Ramadi

[Minimalist]

Showing yet again that if the Shia militias sit on the sidelines the Iraqi government is totally fucked.

Well done, Neo-cons.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Yeah, that whole "advance to the rear" strategy is not working very well for the Iraqi Army.

Training and weapons don't mean as much as will to fight. If your troops aren't motivated, your lines will contract.

[Minimalist]

John McCain, shithead that he is, doesn't see it that way.  He wants to piss more money down the same shit hole.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/c...story.html

“The problem is that when we left, there was a vacuum. Maliki decided to control the armed services. He fired all of his good people and hollowed out the army and then we had this consequence ... of, really, a collapse,” McCain, R-Ariz., said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“So, we’ll have to start all over, I think, on training the Iraqi military and have a kind of a change in attitude on the part of the Iraqis that makes them understand the importance of good leadership and good training and that’s going to take, by the way, some American trainers.”

No.  They need to grow balls.  Until they decide that the government in Baghdad is worth fighting for they won't fight for it.  All the training in the fucking world will not solve that.  ISIS doesn't have that problem.  One swing over the monkey bars, they give them an AK-47 and send them out to chase the Iraqi Army off the field.  That's what commitment does.

[dyresand]

Showing yet again that if the Shia militias sit on the sidelines the Iraqi government is totally fucked.

Well done, Neo-cons.

solution 1. Nuke 
solution 2. give them a reason to fight <- best option give those lazy fuckers a damn good reason to fight
solution 3. More drone strikes 

[Minimalist]

RE #2.

They were fighting...and then

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/03/26/26...hdraw.html

Iranian-led Shiite militias withdraw from Tikrit fighting as U.S. joins battle

Iraqi Shiite Muslim militias, angry that the government of Prime Minister Haider al Abadi has asked for American help in ejecting Islamic State fighters from the central Iraqi city of Tikrit, began Thursday withdrawing their forces from the battle, the first major break between the Iranian-trained militias and Iraq’s military establishment since the Islamic State advance last year.

[CapnAwesome]

Iraq is a fake bullshit country that was made up by the British post WWI. The people there associate as Shia, Sunni or Kurds and nobody is willing to fight for Iraq.

[Minimalist]

We have a winner.

[Silver]

War: no use in it. The perpetuation is merely for those higher up who not only thrive on it in a secondary psychotic way but also for those for make lots and lots and lots and lots of money from it.

[ignoramus]

Split the bastard up like yugslavia!
While we're on it, give the palestians some land for fuck's sake!

Does anyone here care for Lebannon?

[Minimalist]

It's not just Iraq.  This is no success story, either.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world.../27234763/

Decade of war, billions in U.S. aid fail to defeat Taliban

Barring a political settlement between the warring camps, Karimi's assessment points to unending fighting with neither side gaining the upper hand — so long as the United States and its allies continue to spend billions a year to prop up the Afghan forces.