CNN is reporting that Iraqi forces have retaken Tikrit.
Iraqi air force is also conducting air strikes against ISIS forces in Mosul.
Iraqi air force is also conducting air strikes against ISIS forces in Mosul.
Sound like the Kurds are making hay while the sun shines, and have taken control of Kirkuk--and the Christians are moving up there with them. I wonder how long it'll be before they tell the rest of Iraq to go get stuffed?
I'm interested in your idea on killing all the wild hogs.
As to going back into Iraq, didn't we already "install democracy" there several years ago?
No--let's let it go. If it comes here, then let's kill 'em all. We do need to protect our embassy people as well as possible.
IMHO, move the embassy to Kurdish-held territory, help them establish their own country (since they seem to be the only ones even halfway friendly to us and are even close to having their stuff together), and let the rest of the place revert to the 13th century hell-hole they apparently want it to be...
I dont have a real plan that would pass PITA or Landowners. But honestly poison, bountys, wantin waste, unrestricted access even on private land. Woulfnt take any longer than wolves ir Buffalo or Turkeys. It really doesnt take long once humans declare war on a species.
Yes. They will retake everything, and they won't care who gets in their way. But this includes Kurdistan, and the Al Maliki elements will squash any ideas of a separate, autonomous state for the Kurds. Already, POTUS is sending 500 million to support anti Assad elements in Syria - and we know who they are...Remember? If Assad got rid of his chemical weapons, Obama was going to let him alone. Wrong answer. Last week Assad fulfilled his end of the bargain. Obama is going to arm up ISIS (in the long run). These moderate Syrian opposition leaders will quickly sell their weapons to ISIS.
That's one way of calculating it I suppose.
Never have been much of a conspiracy theorist myself so this is how I calculate it:
The civil war in Syria is over for the most part. (Assad won BTW)
So ISIS decided to turn around and see if they could make better headway in Iraq where their fellow Sunnis would welcome them.
The rapidity and violence of their advance in Iraq shocked everyone, to include US officials.
What to do?
ISIS already has an abundance of small arms including the weapons we left with the Iraqis to defend themselves with.
Arming "moderate" forces in the area is much more Anti-ISIS than Anti-Assad.
In that part of the world "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" still rules the day.
sounds like cnn is taking their info from whoever the "new" Baghdad bob may be.
The news of the withdrawal from Tikrit comes one day after Iraqi military officials boasted that they "routed" the fighters, and had "complete success in clearing ISIS from the city, with some militant commanders among the 60 killed."
Iraqi forces are said to have withdrawn to the town of Dijla near Tikrit to regroup.
Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/06/iraqi_troops_insurge.php##ixzz36365CgRK
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/06/iraqi_troops_insurge.php#
