One commentator had this to say:
Yet another act of mind-boggling incompetence from Baghdad and its military. M1A1 should be more than capable of dealing with ISIS, but of course we all know this was another in a long, long list of ill thought out strategies and plans by the leaders of the Iraqi regime.
You really can't blame anyone in our government for not wanting to support these clowns running Iraq. They are ridiculously bad at what they do. The Kurds are now claiming they warned Maliki about an ISIS advance on Mosul 5 days beforehand. Maliki ignored the warning and demanded the Kurds stay out of Mosul. When ISIS did come, Maliki changed his mind and ordered the Kurds in.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/11/kurds-isis-frontier-destiny-beckons
There isn't any hope of reason or logic entering into this with Maliki in charge. Supporting Maliki is supporting the guaranteed fragmentation and all out civil war in Iraq, which is exactly what every Western government does not want to happen.
And finally, I feel sorry for those 4,000 militia being flown into Ramadi because the road there is too dangerous. Judging by the previous performance of Baghdad's forces, that just doesn't sound good.
It’s now IS? So what is going to happen to all those T-shirts that people bought with ISIS on it? Or the coffee mugs or ....
inshallah!
If you can’t win with a bunch of M1A1’s, you can’t win. There is either a huge people problem or some 3rd party with some serious weapons tech is involved.
The situation in Ramadi has become so dire that the Iraqi government is deploying 4,000 members of the newly raised militias, who are primarily Shias, to an area that is overwhelmingly Sunni. The militia members are being “ferried out to Ramadi from Baghdad by helicopter,” ABC News reported, demonstrating how thoroughly the Islamic State controls the road from Baghdad to Ramadi.
Head will roll!
3rd world leaders, tend to think that 1st world countries are powerful simply because of their stuff. So they think their power is in having some of that stuff. That you have to know how to use it and have the will to use it escapes them.
Uncle Sam alone has the ability to support (resupply and provide arty fire and CAS) units in the middle of Indian country. At Dien Bien Phu, it became clear that the French did not, and even elite troops could not hold out without adequate resupply. As recently as WWII, no one had this ability. The elite German airborne invasion of Crete was redeemed only as the result of mistakes by British commanders defending the island. Maliki's militia rabble will be massacred to the last man.
Well, that is just wonderful.... jeesh
we really SHOULD have put self destructive devices on all that equipment we left behind to the Iraqis. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to deduce that they weren’t going to hold onto it! How much resistance did the US military encounter when we invaded Iraq? About as much as the thugs in ISIS had.
Easy solution:
1. Allow the Kurds to control the northern choke points on both the northeast and northwest part of Iraq.
2. When ISIS begins moving troops to combat this, nail them with air support.
3. Send your Shia boys up the road and retake Mosul.
4. Squash all remaining opposition.
It shouldn’t be hard - ISIS destroyed a SUNNI town for not cooperating fully. Kill them all now before they DO become a Saudi/Turk caliphate.