One
original reason for military parades was to make sure there were physical
soldiers in numbers to match the payroll. Big multiple unit parades assured
soldiers were not being shuffled from unit muster to unit muster in different
uniforms.
It would seem the Iraqi Army has the
traditional weakness of corrupt armies with quite a few phantom soldiers on the
payroll. But even worse, the soldiers who actually do show up go months without
pay while their officers put the money in their own pockets. All of the best
recruits are funneled into the Shiite militias, not the regular Iraqi Army.
If we weren't able to establish an effective Iraqi Army during our occupation, I don't see any way we will be able to do it under current, less favorable, conditions. We should be backing the folks with the best track record on both military effectiveness and religious and ethnic toleration, the Kurds.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/420008/we-need-new-strategy-iraq-and-syria-charles-krauthammer