Iraqi is getting shakier

Submitted by gjohnsit on Wed, 03/30/2016 - 12:23am

The recent defeats by ISIS are well-known and celebrated, but the weak performance by Iraqi forces is just as significant.

Less than a week ago, Iraqi officials were touting a new military offensive against some villages near Mosul as a major sign of progress in the war against ISIS, and their success in taking three villages was proof of ISIS being “in retreat.”
Today that offensive is stalled outright, on the brink of collapse, as low morale has many Iraqi troops leaving their positions, and Kurdish officials who were involved in the fighting saying the army “have no will to fight.”
The Kurds are in a position to know, as they hold a checkpoint between the villages and Shi’ite territory, and have been stopping deserters en masse,, detaining those they can but ultimately watching as their key allies ditch the battle.

Even the liberation of those few villages was rather pathetic.

“What I see here are amateurs, not military operations,” says Maysar Hassan, a former Iraqi soldier whose village of Kharbardan was retaken by the army last week. “One small village, 1000 square meters, it took them three days to liberate it.”
The pace of operations has indeed been slow. In the five days since the government announced the offensive, Iraqi forces have seized fewer than 10 villages — and the jihadists had already abandoned many of them.

This was long predicted. ISIS was stopped by Shia militias defending their homes. Everyone that knew something about Iraq questioned the fighting will of those forces as they marched into Sunni areas 100s of kilometres away, and now we are seeing it.

US officials are downplaying the concerns, insisting that the Iraqi troops are performing up to expectations. Locals are complaining that the troops showed up, looted their villages, and then just left, insisting they are no better than ISIS.

And that is the root of the problem.
ISIS is weak, but so is Baghdad.
Well, it is the root of one of the problems. Baghdad has a whole other problem.

Massive anti-corruption protests led by Moqtada al-Sadr have come to a head, and the Iraqi parliament has formally given Prime Minister Hayder Abadi just three additional days to present a new cabinet of technocrats, fulfilling a pledge he made six weeks ago....
The parliament’s new ultimatum threatens a vote of no-confidence if Abadi fails to deliver the new cabinet in time, something which many have been anticipating for months, as Abadi’s waning popularity has meant his days are numbered.

A collapsing economy, a stalled war effort, popular unrest, and political turmoil is not a good combination.

Tags: 
iraq
ISIS
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Submitted by dervish on Wed, 03/30/2016 - 1:21am
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and are they able to isolate Mosul from Raqqa?
Where's al-Quds and the Hezbos when you need them?

We could always wait for the Americans to fight Da'esh, but that may take many years.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

Submitted by Love Me Slender on Wed, 03/30/2016 - 10:15am

...until we "need" to send troops back. Then we're fighting "the war on terror".

Disgusting barely scratches our ME policy.

By the way, HI FOLKS! I know some of you from DK Smile

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Progressive and Proud!

Submitted by dervish on Wed, 03/30/2016 - 1:48am
dervish's picture

to join. He always had some weird facts and insights before getting banned at GOS.

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Submitted by dervish on Wed, 03/30/2016 - 2:14am
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The Pentagon backed militia is fighting the CIA backed militia near Aleppo. You really can't make this stuff up.

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Submitted by dervish on Wed, 03/30/2016 - 2:46am
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Great diary on Syria too, btw, I didn't see it at first.

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Submitted by dervish on Wed, 03/30/2016 - 2:14am
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The Pentagon backed militia is fighting the CIA backed militia near Aleppo. You really can't make this stuff up.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

Submitted by dennis1958 on Wed, 03/30/2016 - 2:24am

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q-NL3R8wm0 width:420 height:315]

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With their hearts they turned to each others heart for refuge
In troubled years that came before the deluge
*Jackson Browne, 1974, Before the Deluge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SX-HFcSIoU

Submitted by gjohnsit on Wed, 03/30/2016 - 10:13am

Woody Allen should sue the federal government for stealing his plot to Bananas.

Woody Allen was portraying the CIA-sponsored coup of the fictional nation of San Marcos. The CIA is now in the process of a coup of the fictional state of Syria, that has ceased to exist.

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Submitted by rmwarnick on Wed, 03/30/2016 - 9:21am

The price of oil is not helping the Baghdad government. I wonder if U.S. Marines will be ordered to recapture Mosul.

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"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."

Submitted by dervish on Wed, 03/30/2016 - 11:21am
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Has been greatly exaggerated. Assad has recaptured Palmyra in Syria from ISIS (with Russian help), what was the reaction of the west? crickets.

I strongly doubt that US troops will ever lift a finger against ISIS.

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Submitted by Timmethy2.0 on Wed, 03/30/2016 - 12:00pm

For helping W get this clusterfuck started.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

Submitted by featheredsprite on Wed, 03/30/2016 - 12:28pm
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Only the older folks will remember the Tar Baby. But that's what we have here.

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Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 03/31/2016 - 4:25pm

I can't wrap my mind around this

On March 12, US Consul General Steve Walker visited Al-Sadr Teaching Hospital in Basra to pay his respects to wounded members of the Popular Mobilization Units. The visit marked the first time a US official has publicly met these troops....
Walker made it clear that the trip was not just a courtesy visit. Accompanied by TV stations such as the US-based Alhurra, which broadcast the visit and his remarks in Arabic, Walker said, "The US recognizes the important contribution of the Popular Mobilization Units under the command of Prime Minister [Haider al-Abadi], and most of the Popular Mobilization troops came from the south. This is why I would like to express my condolences to the people of Basra and the south who have lost their loved ones or friends in the war against the Islamic State."
Walker expressed his solidarity with the wounded, who welcomed his visit. He told them, "The US and Iraqi people are very, very proud of you."
The visit coincided with the debate on the Popular Mobilization Units' participation in the battle for Mosul. On Feb. 29, the Ninevah Provincial Council voted against their participation in the operations to liberate the city. Atheel al-Nujaifi, the former governor of Ninevah province and head of a small military force consisting of volunteers from Mosul called Hashid Watani (Arabic for "National Mobilization"), said, "The Popular Mobilization Units' participation in the battle for Mosul is unacceptable … and the insistence on such participation implies an insistence on the destruction of Mosul."

Let's be clear about a few things:
1) Several of these groups are listed as terrorist groups by the State Department
2) All of them have killed American soldiers

Just to give you an idea, this is the latest news about these so-called allies.

A militia group in Iraq has purportedly used Instagram to put to a vote the fate of a captured Islamic State fighterwhich, if genuine, is “unquestionably” a war crime.

The account @iraqiswat, claiming to be that of Iraq Special Operation Force, posted an image to its 80,400 followers on Monday that appeared to show a captured Isis fighter.

According to the caption, the Isis jihadi had been arrested south of Mosul, and followers had one hour in which to decide whether he was killed or released.

“You can vote For (kill him or let him go) You have one houer to vote We will post his fate after one houer Tag your friends and take your right take your reveng from isis right now. Please we dont have the time just one houer so tag your friends,” the post reads.

A follow-up image indicated the “vote” had resulted in the fighter’s death.

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