Iraq PM: We Lost 2,300 American Humvees to ISIS in Mosul Alone

[galdur]

Seeks More Arms and Vehicles From US

by Jason Ditz, May 31, 2015


In an interview today on Iraqiya TV, Prime Minister Hayder Abadi made a plea for more US military aid, saying the country lost a lot of weapons over the course of last year’s war, including large caches abandoned by troops in the initial ISIS push last summer.

“We lost 2,300 Humvees in Mosul alone,” noted Abadi. The Humvees weren’t destroyed, by and large, but were rather simply left behind by fleeing troops, and were subsequently taken by ISIS. The Humvees were only a portion of what was lost, as ISIS acquired tanks, artillery, armored vehicles, basically a small army’s worth of advanced US gear in the fall of the major city.

After the fall of Mosul, the US began seeking to ratchet up sales and aid to Iraq, and approved the sale of another 1,000 Humvees to Iraq, an estimated $579 million deal. How much of that has been delivered so far is unclear, but the fall of Ramadi this month led to scores of additional armored vehicles, including Humvees, being seized by ISIS.

There has been surprisingly little debate in the US about the wisdom of further shipments to Iraq’s military, inasmuch as those shipments have tended to amount to delayed shipments to ISIS, and the Pentagon has hyped the large number of Humvees and armored vehicles it has destroyed in the war so far, seemingly oblivious to the fact that those are US-provided arms that the US is just going to keep providing.

http://news.antiwar.com/2015/05/31/iraq-pm-we-lost-2300-american-humvees-to-isis-in-mosul-alone/

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[galdur]

ISIS Suicide Bombers Kill 45 Police in Anbar Province
63 Others Wounded as Humvee Bombs Demolish Police Base

by Jason Ditz, June 01, 2015

ISIS continues to push against Iraqi security forces around the Anbar Province today, with a major round of suicide bombing attacks leveling an important police base in Madina al-Tharthar, just north of Ramadi, and killing 45 Iraqi police and security forces, wounding 63 others.

The attacks were carried out by three separate suicide bombers, each in explosive-laden Humvees. ISIS secured thousands of US-made Humvees in the capture of Mosul last summer, and has added more with each new city taken from fleeing Iraqi troops.

The bases in and around that area have been a rallying point for both the remnants of Iraqi police forces and thousands of Shi’ite militia fighters who have been called to Anbar to stop the ISIS advance. So far, this has just turned them into an easier to reach target for the ISIS forces.

Though Iraqi officials have tried to downplay the loss of Ramadi, insisting they believe they’ll retake it soon, top Iraqi militia leader Badr Brigade head Hadi Ameri said it was unrealistic to expect any near-term moves on the city, citing sectarian tensions between the Shi’ite government and the Sunni population of Anbar.

http://news.antiwar.com/2015/06/01/isis-suicide-bombers-kill-45-police-in-anbar-province/

[Chef Ramsay]

Yep, this whole situation is blowing up in the faces of these neocons that run the foreign policy of the US. Either that or it was figured that the Iraqi army would fold eventually and this stuff would end up in bad hands which would restart another conflict all over again.

[galdur]

There has been surprisingly little debate in the US about the wisdom of further shipments to Iraq’s military

Not so surprising. The war industry is a racket and the racketeers own the people who rubberstamp those shipments on behalf of taxpayers and they own the mass media. Those are businessmen and businessmen usually create business opportunities. Peace isn´t really in their business interests. They´re not going to fill all available warehouses with bombs and armaments and then happily go out of business. Stuff´s got to be used and then replenished.

[maku]

It's strange how fairly easy Iraqis army have lost their vehicles, considering the advantage they had in the equipment and also the fact that even today there are few American soldiers still training Iraqis.


"U.S. invested $25 billion in training and equipping the country’s armed forces before withdrawing in 2011. To this day, a much smaller number of American soldiers remain in the country in order to train Iraqi soldiers."

Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter said: “That says to me and, I think, to most of us, that we have an issue with the will of the Iraqis to fight ISIS and defend themselves.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/05/why-iraqs-military-has-no-will-to-fight/394067/

[galdur]

If this one is posting to me that´s totally pointless if it expects any reply. Once on my ignore list that´s permanent, I never read that again.

[maku]

If this one is posting to me that´s totally pointless if it expects any reply. Once on my ignore list that´s permanent, I never read that again.

If You are referring to me then You could use my nickname instead of addressing to me as "it". But that just shows personal culture and the inability to discuss the difficult and uncomfortable topics. Regards.

[bryant.coleman]

Is this some sort of a joke? Is the ISIS really having 2,300 Humvees with them? For heaven's sake even the countries such as Croatia and Colombia (some of the most loyal vassals of the United States) are having far fewer of them in their armed forces. And the Kurds don't even have a single Humvee (or other equivalents) with them at this point of time.

[dothebeats]

Is this some sort of a joke? Is the ISIS really having 2,300 Humvees with them? For heaven's sake even the countries such as Croatia and Colombia (some of the most loyal vassals of the United States) are having far fewer of them in their armed forces. And the Kurds don't even have a single Humvee (or other equivalents) with them at this point of time.

The question is, how did the ISIS even acquired them? Also, if situations like this continues to happen, the picture would be like this: Iraq funds ISIS' weapons and armored vehicles and the US is supplying them those gears of war. US is making money and at the same time giving the enemy weapons to fight them. This has to stop.

[Lethn]

Is this some sort of a joke? Is the ISIS really having 2,300 Humvees with them? For heaven's sake even the countries such as Croatia and Colombia (some of the most loyal vassals of the United States) are having far fewer of them in their armed forces. And the Kurds don't even have a single Humvee (or other equivalents) with them at this point of time.

The question is, how did the ISIS even acquired them? Also, if situations like this continues to happen, the picture would be like this: Iraq funds ISIS' weapons and armored vehicles and the US is supplying them those gears of war. US is making money and at the same time giving the enemy weapons to fight them. This has to stop.

The Iraq army fucked off at the first sign of ISIS and that's why they had such an easy time capturing the weaponry, not everything is a giant conspiracy, sometimes America fucks itself over through sheer incompetence.

[galdur]

Is this some sort of a joke? Is the ISIS really having 2,300 Humvees with them? For heaven's sake even the countries such as Croatia and Colombia (some of the most loyal vassals of the United States) are having far fewer of them in their armed forces. And the Kurds don't even have a single Humvee (or other equivalents) with them at this point of time.

They probably have even more than that by now. And enough other materiel for an army. Uncle Sam keeps shipping the stuff over and their vassal keeps handing it over to the "enemy".

[newflesh]

Is this some sort of a joke? Is the ISIS really having 2,300 Humvees with them? For heaven's sake even the countries such as Croatia and Colombia (some of the most loyal vassals of the United States) are having far fewer of them in their armed forces. And the Kurds don't even have a single Humvee (or other equivalents) with them at this point of time.

The question is, how did the ISIS even acquired them? Also, if situations like this continues to happen, the picture would be like this: Iraq funds ISIS' weapons and armored vehicles and the US is supplying them those gears of war. US is making money and at the same time giving the enemy weapons to fight them. This has to stop.

It's the same in Afghanistan, the US government is actively funding Taliban warlords and insurgents so they don't bomb or hijack their supply trucks. Perpetual war is a great money maker.

The United States military is helping fund both sides of the war in Afghanistan, knowingly financing a mafia-like collection of warlords and some of the very insurgents American troops are battling, according to Afghan and American officials and a new Congressional study released today.

The military has turned to private trucking companies to transport the vast majority of materiel it needs to fight the war -- everything from bullets to Gatorade, gas to sandbags -- and in turn, the companies are using American money to pay, among others, the Taliban to try to guarantee the trucks' safe passage, the reports charge.

Two American trucking executives, speaking on the condition of anonymity, say the payment structure goes beyond that depicted by the House report, detailing an intricate system whereby the American military is handing over billions of dollars to companies that bribe insurgents, warlords, road bandits and even corrupt Afghan police and soldiers to hold their fire as the trucks roll past dangerous stretches of highway.

https://abcnews.go.com/WN/Afghanistan/united-states-military-funding-taliban-afghanistan/story?id=10980527

[galdur]

Hard Truths About Iraq

by Ivan Eland, June 02, 2015

In Washington, a town in which most people, both government and non-government employees, are involved, one way or another, in public relations spin, the thing that will get you in the most trouble is telling the simple truth. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter recently stepped in it by stating what should have been obvious to the world: he blamed Iraqi forces for the loss to ISIS of Ramadi, an important Iraqi provincial capital, telling CNN that, "The Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight. They vastly outnumbered the opposing force and yet they withdrew from the site."

Although evidence that Carter’s conclusion was not rocket science came in the form of video showing Iraqi military vehicles fleeing at high speeds from the town, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi diplomatically rebuffed the provider of U.S. military assistance to his forces by saying, "I am sure he was fed with wrong information." Yeah, right.

In classic Washington form, Vice President Joe Biden had to call Abadi to clean up Carter’s truthful indiscretion. The White House issued the following statement: "The vice president recognized the enormous sacrifice and bravery of Iraqi forces over the past eighteen months in Ramadi and elsewhere." Although episodes of "sacrifice and bravery" on the part of the Iraqi troops very well could have occurred, these forces, which the United States spent eight years training, cut and ran in critical situations when ISIS forces, inferior in number, initially took over about one-third Iraq last year and in Ramadi more recently.

If all of this wasn’t enough, Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, which is helping the Shi’ite Iraqi government defend against ISIS, countered that the United States "has no will to fight" against ISIS and was leaving everything up to the Iranians and Iraqis. He then added that the United States "didn’t do a damn thing" to stop ISIS’s advance on Ramadi.

There is some truth to Suleimani’s second allegation. Ramadi was besieged for a long time, but neither the United States nor the Iraqi government did much to send assistance. In the case of the Iraqi government, it was scared to arm Sunni tribes to fight ISIS, because it was afraid those weapons could later be used for Sunni resistance to its oppressive Shi’ite regime. As for Suleimani’s first allegation, that has some truth to it too. U.S. public opinion is tired of overseas military quagmires, especially in Iraq. The American people, reacting to Isis’s beheading of a few Americans after the United States had commenced bombing the group, seemed to want some U.S. action against it, as long American military casualties weren’t high and the operation didn’t turn into another quagmire on the ground. That is why the Obama administration has confined itself to ineffectual, and maybe even counterproductive, air strikes instead of reinserting large numbers of U.S. ground forces back into Iraq.

Yet, Suleimani’s snide comments, although largely correct, beg the question of why the United States – being on the other side of the world from the conflict – should be involved at all. However, the Iraqi government should be concerned about ISIS, which is largely a threat to the Middle East region, and so should neighboring Iran. The major reason that ISIS could encourage lone wolf terrorists (of much less threat than organized groups, such as al Qaeda or its regional affiliates) to launch attacks on American soil is to get non-Muslim (read: U.S.) forces out of the Middle East. (Come to think of it, that is al Qaeda’s main gripe with the United States too.) In the 1980s, Hezbollah, a Shi’ite group that was created to counter non-Muslim Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, also attacked U.S. targets until the United States withdrew its troops from that country, then on a one-sided "peacekeeping" mission to help Israel and its Christian allies there. Once U.S. forces pulled out, Hezbollah attacks on the U.S. targets gradually dissipated. The same likely would happen with any lame lone wolf attacks against U.S. targets by ISIS, which is mainly concerned with setting up an Islamist state in Iraq and Syria.

Islamist terrorism against the United States is primarily caused by the fact that it’s a non-Islamic country attacking or invading Muslim lands. One doesn’t need to agree with the terrorists’ methods to scrutinize their motives for attacking. Since the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the Bush and Obama administrations – and Americans in general – have not had the courage to examine this question. Instead, subsequent to 9/11, they merely doubled down and attacked or invaded more Islamic countries – seven to be exact – thus helping to proliferate and strengthen Islamist terrorist groups around the region.

Perhaps the fall of Ramadi will be similar to the Tet Offensive in Vietnam in 1968. The Viet Cong, backed by the North Vietnamese, invaded South Vietnam. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces defeated the Viet Cong militarily, but politically the war effort lost much steam at home because the U.S. government had assured Americans that the United States was winning there. The massive enemy offensive belied that claim. Up until Ramadi in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria were overrun by ISIS, the U.S. government was once again telling Americans that the enemy was on the run. This time, the enemy didn’t just win politically but militarily too.

If a "Tet Offensive-style effect" eventually stopped U.S. bombing of ISIS, and all U.S. forces were withdrawn from non-strategic Iraq and Syria, the United States and its people actually would be safer. However, now no military draft exists to involuntary shanghai young men (and now maybe women) to fight and die in faraway lands for no reason, as there was during the Vietnam War. The only downside to this improvement in policy is that the full cost of war is felt by only the small percentage of the population in the voluntary American military’s families. Thus, unfortunately, the United States probably will continue muddling along in Iraq and Syria and may even gradually get sucked into another ground quagmire.

http://original.antiwar.com/eland/2015/06/01/hard-truths-about-iraq/

[dothebeats]

Is this some sort of a joke? Is the ISIS really having 2,300 Humvees with them? For heaven's sake even the countries such as Croatia and Colombia (some of the most loyal vassals of the United States) are having far fewer of them in their armed forces. And the Kurds don't even have a single Humvee (or other equivalents) with them at this point of time.

The question is, how did the ISIS even acquired them? Also, if situations like this continues to happen, the picture would be like this: Iraq funds ISIS' weapons and armored vehicles and the US is supplying them those gears of war. US is making money and at the same time giving the enemy weapons to fight them. This has to stop.

It's the same in Afghanistan, the US government is actively funding Taliban warlords and insurgents so they don't bomb or hijack their supply trucks. Perpetual war is a great money maker.

The United States military is helping fund both sides of the war in Afghanistan, knowingly financing a mafia-like collection of warlords and some of the very insurgents American troops are battling, according to Afghan and American officials and a new Congressional study released today.

The military has turned to private trucking companies to transport the vast majority of materiel it needs to fight the war -- everything from bullets to Gatorade, gas to sandbags -- and in turn, the companies are using American money to pay, among others, the Taliban to try to guarantee the trucks' safe passage, the reports charge.

Two American trucking executives, speaking on the condition of anonymity, say the payment structure goes beyond that depicted by the House report, detailing an intricate system whereby the American military is handing over billions of dollars to companies that bribe insurgents, warlords, road bandits and even corrupt Afghan police and soldiers to hold their fire as the trucks roll past dangerous stretches of highway.

https://abcnews.go.com/WN/Afghanistan/united-states-military-funding-taliban-afghanistan/story?id=10980527

The US, actively fighting acts of terrorism and funding terrorist at the same time. Seems legit. If crushing terrorism is their target, then they must not fund terrorist and stop supplying weapons of war to them. If this continues to happen, then the freedom fighters would be the ultimate enemy in the end. The terrorist wouldn't gain that much power if they aren't provided the weapons they "need" to continue their acts of terrorism. But oh well, capitalism it is.

[RodeoX]

I hope you guys are teaching your children to speak Arabic. The real war will be kicking off when Baghdad and/or Damascus falls. Then comes decades of fighting and the scale will require drafting of soldiers. We could not really even keep up with recruiting during the little war Iraq has been so far. You ain't seen nothing yet.

 

[dothebeats]

I hope you guys are teaching your children to speak Arabic. The real war will be kicking off when Baghdad and/or Damascus falls. Then comes decades of fighting and the scale will require drafting of soldiers. We could not really even keep up with recruiting during the little war Iraq has been so far. You ain't seen nothing yet.

 

Even the US government can do nothing about it. Once the two cities fall, the takeover of the ISIS would soon be easier, spreading chaos into its neighboring countries. Heck, even Al Qaeda once had different branches and controls all over the world, and what do we know what's really happening behind the scenes? These terrorist groups could have merged into one group without us, nor the top intelligence agencies knowing. I hope those taxes that we pay are really wisely spent on things that will defend us, not on things that would potentially destroy us in the end.

[solid12345]

I hope you guys are teaching your children to speak Arabic. The real war will be kicking off when Baghdad and/or Damascus falls. Then comes decades of fighting and the scale will require drafting of soldiers. We could not really even keep up with recruiting during the little war Iraq has been so far. You ain't seen nothing yet.

 

What alot of people don't understand is the middle east hasn't changed much since the Sumerian era. Most Arab countries are still nothing more than the majority of the population crammed into a few large city states surrounded by uninhabitable desert. ISIS doesn't need to conquer vast swathes of territory, they just need to control the capitals alongside the water supply, like you mentioned taking Baghdad or Damascus or both would be catastrophic.

Also we are finding out fast the Iranians are all bark and no bite, their advisers have done little to reverse the ISIS tide and even in the 1980s when they still had fresh equipment and trained soldiers from the Shah era they were never able to beat back Saddam's army. If they find themselves in a large-scale war with a militant Sunni army they WILL lose.

The Iranians and Shiite Arabs better learn to get along with the Jews and the Kurds quick because they are a minority just like them.

[galdur]

U.S. 'expedites' weapons shipments to Iraq in wake of ISIS advances

By Karl de Vries, CNN

Updated 0234 GMT (0934 HKT) May 16, 2015

(CNN)The U.S. is "expediting" weapons shipments to Iraq in light of the ISIS advances in Ramadi, Vice President Joe Biden told Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in a telephone call on Friday.

The announcement from the White House comes on the heels of a flurry of new airstrikes against ISIS, also known as ISIL, as Iraqi forces desperately try to hold the key city, the capital of the key Anbar province.

RELATED: ISIS on offensive in Iraq's Ramadi

Earlier Friday, the terror group raised its trademark black flag over the provincial government building and captured the city's police headquarters and the Ramadi Great Mosque. The Pentagon says it is part of a propaganda tactic where the terror group raises a flag and posts it to social media before the Iraqi army moves in and tries to take it back.

The city, located in the middle of Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland, is located just 70 miles west of Baghdad.

The White House said in a statement that the weapons include AT-4 shoulder-held rockets to counter vehicle-bourne improvised explosive devices, as well as ammunition and other supplies.

"The vice president assured the prime minister of continued and expedited U.S. security assistance to confront ISIL," the statement said. "Both leaders agreed on the importance and urgency of mobilizing tribal fighters working in coordination with Iraqi security forces to counter ISIL and to ensure unity of effort among all of Iraq's communities."

A U.S. official said Friday that the Ramadi situation "remains very fluid," and characterized the situation as "50/50," with Iraqi forces in control of much of the city center and ISIS in the suburbs surrounding it. A senior administration confirmed to CNN earlier Friday that eight new airstrikes were launched against ISIS targets in Ramadi since 7 p.m. local time, as the coalition ramps up its efforts.

The ISIS push began Thursday, using armored bulldozers and at least 10 suicide bombings to burst through gates and blast through walls in Ramadi, according to a security source who has since left the city. Dozens of militants followed them into the city center. The US military called it a "complex attack."

Anbar Gov. Suhaib Al-Rawi said the offensive, including suicide-attacks with explosive-rigged cars near security posts, continued into Friday.

Each side has since alternated gains and losses in territory. Ramadi citizens have suffered greatly in the process. About 114,000 people have fled the area -- many heading to Baghdad -- in the last month alone, the United Nations refugee agency has said, citing the Iraqi government.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/15/politics/us-weapons-shipments-iraq-ramadi/

[galdur]

US-led coalition doubles down on strategy to fight Islamic State group despite extremist gains

Associated Press June 2, 2015 | 3:54 p.m. EDT + More

By LORI HINNANT and JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — The U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State is doubling down on its strategy to fight the extremists, insisting on staying the course it set last year despite the radical group's recent conquests on both sides of the border between Iraq and Syria.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi pressed his case Tuesday for more support from the 25 countries in the coalition at a one-day Paris conference on fighting the militant group, organized within weeks of the fall of the Iraqi city of Ramadi and the Syrian city of Palmyra.

The coalition has mustered a mix of airstrikes, intelligence sharing and assistance for Iraqi ground operations against the extremists. Al-Abadi said more was needed - his country reeling after troops pulled out of Ramadi without a fight and abandoned U.S.-supplied tanks and weapons.

"We will redouble our efforts," said Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who was leading the delegation after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry broke his leg in a cycling accident in eastern France over the weekend. IS, Blinken said, "stands for nothing and depends on people who will fall for anything."

But Tuesday's conference offered no strategy beyond that which has yet to bear fruit, and none had been expected. A member of the main Western-backed Syrian Coalition, Hadi al-Bahra, criticized the plan, saying the U.S. was avoiding targeting the Assad government and making it easier for Islamic State's takeover.

Blinken, who like the others focused primarily on Iraq on Tuesday, said the U.S. would make it easier for Iraq to obtain new weapons, after al-Abadi said the sanctions-hit countries of Iran and Russia were potentially important arms suppliers.

"Armament and ammunition, we haven't seen much. Almost none. We're relying on ourselves, but fighting is very hard this way," al-Abadi said before the conference.

Later Tuesday, the Pentagon said that 2,000 AT-4 rockets for use against armored suicide truck bombs arrived in Iraq over the weekend. A spokesman, Col. Steve Warren, said 1,000 went directly to the Iraqi for use against IS and 1,000 are intended for use in training Iraqi security forces. The Pentagon has said for some time that it also will provide the Iraqis with a variety of other unspecified anti-tank weaponry as well as capabilities to counter IS homemade bombs.

Iran and Russia are not part of the U.S.-led coalition and they did not attend Tuesday's conference, nor was there a representative from Syria. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Iraq's problems wouldn't end until Syria's government changes.

"Stabilization of Iraq cannot be achieved if there is not a political transition in Syria," he said. Just as important is political reconciliation within Iraq, notably between the Shiite-dominated government and disaffected Sunnis, who may not sympathize with IS but who have little love for the country's leadership.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the coalition is "under no illusion that a victory by military means will be easy and also we know that winning peace will be difficult."

"That's why we talked today not just about the necessary military means, but also about what's needed to bring stability to the areas that have been freed from ISIS troops," he said, using another acronym for IS.

Al-Abadi said his government was making progress, although a measure to increase the Sunni presence in Iraq's security forces has stalled in the legislature.

Acknowledging the loss of Ramadi, al-Abadi said Iraq's military needs more intelligence and more action from international allies. Within a week of the Iraqi city's fall to IS, the extremists captured the historic Syrian city of Palmyra.

More than 4,100 airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition have failed to stem the gains by IS radicals.

[Spendulus]

Seeks More Arms and Vehicles From US

by Jason Ditz, May 31, 2015


In an interview today on Iraqiya TV, Prime Minister Hayder Abadi made a plea for more US military aid, saying the country lost a lot of weapons over the course of last year’s war, including large caches abandoned by troops in the initial ISIS push last summer.

“We lost 2,300 Humvees in Mosul alone.....

Wait, so now we've got 2,300 TARGETS?