Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Iraq crisis: army deserter speaks out
The London Telegraph ^ | June 13, 2014 | Ruth Sherlock, Carol Malouf in Erbil and Lauren Williams in Doha, video by Sam Tarling

Posted on 06/15/2014 2:29:15 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)

A group of military deserters have painted a devastating picture of the ability of the Iraqi army to stand and fight, telling The Telegraph how entire divisions surrendered Mosul, Iraq's second city, without firing a single shot.

Speaking from the Kurdish city of Erbil, the defectors accused their officers of cowardice and betrayal, saying generals in Mosul "handed over" the city over to Sunni insurgents, with whom they shared sectarian and historical ties.

With Sunni insurgents now threatening the capital Baghdad the eye-witness accounts from the deserters' reveal how sectarian enmity have, in the space of mere weeks, destroyed the Iraqi national army, which the US government spent billions of dollars to build.

Corporal Muammer Naser, 35, told The Telegraph that his superiors had sympathised with remnants of the regime of Saddam Hussein, and that the generals essentially passed control of the city to them. Organised militias of Saddam sympathisers are said to have participated in the takeover of Mosul and Saddam's birthplace Tikrit, this week.

Cpl Naser said: "The war now is definitely sectarian. In Mosul, the Sunni soldiers didn't want to fight against the Sunni insurgents."(continued)

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: iraq; isis; islam; muslims; shiites; sunni

1 posted on 06/15/2014 2:29:15 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

This is Maliki’s doing too. In a country such as Iraq where animosity between shia & sunni has a very long history (centuries), he should have been a lot more inclusive & demonstrated a high level of maturity in the political process as well as all other aspects of life, living conditions and power sharing. Of course that requires a massive cultural change & a significant shift in mindset all around. Not something that can be achieved in a decade or two. Especially when there is constant instability or no stabilizing ‘force’ to oversee it.


2 posted on 06/15/2014 3:13:22 AM PDT by odds
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: odds

they desperately want to cast this as merely “sectarian.” However, it’s not. ISIL has been executing Sunnis as well; anyone who was employed by or even apparently sympathetic to the attempt to establish a semi-secular modern state in Iraq is on their hit list. They are now imposing the most extreme form of sharia on Mosul and other places they have captured, and announcing, not that Sunnis rule, but that they are establishing the new caliphate where all the world will be ruled by this law.

Muslims have always had huge internal divisions, but historically that has not stopped them from sweeping across huge stretches of territory and subduing the inhabitants with extreme and savage violence. We’re just seeing another iteration of the 7th century - something they have repeated time and again over the intervening 14 centuries.


3 posted on 06/15/2014 3:39:44 AM PDT by livius
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: livius

Muslims killing Muslims. Hopefully we’ll have enough sense to stay out of it.


4 posted on 06/15/2014 4:04:38 AM PDT by paristexas
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: livius
I agree it isn't solely sectarian. Their sharia & establishing an Islamic state is very similar ideology to the shia regime in Iran. The latter has it in its constitution. In fact the Khomeinist regime pursued very similar tactics ie terrorizing & killing other shiites in Iran too as it started to embed itself. But the animosity between shia & sunni adds another dimension.

My understanding is that unlike Shiites & Kurds, the Sunnis in Iraq are not only the minority but also not quite united among themselves. Some are deserting out of fear, some because they feel marginalized or alienated by the Maliki's gov't & some who are ex Saddam supporters who have joined this ISIS in a hope of overthrowing Maliki's gov't. I think the situation is complex & multi layered. But had Maliki been more inclusive perhaps those 'disaffected' sunni groups would be less willing to support ISIS.

5 posted on 06/15/2014 4:14:40 AM PDT by odds
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: paristexas
Muslims love killing Muslims - it's what that entire clan do best - kill or be killed.

The reasons to kill or be killed might range from an ingrown toenail (Haddith 124 Sect. A, where the Prophet frowned upon ingrown toenails, and thus stated that one must become a Shahid or Martyr, this, from a larger tract about foot care, when laying down with camels in the lonely desert, Sect. V, VI and Sect. VIII.

The other extreme violation might be if you take your sandal off your left foot before reciting the all moving “joy of foot odor recitation” before removing your right sandal. These are usually offenses punishable by death.

The death cult has not changed since the year 1183 but the West has by invoking Political Correctness and pretending that these Neanderthals are our brethren.

6 posted on 06/15/2014 4:15:45 AM PDT by Netz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
the defectors accused their officers of cowardice and betrayal, saying generals in Mosul "handed over" the city over to Sunni insurgents, with whom they shared sectarian and historical ties.

It sounds like the first thing they should have done is shoot their commanding officer.

7 posted on 06/15/2014 4:19:39 AM PDT by Uncle Chip
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: livius

add in the fact that they just got 429 million from the mosul central bank,Saudi and kuwaiti funding and ISIL now have the potential to hire tens of thousands of “fighters” at the rate of $600 per months.This would yield an explosive mid-east that may not stop at Iraq.


8 posted on 06/15/2014 4:32:58 AM PDT by rodguy911 (FreeRepublic:Land of the Free because of the Brave--Sarah Palin our secret weapon)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
Well - I guess those security and military divisions that we trained, equipped , and trusted on a daily basis only to find out that they were selling out our positions, laying in IED's, and performing ambushes on Coalition troops at night are getting their arses handed to them in "what goes around - comes around" justice...fate sucks, doesn't it Mohammed? Oh another note...if you really want to understand the whole culture and why this is occurring - please pick up a copy of this;
9 posted on 06/15/2014 4:59:37 AM PDT by BCW (Amazon: "Babylon's Covert War" - the Iraq conflict explained in detail)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Well then, by all means, let’s head on down to the recruiting center to fight in his place.


10 posted on 06/15/2014 5:00:56 AM PDT by Wolfie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rodguy911

I don’t think it’s going to stop at the ME, and the ISIS leaders have even promised as much. I think the idea that it’s “just” a sectarian conflict or “just” a regional or civil war is a comforting fantasy that Obama and the Dems want us to believe. Obama’s way of dealing with any advance of radical Islam is simply to shrug it off and tell us condescendingly that it’s just “stupid stuff,” kind of like children squabbling on the playground, and he, great lord and master and the only adult, knows that boys will be boys and we shouldn’t worry our little heads about it.

His minimizing or ignoring of crises may be simple stupidity, but I think it’s rather odd that every crisis he ignores results in weakening the US and advancing Islam.


11 posted on 06/15/2014 5:01:51 AM PDT by livius
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

The media is killing Obama on Iraq. Trying to say that Obama is stuck on stupid and that this is alqueda...not sunni a Shiite civil war.


12 posted on 06/15/2014 6:09:44 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: paristexas

Keep em busy killing each other and they won’t have time to think about us.


13 posted on 06/15/2014 6:44:44 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

ISIS/ISIL hasn’t yet conquered an area that hasn’t had a Sunni majority population. Here’s the welcome they are receiving from Sunni’s (victory parade):

ISIL/ISIS show off there new arsenal in Mosul 13 June 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAxNZfWmhMQ

You’ll note that in other ISIS/ISIL videos they take extreme care to protect the identity of their members. There are probably a number of reasons for this, but no doubt one reason is that some of the members are former Saddam loyalists and/or bathists -people who once (for Saddam Hussein) tortured and kill these people they purport to be liberating. For them (or now their sons) this jihadi-kinda-thingy is a means to renewed power, a means to recover lost prominence.

On a side note...I’ve been wondering about this for a while. We know that Islam as a religion is constantly trying to legitimize itself in earlier history (pre 600 AD). This movement could have chosen any name. Is it just a coincidence that the acronym ISIS that they chose to represent their cause is the name of the Greco-roman name for the pagan Egyptian goddess “Isis” (the mother)? We know that the Kaaba stone in Mecca was a pagan idol that Mohammed salvaged. Just strikes me as a strange coincidence that that would use an acronym that in the name of a pagen goddess.


14 posted on 06/15/2014 8:17:17 AM PDT by Fitzy_888 ("ownership society")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Fitzy_888

I like your concepton the ISIS/ISIL...and FEAR is the biggest element to defeating your enemy...so yes they are probably using propaganda to ‘run off’ as many as they can to predict a victory, even though their numbers aren’t that great compared to an Iraqi Army.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27838435

The Sadaam loyalist or Bath members would have had help from a certain amount of the civilian population.


15 posted on 06/15/2014 8:29:37 AM PDT by Kackikat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: livius

O Drama is to blame for letting all the gains in Iraq just die when he pulled out in 2011. That said this is mostly Sectarian violence in the Sunni-Shiite sectors of Islam.

However, it won’t stay in Iraq, but as of today there are Iraqi’s joining the Iraqi Army and one place has been reclaimed....so we should watch and wait to see if those Generals learned enough to recover their losses. I don’t want us to lose any more soldiers after 4000 died to liberate these people at a cost of over a trillion dollars to rebuild schools, neighborhoods, and have a real election.

O Drama will no doubt do something again now that the Iraqis are picking up arms..and that might not be good for us. Britain’s SOS is offering intelligence to Iraqi army, and we can offer some drone or air support if we can get some of that intelligence to support their putting into practice what they were taught, but by no means is this just going away.

Turkey consulate lost 80 people to kidnapping by ISIL/ISIS yesterday....the march is on by terrorists to re instate much of Saddaam evil.


16 posted on 06/15/2014 8:37:17 AM PDT by Kackikat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: BCW

Where is it available for a free .pdf download?


17 posted on 06/15/2014 8:41:54 AM PDT by Cvengr (Adversity in life and death is inevitable. Thru faith in Christ, stress is optional.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’m sorry but Iraq couldn’t beat a hapless Iran. Got its ass kicked by the US twice. When were they ever a good and disciplined fighting unit??


18 posted on 06/15/2014 8:43:45 AM PDT by stuck_in_new_orleans
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Fitzy_888

“You say ‘ISIS’, and we say ‘ISIL’ — let’s cut a few heads off ...”


19 posted on 06/15/2014 9:03:54 AM PDT by mikrofon (W/E Bump)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: livius
I think you are right.these guys are like animals. Whenever they smell fear they strike. They have already named Jordan as a place they would like to fight who know where else they will go. My guess is they will keep moving until someone stops them.
With 400 million in the bank they can go pretty much wherever they want.
It pays to remember that a year ago they were a force of 5-10k no more.Who knows how big they are now.
20 posted on 06/15/2014 2:58:49 PM PDT by rodguy911 (FreeRepublic:Land of the Free because of the Brave--Sarah Palin our secret weapon)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson