U.S. Rhetoric Collides With Iraqi Reality in Islamic State Fight

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg

by John WalcottZaid SabahDavid Lerman
3:09 PM EST February 20, 2015


(Bloomberg) -- An Iraqi military officer said Friday his nation’s troops will need six months to get ready to retake the city of Mosul from Islamic State, undercutting a U.S. statement that the assault would begin as early as April.

The gap between American rhetoric and Iraqi reality has raised questions about why U.S. officials are taking the unusual step of telegraphing publicly to the enemy details of a planned military operation that is months away.

On Thursday, an official from the U.S. Central Command said the U.S. and Iraq are planning an April or May offensive that will require five Iraqi brigades with 20,000 to 25,000 troops to defeat 1,000 to 2,000 Islamic State fighters in the country’s second-largest city.

On Friday, an officer in the Iraqi defense ministry said in a telephone interview that it will take at least until August to arm and train Iraqi forces and resolve their differences with local allies -- Kurdish fighters and Shiite paramilitary forces -- that the officer said are stronger and more capable than the Iraqi army.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-20/u-s-rhetoric-collides-with-iraqi-reality-in-islamic-state-fight

[quadrature]

1. to capture Mosul. different idea...starve them out...nt

[Lurks Often]

2. Then all their prisoners and others in the city will also starve

including children and elderly that have nothing to do with ISIL.

[quadrature]

3. that is exactly right

that is the decision that
has to be made.

if we allow food in to Mosul,
we are feeding ISIS

[ronnie624]

4. The US has committed too many atrocities in the ME, already.

There will never be peace there, until Western powers seriously reconsider their self-serving policies of violence and dominance to control energy resources in the region. Attacking civilians, including through starvation, is a violation of international law.

[Lurks Often]

5. It's good you won't be making that decision then

I am NOT ok with starving innocent people or prisoners to get those ISIL members in Mosul.