Tag: Iraqi Army

ISIS: How Effective Are The Airstrikes?

Everyday someone from the Admin goes on the tube and tells the American people and the world just how well the action against ISIS is going……..according to them our airstrikes are having an effect……that they are a success…..beyond imagination (well that may be putting words in their mouths but seems like that is what they are trying to say)……..

First the airstrikes, so far we have conducted about 500 airstrikes, probably more…..we have hit command and control, oil fields, vehicles, barracks and militants……..after so much ordnance aimed at the bad guys and all the chest thumping by the Iraqi government that all is well and on track….I have a question.

How do they measure effective?

ISIS has captured more villages on the border with Turkey………and in Iraq, ISIS was overrun one Iraqi base camp killing many and wounding even more….and now under the massive airstrikes, ISIS has surrounded another Iraqi position………

Despite the addition of US airstrikes complicating their operations, ISIS continues to have the advantage on the ground in Iraq, and for the second time in less than a week has cornered a large camp full of Iraqi soldiers.

200 soldiers are believed to be in the Albu Etha camp, and they report that they have begun to run low on food and ammunition. Despite Iraq’s claims of progress against ISIS since the US strikes began, the losses seem to be mounting.

The Iraqi army is having one setback after another and we are told that they are getting control of the ground portion of this conflict.

This brings up another question.

If the Iraqi army is impotent against ISIS, who will be the ground forces that will do all this ISIS killing on the ground?  The Iraqi army has been training to defend their country for 10+ years and yet they are still not ready to do so.

We could always fall back on the Kurds and Peshmerga……..the problem there is without massive air power they would be sucking the sand they live on……so I ask again……who are these ground forces that will successfully eliminate ISIS?

Does anyone have a good answer to these question?

Turn the page!

Which Way Did They Go?

Opinion from the desk of the Editor:

 

Yes Irene the country of Iraq is suffering through a time of change……the establishment of the Islamic State has hit everyone for a loop.  Now the world is scrambling around trying to find someone anyone that can take the battle to IS and stop reacting to their attacks.  But where to look for the possibility of leadership in this coming battle without using American troops on the ground?

Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat—The Iraqi military is seeking the assistance of Saddam Hussein-era military officials in a bid to stem the advance of “terrorist” groups, particularly the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which continues its advance in central and northern parts of the country.

In comments to Asharq Al-Awsat Iraqi Ministry of Defense adviser Lt. Gen. Thamer bin Sultan Al-Tikriti said former officials who served in the military establishment during the era of Saddam Hussein will be able to find a place in the present Iraqi army. They will be organized into military units affiliated with the Iraqi army to help eradicate ISIS and similar-minded groups, the official said.

This comes after Saddam-era military and political officials have been marginalized in post-Saddam Iraq, part of the controversial de-Ba’athification process instituted following the fall of the dictator.

You see in there infinite wisdom the US decided the only way to get Iraq to submit to their occupation was to get rid of the generals and other officers that had served in the Iraqi army of Saddam.

The recent defeats of the present day Iraqi army has shown the powers that they, the Iraqi troops, needed experienced leadership.

You see in 2004 while the country was in the midst of a de-Baathification process an Iraqi general warned that it might not be a good idea……

A general with 32 years of military service at the time of Hussein’s fall, today he is governor of the former dictator’s home, Tikrit, a job handed to him by the U.S.-led occupation authority.

He believes there is a danger in banning former soldiers who were high-ranking Baath Party members from government positions,

So far he has been proven right…….there might not have been a rapid advance of IS if there had been battle hardened generals and officers to take command of the army when it is needed.

Yet another failed policy of the US occupation of Iraq.  In our rush to save the oil industry we overlooked yet another possibility……the return to violence and the possibility of the rise of a more extreme form of foe, aka Islamic State.

Is It Really Over?

It was a beautiful sight….the last of the combat troops in convoy heading for the Kuwaiti border….bringing an end to the combat phase of the invasion of Iraq……but the US involvement in Iraq is NOT over….but at least for now the combat phase is…..as reported by FOX News……

As the exit of the troops was shown live on TV in the U.S. Wednesday, U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley described the end of combat operations as a “historic moment,” but vowed that America’s long-term commitment was unwavering.

“The last thing that we want to see is an occasion where we have to send troops back into Iraq yet again so we are ending the combat phase of our involvement in Iraq for a second time,” he said.

“We’re not ending our involvement in Iraq. We will have important work to do. This is a transition. This is not the end of something. It’s a transition to something different. We have a long-term commitment to Iraq.”

Like I said a great thing…..but I am concerned that the present lack of a government in Iraq will lead to growing violence and eventually the US will have to return to restore order….well what passes for order……

I am also concerned that the “theory of recurrent cycles” will once again become the order of the day….it has been there from the beginning of Iraq as a country…if it does then American forces will be returning to the desert…the heat….and the violence that is Iraq.

Iraqi Army Readies For Action Against Kurds

Iraqi troops and Kurdish peshmerga forces are bracing for conflict in the disputed city of Khanaqin in the most serious threat of clashes between Arabs and Kurds since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

A delegation flew from Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish regional government, to Baghdad at the weekend to try to resolve the crisis. The two main Kurdish parties are allied and form part of Iraq’s coalition government.

However, Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan region, and leader of the Kurdish Democratic party, said Iraq was still living under the influence of Saddam’s regime and the central government was not serious about sharing power with Kurds. He claimed many military decisions were made without consultations with General Babakir Zebari, a Kurd who is the Iraqi army’s chief of staff.

The crisis has grown since July when the Iraqi government ordered peshmerga forces to withdraw to Kurdistan from Diyala. It also told the two main Kurdish parties to move out of the numerous government buildings in Diyala which they had taken over when Saddam’s regime fell.

THis could be the start of the “battle” for Iraq by Iraqis.