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.
So for years here on FR, I have said the Iraq war was a mistake (was BBQed for it many a time) because the end game wasn’t really spelled out and really Iraq is an artificial country (thank you Churchill and France). I also said we could not “fix” the problem until we looked at Syria the same way. It is at least 3 countries. I said years ago that we should partition it between Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis. It looks like that is what we are headed for with everyone pretty much disgusted with the USA and over 4000 casualties. I thought we would lose because we think they want to wear jeans and eat McDonalds. Now we know better, I think...
Good point, SeekAndFind.
People die. At this point what difference does it make? /hillary (collateral damage for fascists/socialists/totalitarians/psychopaths)
You can pay them.
But you cannot give them the willingness to fight. That has to come from inside. The Jihadis have the willingness. These guys don't.
vaudine
Bingo, except IMO it required somewhat less than two generations (<40yrs). The kids loved us with our instant friendliness, our edible treats, the soccer balls we gave them and the care and medical treatments; they knew we were the good guys. We just needed to stay as we did after WWII, build schools and let them grow up.
The author gets it right as well: Unless Iraq finds some deep well of nationalistic strength....
My sense after 18 months in country was that while we thought we were helping them with an "American Revolution" -like operation, the adults were culturally unable to comprehend the personal effort that entailed or required.
Somehow I don't see audiences rushing to see:
MISS BAGHDAD - A musical tale of love and loss set amid the epic fall of the Iraqi capital.
G.I.s dancing with bikini-clad Vietnamese bar-girls
vs
Troops in Kevlar drinking tea with filthy bearded men?
Drama and song through two acts
vs
Fatima getting stoned to death by her own family in the first five minutes?
Oh, wait. never mind...
OMG Obama is losing all over the globe.
Respectfully disagree...he’s winning while the world is losing...
Wait. What?
Well, we know where they are...
An all out carpet bombing should begin until every living thing is DEAD!
It’s the least we could do for our soldiers...
Afghanistan is relatively unimportant next to Iraq. Afghanistan has heroin production. Iraq has oil.
If AlQ gets deeply imbedded into Iraq, they will have the capability to finance their activities through oil revenue, making them independent of the wealthy Arabs who have been funding them up until now.
Yep. Last helicopter out.
I know I am shocked. s/
I think you meant “satire”.
+1
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