NBC’s Engel: ‘Incredibly Depressed’ By Chaos In Iraq

Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” after returning form Iraq, reporting from Istanbul,  NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel said he was “incredibly depressed” by the complete confusion and chaos Iraq has fallen into.

When asked about the conditions on the ground in Iraq Engel said, “I  was incredibly depressed, frankly. I knew Iraq was in bad shape. It was even worse than I thought. ISIS is a huge problem in Iraq and Syria, but unless you confront the much bigger issues, the issue of will Kurdistan be an independent state. What happens to Sunni areas? Will the government in Baghdad continue to be run by Shiite militias? What happens with Hezbollah? What happens with Assad? Unless you address the bigger issues, ISIS is still going to be there. I was completely discouraged by what I saw. The Iraqi army has been described as pathetic, little more than a coalition of militias. So I  got no indication that things are going well.”

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