative for the NZDF to be deployed to Iraq.

In order to allow for the rapid deployment of troops Key needed to show some spine. Key could have focused on the sheer brutality of Isis. Also how Isis take over of Iraq and Syria has given them the world's largest terrorist base should have been put in focus.

The fabricate of the Iraqi Army melted away at the first sight of Isis. In short the Iraqi Army is institutionally too far gone to serve as anything more than a force that exists on paper. The Iraqi Air Force wasn't yet prepared to provide tactical air support for local ground forces. More on air cover below.

Committing troops in an advisory/training role with the Iraqi Army that is beyond repair is very unwise. Two clear alternatives were completely ignored by Key. The most obvious choice would have been to send trainers/advisors to support Kurdish forces in Northern Iraq. Dispatching troops to Jordan the next frontier in the fight against Isis would have been the second alternative. I will go into greater depth about these alternatives in part 2 and 3 of this series.

The only worse decision Key could have made would have been to withhold forces from the fight all together. Why should have New Zealand joined the coalition and risk the lives of NZDF personal in futile effort to train the Iraqi Army?

A plausible scenario exists in which the people of Iraq can be trained to provide a degree of security for their local communities. I believe that many of recruits of joining the Iraqi Army will be members of local militias. After they have completed their training and been issued with equipment the members of the local militias would desert the Iraqi Army. Upon returning home the deserters would look to protect their homes and families from Isis and other terrorist organisations.

Kiwi military and security analysts have failed to discuss how the RNZAF lack of a air combat wing (the Skyhawk's that were canned by the previous Labour government) has played a role in restricting New Zealand to a purely training role in the war against Isis. We are only just beginning to see outcome of the spineless Key's government failure to restore the RNZAF combat wing.

The other factors that has relegated New Zealand's contribution to a training role is Key's lack of political will to deploy the SAS in a front line combat role. To what extent the RNZAF inability to provide native air cover for our ground forces and Key having no back bone as Prime Minster were behind the decision to deploy troops in a “Non Combat” role , will have to be determined by the history books.