Posted on 10/16/2016 8:04:53 PM PDT by Clive
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi went on state television early Monday to announce that the crucial battle to end Islamic State’s ruinous reign of terror in Mosul and western Iraq had finally begun.
“Today I declare the start of these victorious operations to free you from the violence and terrorism of Daesh,” al-Abadi said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL.
Shortly before the prime minister told Iraqis that “God willing, we will win,” two Canadian generals who are privy to the battle plans said they were convinced the end of the hardline jihadists in Iraq was inevitable and fast approaching.
The long anticipated assault on Iraq’s second largest city, where 2.2-million people lived when ISIL seized it two years ago, was likely to be bloody and could take some time, Brig.-General Greg Smith and Brig.-Gen Dave Anderson, who both served multiple tours in Afghanistan, said during interviews from Baghdad.
“Let there be no doubt, Mosul is a very big city and they have been working on its defences,” said Smith, who is the chief of staff of the U.S.-led Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command. “We are agreed that it is going to be a very tough, complex fight.”
“It really depends on the enemy,” said Anderson, who heads the coalition’s strategic advisory team, which works closely with Iraq’s security ministries. “One way to look at it is that there is a hard outer crust. It depends how soft and squishy the middle is. Getting through the crust will be hard. Once inside the crust we will see whether they stand and fight to the last man or run away as they did in Ramadi and Fallujah.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalpost.com ...
Operation IMPACT
Operation IMPACT is the Canadian Armed Forces’ (CAF) contribution to the Middle East Stabilization Force (MESF) – the multinational coalition to halt and degrade Daesh.
Under Operation IMPACT, the CAF conducts air operations, provides training and assistance to the Iraqi security forces, provides capacity building capabilities to regional forces, and supports the coalition with highly-skilled personnel.
Through the refocused CAF efforts to the MESF, Canada is playing an important role, alongside its partners, in setting the conditions for Iraqi security forces to achieve long-term success through self-sustainable security.
The total number of CAF members deployed under Operation IMPACT is increasing from approximately 650 to approximately 830, which includes tripling the size of the train, advise, and assist mission in support of the Iraqi security forces.
What do the Mexican admirals think?
“Operation IMPACT”
This, of course, does not include any consideration regarding an intervention from OButthole or John (I served in Viet Nam) Kerry.
Canadian Forces personnel are participating in Iraq including Infantry RCAF Personnel and including Canadian senior officers within the command and control structure of the Middle East Stabilization Force.
As far as I know the Mexican Navy is not participating in the Iraq job.
So? They’ll be back or move on other areas. They’re not going away because the it’s the ideology that survives.
There have been ‘isis’ like groups for centuries in the MENA.
Hillary’s man talking point in the debate.
I hope everything goes well, but the history of poorly trained troops vs suicide attackers is not good.
Even highly experienced and trained personnel are unnerved by suicide attacks (eg. US Navy and kamikazes; US Marines on Okinawa)
Until the Saudis decide a group like ISIS is needed again, and then they will pour more of their money, weapons and devilish ideology into the next Jihadi group....
My late father said that a Kamikaze plane somehow landed near his unit and the pilot was screaming to let him out. He was welded in.
ISIL/ISIS is an ideology. It’s a mind virus. You can’t just kill it. You have to immunize the populace to fight it as well.
How about Obama or any of the other really, really, really smart people in our government get Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Syria(Assad) to meet under the protection of the Russians and US in order to divide up the mideast between the Sunni and Shiite factions.
We STEP AWAY AND LET THEM DECIDE. The only caveat would be that Israel must not be touched. Everything from the Straits of Gibraltar to Pakistan is to be decided by the group. Islam must reform itself in order to enter into the Western culture...IF THEY WANT TO. Otherwise they stay in their little box. If they stray they get the Carthaginian treatment, their money is confiscated and we move forward.
They need to fix their problems.
We all know that ISIS will be ‘pushed’ out of Iraq just in time for the election.
Those 9000 jihadists are needed for the seige of Deir Ezzor, in SE Syria. They can’t do that if they’re stuck in Mosul.
And the White House wants a PR victory to help Hillary.
This won’t be some great victory over ISIS. It will be a cynical redeployment.
Not wanting to count one’s chickens before their hatched, but if this pans out, it will be nice to have some good news for a change from that part of the world.
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