Three Isil fighters pose in Ramadi the Iraqi army 'abandoned' the city Photo: Twitter
The Telegraph: Iraqi army 'abandoned tanks, artillery and Humvees' to Isil in fall of Ramadi
Extent of Iraqi army chaos revealed by Pentagon alongside claims that corrupt officers sold battle plans to jihadists
The full extent of the Iraqi army’s failure in its defeat by Isil in the key western city of Ramadi has been revealed by Washington, which said it left behind tanks, armoured vehicles and other weapons to the jihadists.
A Pentagon spokesman said that the Iraqi security forces (ISF) abandoned “half dozen tanks” as it fled, along with a similar number of artillery pieces, even more armored personnel carriers and about 100 other vehicles such as Humvees.
The revelation - confirming previous claims by jihadist websites - came on top of allegations by an Iraqi adviser and analyst that army officers had been bribed by the jihadists to hand over plans for Ramadi’s defence.
Update: Iraqis abandoned US-supplied equipment in Ramadi -- Robert Burns, AP
WNU Editor: According to McClatchy these Iraqi military forces were the best .... Elite Iraqi units abandon Ramadi in biggest Islamic State win since Mosul (McClatchy) .... but even they were not enough to stop the Islamic State. If your best are not good enough .... sighhh .... the Iraqi government and the U.S. led coalition to confront the Islamic State is clearly in trouble.
9 comments:
i get the feeling this is all rehearsed why would your best elite forces drop arms its crazy same up at mosul although they wernt elite troops lookn like us wants this carnage and then they ride in on white horse to save the day if not then iraq and us are in some really deep trouble
Punctuation is your friend.
WNU,
I think it was about a year ago I told you that there is no Iraqi army and there will never be one. The aftermath of the retaking of Tikrit buried any dreams of a true Iraqi national military force.
The next test: The docking of the Irani cargo ship projected by thursday. Regardless of sea laws or internationally accepted practices the US has said that Irani shipping will not be allowed to pass without inspection. The Saudis have gone farther and formally declared blockade. Will either one keep their word? Iran has publicly stated that interference with docking will be considered grounds for war. If the US declines to challenge it will confirm GCCC's suspicions and Iran has their first down payment on the nuke negotiations. It is 28hrs to Thursday.
As a postscript for all the conspiracy folks out there, I don't think it's too far into the realm of improbable for an Israeli sub to sink that ship.
I recall your comments from last year on the Iraq army James. And with the fall of Ramadi .... it has been confirmed.
Yeah, well I've said a lot of things, I guess being right one out of ninety isn't too bad. I also said ISIS would fold if they were smashed in the mouth by a professional military, but no one has tried that and the time for it has passed. These guys have done their lessons learned pretty well and are now getting pretty good. Not just good tactically, but also in a operational and strategic sense. They've managed to fight the war they can fight and have not made moves into things they're not good at. They have a pretty good interconnected package of tactics, strategy, and PR. Their strength which is also their weakness is the Sunni underlayment of their existence. It somewhat confines them, just as Islam of the late 600's was confined to the Fertile Crescent. Whether they can breakout like early Islam did is quite possible. In the 600's you had two empires exhausted by long periods of warfare, populations across North Africa, Middle East Persia, and beyond who were alienated from their governments and possessing religions that had lost their vitality. The great majority of the Islamic victories of the first hundred years consisted of cities opening their gates willingly and entire armies either defecting or melting away. If this sounds familiar, it should. The West is corrupt, everyone knows it, but won't say it. The West doesn't believe in anything but a strange secularism which also no one really believes, but gives lip service to. ISIS knows this and they count on it as part of their strategy, especially in Europe. The biggest reason the West has so much trouble coming up with an effective plan against these guys or even naming them, is they must first admit the truth about themselves and they won't/can't.
This doesn't mean that I believe it's all doom and despair, but I don't see an Emperor Heraclius riding out of Constantinople, at least not yet.
ISIS's demographic goes southeast to Baghdad, south into the Sudan, southwest into Egypt and across North Africa up to the Straits, and last ly north to Turkey.
The fall of Constantinople to the forces of Mohammed followed your template James. On paper the city's defenses were significantly more than what was necessary to defeat the Islamic Army, but they choose instead to pray while opening the gates to the city in the hope that these men would be converted. This reminds me of my "We are he World" post from two days ago .... I guess we are repeating history but with a 21rst century flavor.
Got to disagree, Constantinople fell in 1453 to the Ottomans under Mehmed by storm. Though it could be said they were close to betrayal. Heraclius rode out as the new emperor in the early 600's when Constantinople was an island awash in Magyar, Arabic, muslim Persian armies. Against all odds he swept the field in one histories greatest turnabouts of fortune in world history, I wouldn't count on it again.
You are correct James. I guess I was thinking of another war.
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