ISIS' Takeover Of Ramadi Is A Significant Blow For Coalition Forces

[Purveyor]

Islamic State insurgents on Sunday overran the city of Ramadi in Iraq's Anbar province amid reports that government forces fled their posts. The militants killed up to 500 people in their three-day assault, and the United Nations reported that nearly 25,000 residents have fled the recent fighting.

The fall of Ramadi is a significant blow to the fight against the Islamic State group and cast doubt over recent claims by U.S. officials that international air strikes and a ground offensive by Iraqi troops has pushed the extremist group on the defensive.



Despite help from coalition airplanes, the Iraqi army was not only unable to repel the extremist fighters, but also lost control of the provincial capital and a key highway connecting Syria and Iraq.

The collapse of the Iraqi army's defenses in Ramadi highlight the unraveling of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's April promise that the military would push the militant group out of Anbar province. It raises questions about the U.S. effort to rebuild the Iraqi army as a key element of the fight against IS, and it cast doubt on the readiness of the Iraqi army for the massive offensive against the IS-held city of Mosul planned for later this year.

The U.S. has so far downplayed the importance of the fighting in Ramadi.While acknowledging the fall of the city is a "setback," the White House vowed on Monday to assist Iraq in its efforts to recapture the city.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/19/isis-ramadi-falls_n_7307858.html

[HooptieWagon]

1. Just like the Vietnam War.

For years, the government line, through an unquestioning complicit media, told us the U.S. was prevailing and victory was near. In fact, the U.S. never had the upper hand, we were lied to by 2 presidents.

[guillaumeb]

2. The same story that I remember reading in 1969.

Only then it was Vietnam, where the same strategic hamlets were fought over, won, lost, fought over again, and the only real result was that millions of Vietnamese were killed by the US empire in a futile attempt to counter Chinese influence.

There was the same precision bombing, the same obsession on numbers killed, they called them body counts then, the same devastation visited upon a tiny country for reasons of empire. This time in Iraq and Afghanistan it is oil and bases, again to counteract the Chinese and the USSR.
Pete Seeger expressed it very well then:

[Deny and Shred]

4. Huge +

Best anti-war tune I've ever known. Been a while. Thanks.

When one stops equivocating, the US is left knee deep in the Mid-East.

Trillons spent, same muddy result.


After getting blackballed, he spent years cleaning up the Hudson, to the benefit of millions.

Pete was a first-class 'American', in every positive sense of the word.


PS. The next-best anti war tune ? Ich hatt einen cameraden - one hell of a German Infantyman's song. A far cry from what the propaganda would have advocated.

[randys1]

3. Thanks George W Bush.

[roamer65]

5. ISIS reminds me a lot of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

Hopefully the Iranians play the part of the Vietnamese and wipe them out.

[bemildred]

6. Yep, that's what's coming, and it won't be pretty. nt