[Fee]

Dumb question, how did 800 ISIS fighters defeat 30,000 ISF at Mosul? The ISF are really effed up. 30,000 run away from 800??!! Something is really wrong with US training. Beginning to look like Vietnam all over again. US trained South Vietmanese forces (racially and culturally the same people as the North Vietmanese) drop and run while the North Vietmanese forces advances and fight.

[tbird-james]

looks like the expected split into 3 Kurds, Sunni, Shiite.
Would that come as a surprise? Only where the lines are drawn.

[Celtic Conservative]

For sale: Iraqi AK74. never fired, only dropped once.

CC

[Steel Wolf]

Dumb question, how did 800 ISIS fighters defeat 30,000 ISF at Mosul? The ISF are really effed up. 30,000 run away from 800??!!

Either it's the greatest military victory since the Battle of Singapore, when 35,000 Japanese troops capture 80,000 Allied defenders within a few days, or there's a little more to the story.

What appears to be happening is the Sunni tribes and population centers are refusing to fight for Maliki, and instead joining under the ISIS banner. The troops aren't just deserting, they're basically defecting.