50,000 troops needed in order to defeat ISIS, says U.S. Retired Gen. Odierno

(IraqiNews.com) Retired United States Army General Raymond T. Odierno said it will take a coalition of 50,000 troops on the ground to defeat the ISIS, while also pointed out that it is becoming harder to have a unified Iraq due to the division between shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.

Odierno said in a press statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “[It will take] probably around 50,000,” noting that, “It’s becoming harder and harder to have a unified Iraq … and the reason is I believe the influence of Iran inside of Iraq is so great, they will never allow the Sunnis to participate in a meaningful way in the government. If that doesn’t happen, you cannot have a unified Iraq.”

He also added, “We lost what we call our human intelligence network on the ground … I mean we used to have a pretty significant human intelligence operation. So as we pulled out, our U.S. military, we lose it. So we have to depend on Iraqis, which they collect intelligence, but they do it a little bit differently than we do and they look for different things.”