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Are they winning? Why are they winning? Are we to blame? Did we leave Iraq in a state that would inevitably result in more conflict?
The latest folly at the hands of the Iraqi military has landed millions of dollars of state-of-the-art U.S. military equipment in the hands of ISIS fighters after the Iraqi Army fled from Ramadi. Some blame can be placed at the Iraqi Army's feet for sure. But how much of that blame falls to us?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3111931/Concern-Pentagon-ISIS-shows-military-equipment-seized-Iraqi-troops-latest-video.html
The latest folly at the hands of the Iraqi military has landed millions of dollars of state-of-the-art U.S. military equipment in the hands of ISIS fighters after the Iraqi Army fled from Ramadi. Some blame can be placed at the Iraqi Army's feet for sure. But how much of that blame falls to us?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3111931/Concern-Pentagon-ISIS-shows-military-equipment-seized-Iraqi-troops-latest-video.html
Iraq
ISIS
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 5
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For the moment, but with changes in the politics and economics of the US, Service personnel will bring guns to a gunfight.
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I think the premature withdrawal of our troops is the primary cause of the situation there now. The situation had been stabilized and the factions had started working together - with our supervision.
Cooperative power sharing was not in the history of the region, and it required patience and persistence to develop the necessary experience before it could become self-sustaining.
When we pulled out the first thing the Shia did was to purge the Sunnis in the military leadership and replaced them with Shia officers - alienating the Sunni tribes once again. These were the troops that cut and ran when faced by much smaller ISIS forces.
Abandoned by the U.S., the Iraqi leadership turned to the next most powerful force in the neighborhood, Iran, further alienating the Sunnis.
AQI had been defeated in the Anbar Awakening, but was able to reconstitute itself and grow stronger in the fighting in Syria, before returning in force to Iraq. Even seeing these forces entering Iraq we stood by doing nothing until we were shamed into taking some show of force by the civilian massacres following ISIS's advance.
It would have been possible to have damaged ISIS by a serious air campaign when they were in the open in Iraq before they had taken major cities - but we only sent a hand full of air strikes that had minimal effect.
The longer the U.S. and the world delays striking ISIS the more difficult and bloody the fight will have to become.
One would think that the world had learned something from the same sort of situation in the 1930s when Hitler invaded the Sudetenland and could have been stopped with relative ease.
But inaction then ended up throwing the world into a world war that took over 60 million lives before it was over.
And that was before nuclear weapons, which will cause far greater destruction.
Simply because the world dithers once again in the face of determined barbarism.
Cooperative power sharing was not in the history of the region, and it required patience and persistence to develop the necessary experience before it could become self-sustaining.
When we pulled out the first thing the Shia did was to purge the Sunnis in the military leadership and replaced them with Shia officers - alienating the Sunni tribes once again. These were the troops that cut and ran when faced by much smaller ISIS forces.
Abandoned by the U.S., the Iraqi leadership turned to the next most powerful force in the neighborhood, Iran, further alienating the Sunnis.
AQI had been defeated in the Anbar Awakening, but was able to reconstitute itself and grow stronger in the fighting in Syria, before returning in force to Iraq. Even seeing these forces entering Iraq we stood by doing nothing until we were shamed into taking some show of force by the civilian massacres following ISIS's advance.
It would have been possible to have damaged ISIS by a serious air campaign when they were in the open in Iraq before they had taken major cities - but we only sent a hand full of air strikes that had minimal effect.
The longer the U.S. and the world delays striking ISIS the more difficult and bloody the fight will have to become.
One would think that the world had learned something from the same sort of situation in the 1930s when Hitler invaded the Sudetenland and could have been stopped with relative ease.
But inaction then ended up throwing the world into a world war that took over 60 million lives before it was over.
And that was before nuclear weapons, which will cause far greater destruction.
Simply because the world dithers once again in the face of determined barbarism.
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I shouldn't let their actions piss me off this much, because they'd love to read that.
But it does. I'm pissed. I didn't even deploy, and I'm infuriated. Is this rational?
But it does. I'm pissed. I didn't even deploy, and I'm infuriated. Is this rational?
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SSG (Join to see)
Yes. To see all the hard work and lives lost in an effort to stabilize a country go down the drain at the hands of ISIS fighters is very frustrating. Especially considering we took a lot of time and money training the Iraqi Army only to see them lose the will to fight and run.
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