Posted on 08/07/2014 9:13:12 AM PDT by C19fan
Sunni militants captured the Mosul dam, the largest in Iraq, on Thursday as their advances in the country’s north created an onslaught of refugees and set off fearful rumors in Erbil, the Kurdish regional capital.
Residents near the dam and officials in the region confirmed that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, held the dam, a potentially catastrophic development for Iraq’s civilian population.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Well it is a good thing we sent some advisors there to help with stopping ISIS. /s
They are waging a campaign through fear.
Some of the towns they take.. they are only leaving behind a few men to hold them.
And they are also forcibly “drafting” men into their army as they go.
The have the “will” behind them. That ferocity (or the appearance of ferocity) will allow them to challenge large numbers of opponents. The untrained and unmotivated will run away.
One of these days they will me a well trained, disciplined, and equipped force.
They will be destroyed.
i think you’re correct.
Just dam.
One would think the Christian and Yazidis men with their families facing extermination instead of fleeing would fight. Although I do not know how easy it would be to get arms in that part of Iraq. If the US and the West had the will we could expand the Kurdish army with these other minorities to at least 100,000 fighting men.
Maybe it would have been better to keep Saddam there.
You have to ask yourself if the killing and maiming of America’s best, and ruining the lives of their families, not to mention the squandering of trillions of dollars was the best use of our human and financial resources.
Maybe the better choice would have been to truly seal the southern borders, kick some drug cartel butt, and deal with the ROP right here at home.
We’re going to end up fighting them here anyway, George.
For all the money we have spent in the middle east over the last couple decades, what if we had instead put that towards energy independence?
Once we no longer need middle east oil, who cares what they do to themselves.
If I think about why we wouldn’t the only thing I can think of is that we want them to take out the rest of Iraq and provoke Iran.
Iran would wipe the floor with these guys, but there would be a loss of strength. It might even get a reaction from the Iraqi army.
In the end you have a weakened Iran, “invading” another country. That would be justification for action against them.
Other than that, I cannot think of why no one is taking action.
Agreed. Democracy is not right for this part of the world. They do best with an iron-fist secular dictator.
In a democracy, they will just vote the most violent Islamists into power.
And Obama said “Fore!”
Another story I read said pre invasion there were 1.5+ million Christians in Iraq, now less than 300k...
I would say that was a very poor decision...
I think these guys are too smart to provoke Iran. They’ll just glare at each other.
Personally, I would like to see them (ISIS) destroyed. But, if they move elsewhere, I would love to see them march on Mecca. But that is wishful thinking.
It is more likely they will try to provoke Jordan.
Soon you will hear new "surprise" estimation of the ISIS numbers. One indication of a larger numbers and strength is they are fighting on two fronts in Lebanon and in Iraq. The forces they are engaging are not the Iraqi Shia Army that ran off at the first sign on trouble, but Peshmerga and Lebanonesee Shia Army.
I would suspect that the ranks are growing with former Sunni Baathist and so-called moderates that are growing tired of Civil War in Syria and are ready to carve out a new state.
bttt
Would have, could have, should have....
Saddam Hussein never bothered the Christians but George is still of the opinion that Islam is the ROP and he has never corrected himself.
Apparently the Iraqi people have decided not to fight for freedom. Why bother when someone else will bail them out and risk a bunch of foreigner’s lives instead of risking their own?
quick,
pull the plug and run.
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