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| Iraq | |
| Obama Eyes Sped Up Training, Weapons for Iraqi Tribes after Ramadi Rout | |
| 2015-05-21 | |
If you have a small business, you didn't build that... weighed faster training and arms supplies for Iraqi tribes Tuesday, while eying a rapid counteroffensive to retake Ramadi from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... group. "We are looking at how best to support local ground forces in Anbar" province, National Security Council front man Alistair Baskey told Agence La Belle France Presse, "including accelerating the training and equipping of local tribes and supporting an Iraqi-led operation to retake Ramadi." Ramadi -- a city in Iraq's Sunni heartland just 90 minutes' drive away from the capital Baghdad -- was overrun by jihadists on Sunday. The audacious military victory was a major blow in the battle against the IS group, calling into question Obama's strategy in Iraq and the authority of his ally, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. The White House has described the loss of Ramadi as a "setback" but played down suggestions that the war is being lost. "Are we going to light our hair on fire every time that there is a setback in the campaign?" asked White House front man Josh Earnest. Obama huddled with his secretaries of State, Defense as well as National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Central Intelligence Agency chief John Brennan to plot the way forward. - 'No formal strategy review' - "There is no formal strategy review," said Baskey, indicating that the pace rather than type of assistance to Sunni tribes was in question. A more detailed announcement could come within days. Obama has repeatedly ruled out sending vast numbers of U.S. troops back to the theater of a bloody and unpopular nine-year war that he vowed to end. Instead, he has vowed to support Iraq's struggling army and hit IS from the air. There has also been support for disparate Iraqi paramilitary groups that have proven a more potent fighting force than army or police regulars, though not without controversy. Both Washington and Baghdad had been uneasy about arms flowing directly to Kurdish peshmerga fighters in the north, fearing those arms could later be used in the battle for independence. Meanwhile, ...back at the secret hideout, Scarface Al sneeringly put his proposition to little Nell... many of the Shiite groups that helped retake Tikrit are armed and trained by Iran and their role in campaigns in overwhelmingly Sunni Anbar could risk reigniting a sectarian bloodbath. The White House wants to see those groups firmly under the command and control of the Iraqi military, but is also turning to Sunni tribes, which helped turn the tide of America's own war in Iraq through the "Sunni Awakening." But reeling from the worst setback since IS grabbed swathes of territory in June last year, Abadi called in the Shiite-dominated Popular Mobilization units (Hashed al-Shaabi). Iraq's army and allied paramilitary forces massed around Ramadi, meanwhile, looking for swift action to recapture the city from IS before it builds up defenses. "The Iraqi government needs to launch an immediate counteroffensive before (IS) can consolidate its power, both for symbolic reasons and because of Ramadi's proximity to Baghdad," said Michael Knights of the Washington Institute. | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #10 Why Arabs Lose Wars by Norvell B. De Atkine Middle East Quarterly December 1999 |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2015-05-21 18:47 |
| #9 "Are we going to light our hair on fire every time that there is a setback in the campaign?" You mean as in "The Stupid- It Burns!' poster? |
| Posted by: Pappy 2015-05-21 12:18 |
| #8 I am beginning to think the regime in Washington is purposefully handing Iraq to ISIS. Could the strategy be the creation of an Iraqi 'buffer state' next to Iran, a Saddam-Iran redux? Or am I reading too much into it ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2015-05-21 11:42 |
| #7 BO needs to incorporate his Coast Guard speech into the 'training' over there to speed things up, and get to the real problem: "Understand, climate change did not cause the conflicts we see around the world. Yet ... it's now believed that drought and crop failures and high food prices helped fuel the early unrest in Syria, which descended into civil war in the heart of the Middle East." |
| Posted by: Mugsy Glink 2015-05-21 11:39 |
| #6 A setback is when the new window doesn't fit the old space. These guys just received a city full of bullets and beans. Furthermore, the flat execution of prisoners and that they seem to bring along pre-made IEDs and mines to immediately setup a defense. Also, the propaganda recruiting moral boost to tie in with gains in Syria. Combine that with a blow to whatever moral the whatever Iraqi government there is with soldiers and refugees streaming out of Ramadi. And its not Earnest's hair, its his pants, and everybody knows it, which only accomplishes a vote of present. The better response: |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2015-05-21 11:36 |
| #5 Send all of the State Department and IRS to fill the ranks. That will work better! Trust me! |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2015-05-21 11:13 |
| #4 I volunteer to light Josh's hair on fire when Baghdad falls. |
| Posted by: KBK 2015-05-21 10:45 |
| #3 the Routing Iraqi army The di di mao brigade? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-05-21 01:23 |
| #2 He wants to get weapons and equipment to ISIS asQuickly as possible and the fastest way is via the Routing Iraqi army. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2015-05-21 00:50 |
| #1 Didn't work before the Fall of Ramadi, will not work after the Fall of Ramadi. What a Loser. |
| Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 2015-05-21 00:06 |