It was never thought that simply selling weapons to Iraq would give its army what it needed to hold the nation together. Both presidents Bush the Younger and Obama wanted the US to retain a training presence in Iraq, but Wikileaks stirred up a media furor in Iraq that kept the needed Status of Forces Agreement (SoFA) from being signed. The furor was over an alleged ‘massacre’ that never actually happened, but even though the State and Defense departments figured that out quickly, too many Iraqis believed Assange’s lies long enough to kill the agreement.

Weapons are just tools, and it had been planned to keep them useful with training. That is finally happening now, but it has been long-delayed.