ISIS recently captured Ramadi. What are the thoughts of those who deployed there? How do other OIF veterans feel about ISIS's gains in Iraq?

I was not to far from ramadi and had fellow troops at ramadi. I hate to see that it has run,over after what we did

Ramadi's always been a hotbed of political interest both for friend and foe of the Sunni tribes. It's also been the scene of some very heavy fighting over the last decade and some change, albeit on and off.

If the reports are true and accurate, Iraq has some serious soul-searching to do. But if they respond the way their forces are reported to, they're in deep shit. By extension, so are we.

I knew it was coming.... We were not do what was needed to be done, we were only allowed to do what was popular here back home. I hate when the very people we protect complain about how we do it.

I wasn't surprised to see isil gain so much territory in Iraq. But at some point those people will have to stand up and fight for themselves. We can't keep sacrificing our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters on a country no one living there feels is worth defending for themselves. I've seen a spark or two of heart since isil stormed through and I believe some over there are starting to get the idea. But patriotism and nationalism are not things you can just give a people that have never felt them, it's a feeling that has to grow on its own. We just need to let it grow before bull rushing back in.

To discuss whether we should have gone to Iraq in the first place or not is just beating a dead horse at this point. Those who opposed the move will continue to do so, and those who supported it will do the same. What bothers me is that now everything we worked for while we were there has gone completely to shit. I was at Speicher, in the Tikrit area, doing route clearance. One of the places we saw most of our action was Bajii. ISIS now controls all of that area. I had a lot of buddies who did time in Ramadi, which as this article points out, now belongs to ISIS as well. We can't say they aren't a threat, when they've repeatedly said they intend to attack us, on our own soil. They've claimed responsibility for the shooting in Garland (not that it worked out real well for them). So, the way I see it, we can wait for them to come to us, maybe it happens, maybe it doesn't, but if it does, how many people will we lose? How many is too many? Or, we can sack up, kick the piss out of them before they have a chance to come over here, then call it a day and come home. No need for another occupation as both of the countries most heavily affected by these clowns have sitting governments, not our fault their armies are compromised of cowards.

We know about the problem, we know what the possible solutions are. Have we done anything to really thwart the problem? No we havent. i know im probably going to get some comments saying im crazy but its time to stop the draw down and push full into iraq and establish a permanent presense there

I wasted a year of my life in that hellhole of a city (2003-2004) for no good reason. They wanted to fight us all day long, but throw a couple of ISIS fighters their way and ......

Posses off.

Are we stretched to thin! Did we know this was coming? Where is the coalition is regards to Ramadi? Just curious