Retired army general Jim Molan, who has significant sway within the Abbott government, has called for Australian and allied troops to deepen their involvement in Iraq by entering the battlefield to prop up shaky local forces.
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Mr Molan, a retired major-general who oversaw coalition operations in Iraq in 2004 and 2005, said the current training approach was not enough, as the recent rout of Iraqi forces in the key city of Ramadi showed.
Instead, he has made a dramatic call for Australia, US and other allied troops to start going "beyond the wire" of training camps and accompanying local forces on the battlefield to boost their confidence.
Training them under the current plan was "going to take 100 years" to get them up to scratch, he said.
"We must advise, assist and accompany them into battle, not as boots on the ground, not to do the fighting, but to be part of the units that go out and fight," he said.
Mr Molan's intervention is significant because the former officer is an influential voice within the Coalition. He is running as a NSW Liberal candidate for the Senate at the next election and co-authored the government's border protection policy.
About 300 Australian troops have just begun training Iraqis at Taji base north of the capital. Also, about 200 special forces soldiers have been "advising and assisting" the Iraqis with the aim of getting them back on their feet after their dramatic losses last year that allowed the Islamic State to sweep through the west and north of the country.
But Mr Molan said Iraqi forces would continue to fall apart under pressure on the battlefield unless they had confidence in their commanders, which could only come in the short term from having coalition officers standing shoulder to shoulder with the Iraqis.
"What we are doing now is running courses for the Iraqis … It's going to take 100 years.
"These poor guys are not going to be ready to fight IS. They know [the Islamic State] are animals and if they don't have confidence in their commanders, then of course they're always going to be looking for the vehicle they can jump in and run away.
"The way to make them ready is then to give them the command backbone of Australians and Americans and Brits and anyone else who's prepared to come to the fight to mentor them the way we mentored in Afghanistan and Vietnam."
It would even help ensure basic things got done, such as the soldiers getting paid and supplied with ammunition and food, as well as making sure the right tactics were followed, and intelligence was received and used properly.
He said a suitable ratio would be about 10 to 30 coalition officers and junior officers to a battalion of about 600-700 Iraqis.
Mr Molan also called for Australia to step up its air strike campaign by relaxing the strict rules of engagement on when RAAF fighters can release their weapons.
This is likely to be controversial as the rules are set up in part to avoid civilian casualties, which the air campaign has so far successfully done. But the former officer said the alternative was riskier.
The coalition did not have the luxury of time, he said. If the Asad regime in Syria fell, then the Islamic State would soon turn its full attention to Iraq.
