US advisors in Iraq, also advising Daesh: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Steven Kelley, a former CIA/NSA contractor, about a recent US airstrike in Iraq that killed nearly 20 Iraqi soldiers and injured dozens more.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Mr. Kelly, that Iraqi security officials said that Americans have deliberately hindered the advance of Iraqi forces into Daesh-controlled areas. Your thoughts on that?

Kelly: Well, they certainly seem to be doing that, and the pilot that carried out this mission or the pilots that carried out this mission, you really have to wonder about those people and those individuals in particular because so many of these guys have been coming back and saying that they have actually been ordered not to fire upon Daesh convoys and oil convoys and what have you.

So, clearly these people... they do follow their orders, which means that more than likely this was not a mistake; this was certainly an order to attack these advancing Iraqi troops. So, certainly the Iraqis have no reason to have any trust for these people.

Press TV: When the US had over 100,000 forces deep in Iraq, you really didn’t hear about these kinds of mistakes or in Afghanistan for that matter. But first with that MSF hospital in Kunduz, in Afghanistan, and now with this killing of Iraqi soldiers, why does it seem that US forces are more reckless in suspicious circumstances?

Kelley: Well, reckless, I think... the Iraqis aren’t stupid. They’re starting to very publicly reject the American assistance. They’ve just rejected a handful of Apache helicopters. They know that these advisors that are there to supposedly train them and provide them with material are also the same advisors that are providing their enemies with material and training and they’re the same people that are cutting their heads off.

So, I would think that the rank and file of the Iraqi military must be disillusioned and has a very strong sense of betrayal when it comes to their interaction with their American counterparts.

Press TV: There has been a number of these mistakes made by the so-called US-led coalition which has shed doubt on its competency. Your thoughts?

Kelley: Well, I don’t think this is certainly an issue of competency at all. There is always a possibility for human error, but again the humans are most likely going to wait till the last second for some order. So, if the error is made, it’s not going to be the pilot, it will be somewhere higher up. So, more than likely, from a strategic standpoint, there really is no such thing as an error on the battlefield.

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