Posted on 05/19/2015 1:44:38 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Shiite militias have surged into Iraq's Anbar province, a largely Sunni region, in a government-sanctioned bid to recapture the provincial capital Ramadi, which was seized in its entirety by the jihadists of the Islamic State at the end of last week. Thousands have fled the city, which is about 80 miles west of Baghdad.
Ramadi's fall poses a problem for U.S. officials, who have sought to paint a picture of a weakening Islamic State. One Pentagon spokesman told reporters that the city's capture was part of "complex, bloody fight" in which "there are going to be ebbs and flows."
The sudden advance of the extremist militants into the city's last government-held redoubts was enabled in part by a series of coordinated car bomb blasts. The panicked retreat that followed seemed a replay of the events of nearly a year ago, when Iraqi forces defending Mosul, the largest city in northern Iraq, melted away in the face of an Islamic State onslaught. The jihadist organization still controls Mosul and has carried out hideous attacks on religious minorities in its surrounding areas.
For all the efforts of a host of factions battling the jihadists on the ground, as well as an extensive campaign of U.S. airstrikes and commando operations, the Islamic State remains extraordinarily resilient. In comparison, the Iraqi army appears tragically feeble, unable to wage an effective counterinsurgency despite billions of American dollars spent in training and arms, and easily overwhelmed by the militants' rapid gains.
The original sin, many argue, was the disbanding of the Iraqi army following the U.S. invasion in 2003, which toppled the country's long-ruling dictator Saddam Hussein. As my colleague Liz Sly reported in a lengthy expose, military officers belonging to Hussein's Baath party — a nominally secular institution — eventually emerged as the key figures
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Wouldn’t work. Both ISIS and the Baath party are Sunni.
Because it’s full of Iraqis?
Just spitballing here, but.....bush’s fault?
Premature withdrawal is as dangerous in war as it is in sex.
In a perfect world this would end with the last Sunni and Shite dying in a Mexican standoff. Delenda est Islam.
Do the various tribes over there believe in Iraq the way that we believe (or used to believe) in America? I think not.
We’re well on our way to tribalism right here in the USA.
Ok the French are officially off the surrender monkey hook.
You think North American and European
countries are corrupt? Yes, but I’ve
lived overseas. Most of the world is
out to grab whatever they can for
themselves. Who wants to die for
those guys’ retirement homes in
South Florida?
On the other hand, the Obama Administration wants to wipe out any loyal, on ISIS radical Sunni Iraqi Military to pave the way for Iran to take over.
The Obama game plan is to divide Iraq into the Sunni sector controlled by ISIS al -Qaeda/ Muslim Brotherhood radicals and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards dominated Shiite Radicals in the Shiite sectors of Iraq.
The loyal Iraqi troops are caught in the crossfire.
“Do the various tribes over there believe in Iraq the way that we believe (or used to believe) in America? I think not.”
Nope, “Iraq” was an idea imposed on them by the British and maintained by not very scrupulous governments. They may not prefer whatever uncertain alternative happens after “Iraq” though, that’s probably the best we can hope fo.
Hmm, the way you formatted that makes it look like you were writing a haiku :)
They had too much of the Obama war lessons of leading from behind.
You can buy people willing to wear a uniform and collect a paycheck.
You can’t buy a willingness to fight.
You’re dealing with a culture that can pivot on a dime depending on a situation, which way the wind is blowing. If the wind were blowing against IS, they would go that way.
“”The ones to be blamed for this are the government and the local authorities in Ramadi,” said a police colonel who fled the city on Sunday, in an interview with the Guardian. “The army don’t have the fighting spirit. They were there waiting for the Islamic State to attack. They are poorly equipped compared to the Islamic State. We are fighting with guns and pistols while the Islamic State has Humvees and IEDs and suicide bombers.””
Well, I can see they don’t have a fighting spirit but the Humvees, weapons and tanks were once Iraqi before the Iraqi army threw them away in their haste to quit the battlefield.
With rare exceptions, Arab nations fail to develop and maintain modern armies. Among other common failings, Arab armies scorn realistic training, technical expertise, maintenance, and logistics, do not have an effective NCO corps, are top heavy with officers, and are riddled with corruption and political cliques.
5.56mm
Stalin and his thugs knew how to keeps pukes fighting in the front. Behind the front line was another line ready to shoot anyone who retreated.
One problem is that the notion of Iraq as a nation is false- at best, it was a region within the Ottoman Empire carved out by the League of Nations and doled out to some Arabs as part of the spoil of WWI. The region itself has spent more time as part of some empire or other than not, and it is sort of hard to have a sense of nationhood when no real nation exists there.
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