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

[galdur]

Uh oh, looks like more easy times ahead for ISIS...

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Britain to expand Iraq training mission to counter IS: Cameron

Britain is to expand its military training mission in Iraq in the coming weeks, Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Sunday, saying the Iraqi army needed more help to deal with improvised bombs planted by Islamic State militants.

Cameron, speaking before a meeting of the Group of Seven industrial nations (G7), said Britain would send 125 new military advisers to Iraq, most of whom would train the Iraqi army in how to counter improvised explosive devices or IEDs.

That will take the total number of British military trainers in Iraq up to 275, officials said, and the overall number of British personnel engaged in various roles against Islamic State across the region up to around 900.

"We’re already the second largest contributor in terms of air strikes in Iraq, and support for the Syrian opposition," Cameron told reporters at the G7 in Germany. blah blah bleh and meh

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/07/us-mideast-crisis-britain-idUSKBN0ON0RE20150607

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[newflesh]

Britain would send 125 new military advisers to Iraq, most of whom would train the Iraqi army in how to counter improvised explosive devices or IEDs.

Wasn't long ago that British and US special forces trained the Taliban how to make IED's when fighting the Russians in Afghanistan, and now we're back to square one: training Iraq's army how to counter them. I've come to the conclusion that geopolitics is just a revolving door of unnecessary bullshit.

[galdur]

Britain would send 125 new military advisers to Iraq, most of whom would train the Iraqi army in how to counter improvised explosive devices or IEDs.

Wasn't long ago that British and US special forces trained the Taliban how to make IED's when fighting the Russians in Afghanistan, and now we're back to square one: training Iraq's army how to counter them. I've come to the conclusion that geopolitics is just a revolving door of unnecessary bullshit.

Well, it may look unnecessary to you and me and total bullshit but for the armament industries and Wall St. it means huge and reliable profits. It´s always a question of perspective. And interests.

[Okurkabinladin]

I disagree with notion, that Iraq was supposed to be "new Vietnam" from the start. However vultures from military-industrial complex adapted to short-sightedness of politicians and public quite well.

[galdur]

Obama: U.S. Lacks 'Complete Strategy' for Fighting ISIS

By Nedra Pickler - June 8, 2015


ELMAU, Germany (AP) -- The United States does not yet have a "complete strategy" for training Iraqi forces to fight Islamic State militants, President Barack Obama said Monday amid signs of weakness in Iraq's military. Obama said the Pentagon was reviewing plans to ramp up training and assistance to the Iraqi forces, but he also said there must be full commitment by the Iraqis themselves. He said...

Blah, bleh YAWN

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/06/08/obama_us_lacks_complete_strategy_for_fighting_isis_126893-comments.html

[galdur]

Well, after a decade of "training" and billions upon billions wasted on that they better try something new now like putting people with complete $#%&$#% brains into formulating that complete strategy.

[bryant.coleman]

Well, after a decade of "training" and billions upon billions wasted on that they better try something new now like putting people with complete $#%&$#% brains into formulating that complete strategy.

The decades of training did its best to make some of the Americans (especially those involved in the private defense industry) filthy rich. Most of the money came from the oil and gas revenue, which is generated in Iraq. I have a feeling that that money should have been spent better, to improve the lives and livelihoods of the millions of Iraqis.

[TinEye]

Either the Iraqi forces are woeful beyond belief or they sympathise with ISIS. Running away without the Humvees reminded me of the cartoons where in an emergency the character used to pick up the bicycle or horse and run.

[galdur]

Either the Iraqi forces are woeful beyond belief or they sympathise with ISIS. Running away without the Humvees reminded me of the cartoons where in an emergency the character used to pick up the bicycle or horse and run.

It´s just another gravy-train war scam. There is no training to speak of. Just billions upon billions of dollars that end up somewhere.

Ran across the following on the net. It sounds about right.

I took part in some training of the Iraqi "soldiers". I don't know if it got any better after a while as I was only asked to do it in the very beginning of the program. There was no physical training, no mental conditioning, no discipline, no standards, nothing. It was a joke.
They were not trained like proper soldiers. They were not put through hell to prove they could come out the other side like proper soldiers. It was pretty much anyone who wanted to show up was in. It seemed like more about getting numbers so we could say yeah we stood up x number of battalions rather than doing it right. I washed my hands of the whole thing after about 3 weeks.

[bryant.coleman]

Either the Iraqi forces are woeful beyond belief or they sympathise with ISIS. Running away without the Humvees reminded me of the cartoons where in an emergency the character used to pick up the bicycle or horse and run.

Almost all of the Iraqi soldiers are Shiite Arabs. So it will be difficult to imagine them supporting the ISIS, as the terrorists have conducted many campaigns of genocide against the Shiite civilians in the past. But then, who knows? There will always be some corrupt official, who is willing to hand over his humvees in exchange for money.

[galdur]

Well, i don´t know the veracity of it but a long time ago I read where an Israeli soldier was ridiculing their Arab opposition

They were all terrible, the Egyptians, Syrians, Jordanians but the Iraqis topped the lot. They actually took off their boots to be able to run faster away from us.

Didn´t those wankers at Mosul do exactly that? I remember that they threw off some clothes to be lighter on the run.

[bryant.coleman]

Didn´t those wankers at Mosul do exactly that? I remember that they threw off some clothes to be lighter on the run.

All of this resulted from the extreme corruption, which prevails in Iraq. First the Iraqi central government recruited some 300,000 soldiers. Out of this number, only some 10% to 20% were actual soldiers. The remaining were "ghost soldiers", menaing that the commanding officers "enrolled" Nonexistent people, inorder to get their salary and benefits. And even out of the small number of real soldiers, very few could wage a war, as most of them got their jobs by paying bribes or other favors.

[galdur]

Iraq Trolls US, Calls Latest Military Operation "We Are At Your Services, Hussein"

While some have argued that President Obama and his folly-prone foreign policy debacle is the laughing stock of the world, it seems, as DefenseNews reports, that the Iraqi military is directly mocking America. Just a day after Defense Secretary Ash Carter accused them of cowardice, an umbrella group for mostly Shiite militia and volunteer fighters, Hashed al-Shaabi, said it had dubbed a military campaign to cut off the Islamic State group in Anbar province as "Operation Labaik ya Hussein," which roughly translates as "We are at your service, Hussein."

The name refers to one of the most revered imams in Shiite Islam. ....etc

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-26/iraq-trolls-us-calls-latest-military-operation-we-are-your-services-hussein

Yeah, or it refers to U.S. Pres. Barack Hussein Obama.

[galdur]

“The idea that we could fashion a democracy in Iraq seemed to me unrealistic. I was concerned about it when I first heard those words,” Rumsfeld said, adding, “I’m not one who thinks that our particular template of democracy is appropriate for other countries at every moment of their histories.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-06-08/donald-rumsfeld-george-w-bush-was-wrong-about-iraq

Well Don, to make it "appropriate" you fruitcakes always install psychopathic crap in your own image to run the ruins of your war scams. The results are always very predictable. Just because Americans love you and your deranged ilk in the U.S. political establishment doesn´t necessarily mean that the rest of the world does.

[RodeoX]

“The idea that we could fashion a democracy in Iraq seemed to me unrealistic. I was concerned about it when I first heard those words,” Rumsfeld said, adding, “I’m not one who thinks that our particular template of democracy is appropriate for other countries at every moment of their histories.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-06-08/donald-rumsfeld-george-w-bush-was-wrong-about-iraq

Well Don, to make it "appropriate" you fruitcakes always install psychopathic crap in your own image to run the ruins of your war scams. The results are always very predictable. Just because Americans love you and your deranged ilk in the U.S. political establishment doesn´t necessarily mean that the rest of the world does.

If it makes you feel better "Don" is among the most hated Americans now. The only people hated more are the Congress and Senate. It makes me feel better anyway.

[galdur]

“The idea that we could fashion a democracy in Iraq seemed to me unrealistic. I was concerned about it when I first heard those words,” Rumsfeld said, adding, “I’m not one who thinks that our particular template of democracy is appropriate for other countries at every moment of their histories.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-06-08/donald-rumsfeld-george-w-bush-was-wrong-about-iraq

Well Don, to make it "appropriate" you fruitcakes always install psychopathic crap in your own image to run the ruins of your war scams. The results are always very predictable. Just because Americans love you and your deranged ilk in the U.S. political establishment doesn´t necessarily mean that the rest of the world does.

If it makes you feel better "Don" is among the most hated Americans now. The only people hated more are the Congress and Senate. It makes me feel better anyway.

People vote for crap that then appoints more crap when it´s in office. They must do this for some reason. The most likely one seems to be that they like crap, even love it. BTW, pretty much the same neocon shitpile that scammed the Iraq war going has been used by Obama to ruin Ukraine. And other places. This particular neocon crap seems to have their own personal and permanent fiefdoms in State and other departments under both parts of the one-party system. I think you get the picture.

[galdur]

Obama: U.S. Lacks 'Complete Strategy' for Fighting ISIS

By Nedra Pickler - June 8, 2015


ELMAU, Germany (AP) -- The United States does not yet have a "complete strategy" for training Iraqi forces to fight Islamic State militants, President Barack Obama said Monday amid signs of weakness in Iraq's military. Obama said the Pentagon was reviewing plans to ramp up training and assistance to the Iraqi forces, but he also said there must be full commitment by the Iraqis themselves. He said...

Blah, bleh YAWN

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/06/08/obama_us_lacks_complete_strategy_for_fighting_isis_126893-comments.html

We DO have a strategy to fight ISIS, the president didn’t really mean to say we don't, claims State Department
Speaking from Kruen, Germany, Obama said Monday the Pentagon was re-evaluating its program to train Iraqi security forces
'We don't yet have a complete strategy,' Obama said, 'because it requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis as well about how recruitment takes place, how that training takes place'
State Department spokesman today: 'The president was referring to a specific plan to improve training and equipping of the Iraqi security forces'
Obama administration seeking to discredit Republicans claiming POTUS lacks a 'robust' strategy to eliminate ISIS, as they've been saying all along
House Speaker John Bohner mocked the president on Twitter: 'Shorter President Obama on defeating #ISIL: ¯\_(ツ)_/ '

....crickets....

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3117055/We-strategy-fight-ISIS-president-didn-t-really-mean-say-didn-t-claims-State-Department.html#ixzz3cbXCkACw
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

[galdur]

US to Send More Troops to Iraq, But No Strategy Overhaul
Promised Changes to War Just Mean More Ground Troops Deploying

by Jason Ditz, June 09, 2015

One day after President Obama protested that his strategy for the ISIS war was “not complete” and promised changes, officials say they are planning to send another 500 ground troops into the nation to “devise a counterattack” against ISIS. Beyond this, there will be no significant changes to the war effort.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey suggested changes to the actual war strategy were never even under serious consideration, and that President Obama had only requested ideas for “enhancements” to be made to the existing strategy, which is to say throwing more troops at the war.

Officials are couching the new deployment as part of the effort to retake the Anbar capital of Ramadi, and say many of the troops are going to be heading to the Anbar Province to establish a new base there.

This was not entirely unexpected, as President Obama had previously indicated this his primary goal at this point was to speed up the training of Iraqi troops. The new troops are being labeled “trainers,” but are likely to be among those that Pentagon officials are openly talking about “embedding” on the front lines, meaning they’d be sent into direct combat.

As losses have mounted in Iraq and Syria, with ISIS taking more and more cities, the Pentagon has repeatedly rejected the idea that the strategy was at all flawed, and has tried to blame Iraqi troops for not winning more. The US appears to be doubling down on this narrative by adding troops.

http://news.antiwar.com/2015/06/09/us-to-send-more-troops-to-iraq-but-no-strategy-overhaul/

[Chef Ramsay]

Similarly,
US to announce plans to deploy more troops and add military base in Iraq

This is what you call: Mission creep...

The Obama administration is planning to send several hundred more troops to Iraq to expand training of Iraqi forces, a move that’s intended to help them retake the provincial capital of Ramadi from the self-described Islamic State.

The plan reportedly involves increasing the number of US training sites in Iraq from four to five by establishing a new military base in Anbar Province. The US would send 400 to 500 additional troops to recruit and train Iraqis – largely Sunni tribal volunteers – to join the fight against IS.
...
A formal announcement could come as early as today. Reuters also cites a US official as confirming the additional troop deployment.
...
Obama has ruled out sending ground combat forces to Iraq, reports The Associated Press. There are currently about 3,000 US military personnel, including trainers and advisers, in Iraq.

The Times reports that the number of trained and equipped Iraqi tribal fighters in Anbar would need to rise from about 5,500 to as many as 10,000 for them to retake Ramadi. On Monday, Obama urged Iraq's Shiite-led government to allow more of the nation's Sunnis to join the fight.
...

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/terrorism-security/2015/0610/US-to-announce-plans-to-deploy-more-troops-and-add-military-base-in-Iraq

[bryant.coleman]

The plan reportedly involves increasing the number of US training sites in Iraq from four to five by establishing a new military base in Anbar Province. The US would send 400 to 500 additional troops to recruit and train Iraqis – largely Sunni tribal volunteers – to join the fight against IS.

Seems like these American idiots never learn from their past mistakes. If you give arms and training to the Sunni tribesmen, 90% of them will take the weapons with them, and then defect to the ISIS. This has happened multiple times in Syria. As of now, I can see only one way to defeat the ISIS. Ask the Iranians to send their army to the ISIS held areas.