A member of the Kurdish peshmerga forces stands guard at a security point on Mount Bashiqa, overlooking Islamic State-held territories in Mosul, March 7, 2015. (photo by REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih)
Mark Perry, Politico: Get Ready for Obama’s ‘October Surprise’ in Iraq
If Iraqi and Kurdish troops—with stepped-up U.S. support—retake Mosul as planned, it could be a big boost for Hillary.
The American public could be treated to a major U.S.-led military victory in Iraq this fall, just as voters are deciding who will be the nation’s next president—but U.S. military officials insist the timing of the operation has nothing to do with politics.
Iraqi and Kurdish military and paramilitary units are preparing for a push on Mosul, the Islamic State-held city that is now in the cross hairs of the U.S.-led coalition battling the terrorist group across the Middle East. “The idea is to isolate Mosul, cut it off, kill it,” a senior U.S. Central Command officer told me.
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WNU Editor: Mosul is not going to fall in a few days/weeks .... and if my information on what is happening on the ground in Iraq is accurate, any major offensive against Mosul is still weeks/months away.
Why in God's name do we even know about this sort of thing? Is it standard military doctrine to warn the enemy months ahead of a planned operation?
ReplyDeleteRopestuff: Well, there is no such thing in such a battlefield as Iraq is now, that "not warning ahead of operations". This conflict is not about fast moves (because fighting forces are unable to make such thing happen), and both side know whats going to happen. Well an attack on Mosul is not going to happen next week, nor next month, but recent events show us that it will happen one day.
ReplyDeleteBut you always could count it as a part of a modern military doctrine, as an advanced use of disinformation, when you make the enemy believe you are unable, and won't make a surprise attack ever. But when you do, you won. But that may could be giving someone way more credit that what they would deserve.