Posted on 02/21/2015 10:51:36 AM PST by Whenifhow
That didn’t take long. Less than a day after the U.S. military announced its Spring offensive against ISIS, seasoned military officers said the plan was unworkable. Skepticism about the U.S. and Iraqi military plans for the next phase of the ISIS war begins inside the Pentagon.
Less than 24 hours after U.S. military officials publicly detailed their plans for a spring offensive on ISIS-held Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, many within the Pentagon privately questioned whether that timetable was plausible. They said that they were dubious that their partners in the Iraqi military—the troops supposed to lead the offensive—would be capable of conducting such a campaign by then.
“I really doubt it is going to happen that soon,” said one military officer who, like several others, served in Iraq between 2003-2011 and spoke on condition of anonymity. “And if it does, it will take months.”
snip
Critics inside the U.S. defense community note that the battle for Mosul could be much harder than the coalition’s fights so far to reclaim cities from ISIS. It took 112 days for a capable Kurdish ground force and U.S.-led air campaign to win back the small northern Syria city of Kobani.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
The pentagon freaked when ISIS called and wanted to know which road the Marines would be taking into Mosul... Valerie wanted to send maps...
Also the State Department put in a request for troops to hand out job applications...
It went downhill from there...
Is Geraldo heading up the Pentagon’s PR?
If the U.S. military considers itself incapable of defeating a ragtag group of ISIS volunteers in Mosul even after months of preparation, there’s no reason to discuss potential U.S. military operations anywhere in the world.
If Vladimir Putin wants to take over Ukraine, who will stop him? At least up till now it was possible to have a rational discussion on the extent to which the U.S. should aid the Ukrainians. But that’s an absurd issue now since we know the U.S. can’t even be sure of defeating a few ISIS terrorists in Mosul let alone a Russian Army brigade or two in Kiev.
The president of Ukraine should understand that he has no choice but to surrender to Russia and save his people from inevitable slaughter.
And Americans should realize that reading about U.S. foreign policy is no more enlightening that reading about the foreign policy of Monaco or Lichtenstein, because without a military that can be taken seriously, the U.S. has no more influence over foreign affairs than those two countries.
Yo When.. I bet ValJar is having a hissy fit. How dare anyone doubt her military expertise?
Mol... or ValJar’s. :-)
Napalm comes to mind.
-——seasoned military officers——
wonder who those officers are?
For students of military history, by the way, the numbers are astounding. The assault force outnumbered the defense force by only about 3/1, attacked into the face of prepared positions, and inflicted a 15/1 kill ratio. There really aren't enough superlatives for that. It still took six weeks.
I'd love to know if 2000 is a good number for ISIS assets or if it's something the public affairs folks pulled out of their nether regions. I'd suspect it might be more given the influx of foreign fighters, especially since they still have two months to get there at least, but in any case, that's very roughly comparable to those at Fallujah (3500-4000). This is not likely to be pleasant for anyone involved.
The Iraqi soldiers know the Sunni/Shia division is permanent. They are unwilling to die for the Kurdish region they know also is permanent.
Mosul is at the boundary. Time will provide the solution to which side it goes
Pentagon plan?? - More like an Obama and Jarrett plan sent to the Pentagon.
And yet where are senior military people resigning to run for Congress and blow the whistle?
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