Posted on 06/10/2014 7:47:18 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
And not just Mosul, according to some reports, but the entire northern province of Nineveh has now fallen into al-Qaeda’s control. Parliamentarians from the region want a declaration of emergency and immediate government intervention, but the forces that had been in Mosul have fled — some of which abandoned their uniforms as well as their posts as the ISIS forces swarmed into the city:
Insurgents seized control early Tuesday of most of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, including the provincial government headquarters, offering a powerful demonstration of the mounting threat posed by extremists to Iraq’s teetering stability.
Fighters with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an al-Qaeda offshoot, overran the entire western bank of the city overnight after Iraqi soldiers and police apparently fled their posts, in some instances discarding their uniforms as they sought to escape the advance of the militants.
Iraq’s speaker of parliament, Osama Nujaifi, said the city that ranks as the capital of northern Iraq is now entirely in insurgent hands.
“When the battle got tough in the city of Mosul, the troops dropped their weapons and abandoned their posts, making it an easy prey for the terrorists,” he told a televised news conference in Baghdad.
CBS reports from Iraqi and Arab media that the first goal of the attack may have been to free more than 2,000 prisoners held by Iraq in Mosul. Their next goal may bring ISIS a lot closer to Baghdad:
Iraqi Parliament speaker Usama al-Nujaifi said the terrorists are now setting their sight on Salahuddin, a province just north of Baghdad.
“They have already seized the Shergat air base in Salahuddin”, Nujaifi said, adding that terrorists laid their hands on weapon depots, heavy equipment and army helicopters from abandoned army bases in Mosul.
Nujaifi appealed to the US ambassador for an American military intervention:
Nujaifi said he spoke to US Ambassador Lukman Faily, requesting U.S. support to repel the terrorists’ attack by virtue of the Joint Cooperation agreement between the two countries. Ambassador Faily promised to promptly convey our request to the U.S. administration, Nujaifi said.
This will be almost impossible to do, and entirely impossible to do quickly. We pulled out all of our forces three years ago when the Obama administration failed to negotiate for a residual force for this exact scenario. In order to land an effective fighting force to defend Baghdad and retake Mosul, we would need to commit tens of thousands of troops and a large amount of materiel in a big hurry. Logistically speaking, that would be a feat worthy of George S. Patton and the Battle of the Bulge in order for us to get to Baghdad before ISIS does, especially with Iraqi security forces collapsing.
Politically speaking, it’s a dead letter. Obama just coughed up five prizes to the Taliban in his haste to get the US out of Afghanistan. Does Iraq really expect Obama to restart the Iraq War all over again after spending his entire national political career speaking out against it? Agreement or no, Obama almost certainly won’t send combat troops into Iraq, even if it’s to fight al-Qaeda, and very certainly not before the midterm elections.
This puts Iraq in a very dangerous position, though, and the entire region. The ISIS threat now stretches from Baghdad to the Mediterranean, engulfing both Syria and Iraq. The Kurds are in danger of being cut off (which is why they’re offering Peshmerga forces to relieve Mosul if possible), and the Iranians will eventually have to intervene if no one else does, on behalf of the Shi’ites in the eastern part of Iraq. This is the reason why it made sense to keep American forces in Iraq as a back-up to Iraqi security forces, but that option is all but dead now. Unless Iraq finds some deep well of nationalistic strength and repels ISIS on its own, the only democratic Arab republic may be very short-lived indeed.
All this is on Obama’s head.
He abandoned our blood their and handed Mesopotamia to the Persians
Drat his hide.
ping.
there
He has many supporters.
It has a lot to do with our refusal to win wars dating back to immediately after WWII.
US-trained security forces? Trained to desert to help their 0’s peeps?
A close relative fought for a year to free Mosul. It was a terrible time. If you were to ask my professional opinion as a pastor, and that’s because I’ve seen grief a lot, I’d say he is showing grief over this. He can’t believe it (shock/denial). He’s extremely angry when discussing it. (Anger). Then he just shakes his head in bitterness. (depression).
I imagine every soldier and family, who lost friends or loved ones, or who had them injured, are experiencing similar grief over the news out of Mosul.
Yep, starting with failure to define and declare war against belligerent nations states instead of dodging with “war on” catch phrases.
It’s the same in Afghanistan, but Iraq was all sewn up till Obama walked away.
I have a bud that had to go reliberate Musa Qala in Afghanistan after NATO walked away.
We went in, took the place with great bloodshed, then held it for 6 years or so, fortified it, built roads and then walked away.
The Taliban came howling out of the hills, grabbed the place said thanks very much for the new fortifications and started raising hell.
Then my bud has to go in and root them out again.
Pretty senseless BS.
I thought we were told that Al Qaeda was “on the run”
RE: I thought we were told that Al Qaeda was “on the run”
Yes they are. They’re running INTO Iraq.
We need energy independence so we can get ourselves out of that god-forsaken part of the world.
It was naive to think things would ever change there, nothing but a bunch of savages.
We learned in Viet Nam how to lose people taking a village, then leave it, then lose people taking it back again, rinse repeat.
Iraq is our ally. Compare this to Syria's Assad, which Obama wants to topple, that has been fighting for years to keep the terrorists from taking over. We do seem to be on the wrong side in a lot of this.
We have no allies in the Middle East, other than Israel....And with Obama, even that is now in question.
Releasing POWs back to countries that were thoroughly defeated wasn’t a problem because they were being released to a nation that had lost the will to fight.
There were still nazi sympathizers in postwar Germany who tried to carry on a guerrilla war against the allies but within a couple of years the German people themselves rose up against them.
RE: We need energy independence so we can get ourselves out of that god-forsaken part of the world.
___________________________________
We almost are. All we need is additional fracking approval and NOT TO CLOSE OUR COAL PLANTS.
See here:
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=16511
Domestic production satisfies 84% of total U.S. energy demand in 2013
Indeed.
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.