War against Isis: US strategy in tatters as militants march on

[cali]

Yeah, yeah. I know. It's too early. This is just the beginning. This is something that will take years to achieve. It's Patrick Cockburn (note: Patrick Cockburn is not Alexander Cockburn). Saving the Kurds in Kobani is not the mission. You have to realize there will be setbacks. We need to train "moderate" groups on the ground. We just need to rebuild the Iraqi armed forces and provide them with bigger better hardware to replace that which ISIS has captured. Yeah, that's the ticket; then things will turn around and we'll win!

Have I missed any of the usual excuses for this clusterfuck? Hey, it's only $40 billion to date. We just need to cut some social programs and "fix" social security and no problem, we'll be able to pay for this new, improved war on terrorism.

Rah fucking rah rah rah.

End rant, begin article:
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America's plans to fight Islamic State are in ruins as the militant group's fighters come close to capturing Kobani and have inflicted a heavy defeat on the Iraqi army west of Baghdad.

<snip>

Isis reinforcements have been rushing towards Kobani in the past few days to ensure that they win a decisive victory over the Syrian Kurdish town's remaining defenders. The group is willing to take heavy casualties in street fighting and from air attacks in order to add to the string of victories it has won in the four months since its forces captured Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, on 10 June. Part of the strength of the fundamentalist movement is a sense that there is something inevitable and divinely inspired about its victories, whether it is against superior numbers in Mosul or US airpower at Kobani.

In the face of a likely Isis victory at Kobani, senior US officials have been trying to explain away the failure to save the Syrian Kurds in the town, probably Isis's toughest opponents in Syria. "Our focus in Syria is in degrading the capacity of [Isis] at its core to project power, to command itself, to sustain itself, to resource itself," said US Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken, in a typical piece of waffle designed to mask defeat. "The tragic reality is that in the course of doing that there are going to be places like Kobani where we may or may not be able to fight effectively."

Unfortunately for the US, Kobani isn't the only place air strikes are failing to stop Isis. In an offensive in Iraq launched on 2 October but little reported in the outside world, Isis has captured almost all the cities and towns it did not already hold in Anbar province, a vast area in western Iraq that makes up a quarter of the country. It has captured Hit, Kubaisa and Ramadi, the provincial capital, which it had long fought for. Other cities, towns and bases on or close to the Euphrates River west of Baghdad fell in a few days, often after little resistance by the Iraqi Army which showed itself to be as dysfunctional as in the past, even when backed by US air strikes.

<snip>

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/war-against-isis-us-strategy-in-tatters-as-militants-march-on-9789230.html

[Baclava]

1. You won't find any anti-war sentiments around nowadays, where are the protests at the WH gates?

The board is goose-stepping to American Imperialism and will ignore all WAR topics that don't show a shiny victory.



There - that should give this poor dying thread a chance for life, isn't that what you had in mind?

[L0oniX]

5. Victory? They've already won.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. How long 'til we get to "Limited Ground Operations"?

And, when the first troops make the "ultimate sacrifice" do we get the mandatory yellow bumper stickers?

[Dreamer Tatum]

3. The first Friday afternoon after the election.

Buried in the Federal Register.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. Kick for more exposure.

[L0oniX]

4. "will take years to achieve" Should I buy MIC stocks yet?

[cali]

6. kick.