Posted on 06/09/2015 8:53:33 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
The White House is reportedly planning a shift in strategy in Iraq that would see hundreds of American military trainers deployed to help retake Ramadi and the delay of long-held plans to drive the Islamic State from Mosul.
Six months after US forces began training Iraqi troops to take on the jihadist fighters, a string of defeats on the battlefield has prompted the Obama administration into a recalibration of its plans.
The American military hopes to build up enough well-trained and well-equipped Iraqi forces to retake the city of Ramadi, which fell to Isil in mid-May.
The plan would see US troop levels in Iraq rise from their current 3,000 to around 3,500.
But the focus on Anbar province will come at the expense of long-held ambitions to liberate Mosul, Iraq's second largest city and which was captured by Isil in June last year.
In February this year, the Pentagon boasted openly that it was preparing Kurdish and Iraqi troops for an assault on Mosul in northern Iraq by the end of May.
That timeline slipped as Isil fighters gained ground in Anbar and now appears to have been pushed back into next year.
The shift in White House thinking reflects the failure the frustration with Iraqi forces unable to hold their own against Isil troops but also the limits of air power in defeating a determined on the insurgency ground.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Active Duty ping.
I’m pretty sure Anbar Province was secured at one time, same with Ramadi. Mostly paid for in American blood, too.
I wonder who was in charge since then....anyone? Anyone?
L
Mayhap to a winning policy?
woah. now youre just talking crazy. this is obummer we are talking about. he has never met a victory he couldn’t turn into a defeat
Now he can take credit for getting us back in.
See how that works?
L
We could do a 1-1 ratio of “trainer” to Iraqi and it wouldn’t make a damned bit of difference.
L
So sorry, my bad. Lost myself in hope for a moment. ;-)
Just in time for the election. Woohoo. (I can’t think of a bigger sarcasm tag)
Is “military trainers “ now a euphemism for Special Forces?
The Marxist Hater never does anything that is not for POLITICAL GAIN. And that includes hurting America....
Trainers ? Obama is clueless.
We’ve been “training” Iraqi fighters for 12 years. Now, Obama has sent more trainers to Iraq than there are available trainees. He thinks the Mideast is just another community in need of organizing.
Absolute cluster,
18 months before we have someone who fights to win in the WH.
If we last that long. :-(
he is really speeding things up, isn’t he?
So did Hitler.
good thing we voted in a republican congress /s
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