TAJI, Iraq — The top American general for the Middle East said Friday he is confident that Iraq is on course to defeat the Islamic State, but his words were spare and cautious, his tone notably muted.
Gen. Joseph Votel, the new head of U.S. Central Command, spent the day consulting with U.S. and Iraqi military officials and visiting a base north of Baghdad that is training Iraqi army combat units.
“They are getting better,” he said,referring to his broad assessment of Iraq’s progress after the stunning collapses in 2014-15 that ceded large swaths of territory to the Islamic State in the north and west. “That said, there is still a lot left to do.”
Noting the Iraqis’ recent battlefield successes, including the recapture of Ramadi late last year and their retaking this week of Rutba, a strategic crossroads in western Iraq, Votel said he sees momentum developing and Iraqi confidence rising.
“I think their readiness is improving,” he said. “I think they’re getting a better handle on the challenges that they face.”
The backdrop to this assessment is a persistent question not voiced explicitly by Votel but suggested by his careful description of progress in rebuilding the Iraqi army: If, as U.S. commanders expect, Iraq eventually pushes the Islamic State off its territory, will a divided government in Baghdad be capable of sustaining that success and warding off another collapse?
The question recalls what happened after President Barack Obama pulled all U.S. forces out of Iraq in December 2011. In the view of many U.S. officials, the Iraqi forces whom the U.S. had trained for several years were allowed to atrophy amid sectarian mismanagement in Baghdad. When Islamic State fighters swept into Mosul in June 2014, the Iraqi forces collapsed.
Votel, who has headed Central Command for about seven weeks, went to Iraq to get an up-close look at the U.S.-led international campaign against the Islamic State.
That campaign depends on the Iraqi security forces generating enough skill, firepower and gumption to recapture and hold the vast stretches of territory that the Islamic State still controls. That includes Mosul, the northern stronghold that is considered key to collapsing the Islamic State in Iraq.
Votel said the Iraqis need to continue the momentum they have gained lately: “In general, we’re moving forward,”
