Mosul has fallen

[T.Lex]

BBC News - Iraq militants seize second city of Mosul

Nouri Maliki acknowledged "vital areas" of the country's second largest city had been seized.
Overnight, hundreds of armed men seized local government's offices and police stations before taking control of the airport and the army's headquarters.

Interestingly, and I missed this, Fallujah is also now back in the hands of militants.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, who is struggling to form a government in the wake of the April elections, has vowed to drive the ISIS "terrorists" out of mainly-Sunni Mosul in short order.
He is unlikely to succeed soon. He made similar vows when Sunni militants took over Falluja, west of Baghdad, in January, and they are still there.

I find this item important for 2 reason:
1) USian MSM is entirely ineffective in providing important news. (No real surprise, just another example.) Although, CNN does have something on their website, I doubt anything will be on the evening news.
2) I believe that as Iraq goes, so will they larger Middle East, and Afghanistan. With the current CINC, though, we will not commit our military to saving it. Arguing whether we should or not is irrelevant. We won't.

 

[Shadow8088]

We shouldn't have bothered in the first place, buy hey.. we had to "protect" all that oil... Saddam and his sons could have been removed with some well placed pavewayIIs... we all know the real reasons we were there...

 

[BogWalker]

If we went for the oil we did a pretty **** poor job of it, as the price has done nothing but get more expensive. I wish we would have just taken the damn oil, at least we would have gotten something out of all of this. Nation building is a load of horse****, if they don't want our help then let's stop trying to give it to them.

 

[Henry]

Much pissed away in treasure and blood.

The state views those dedicated in service as fodder for cannon...and little more.

 

[drillsgt]

I guess it doesn't take much to take over a city.

 

[Henry]

I guess it doesn't take much to take over a city.

Tell that to the men that fought in Fallujah.

 

[Crbn79]

Tell that to the men that fought in Fallujah.

I didn't get into Fallujah, but I was there when that all went down. Had quite a few friends there and Mosul and Me in Baghdad during their bloodiest days.

Everyone says the US went for Oil, yet NO US Oil Company even submitted a Bid on the Iraq oil fields. China was the big winner on those bids.

I was there with boots on the ground, I saw it for what it was, saw mummified bodies in mass graves beyond what you could count.

As a guy who lost friends, and invested myself in Iraq, this news really boils my blood because we saw it coming when the pull outs were announced.

 

[Cygnus]

A lot of bad news out of that general area.Some crazyness in Afganistan; Pakistan's largest airport has been attacked for 2 straight days with I think hundreds attackers trying to take i t over.

Coordinated?

 

[Destro]

I was there with boots on the ground, I saw it for what it was, saw mummified bodies in mass graves beyond what you could count.

Truth doesn't matter 'round these parts....

 

[ModernGunner]

I'm afraid our current 'powers-that-be' STILL have no idea who they're dealing with.

Does it 'surprise' anyone that, if you tell the enemy that your leaving, and when, they'll just crank it all down until you're gone? WHY would any 'leader' do that?

Or maybe, considering the recent trade of 5 top terrorist leaders for 1 guy that may, in fact, be a defector and traitor, perhaps the current POTUS does know who he's dealing with.

 

[printcraft]

We shouldn't have bothered in the first place, buy hey.. we had to "protect" all that oil... Saddam and his sons could have been removed with some well placed pavewayIIs... we all know the real reasons we were there...

[video=youtube;ztVMib1T4T4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztVMib1T4T4[/video]

 

[Shadow8088]

Actually Print, I'm completely serious...

 

[drillsgt]

Tell that to the men that fought in Fallujah.

I guess it's a lot easier now, according to the article they did it with a few hundred men.

 

[GIJEW]

Going in to destroy sadist hussein's rogue regime that had established chemical, bio, (at one time) a nuke weapon, programs; had kicked the UN inspectors out 5 years earlier; and used terrorist organizations as proxies; was one thing. FWIW, getting him personally could have been left to his enemies in the aftermath of a civil war. "nation building" as if there is anyone there who is interested in democracy (or even gets the concept), was a waste not only of lives and money but of the deterant that quickly toppling both the taliban and hussein established.

 

[CountryBoy1981]

Going in to destroy sadist hussein's rogue regime that had established chemical, bio, (at one time) a nuke weapon, programs; had kicked the UN inspectors out 5 years earlier; and used terrorist organizations as proxies; was one thing. FWIW, getting him personally could have been left to his enemies in the aftermath of a civil war. "nation building" as if there is anyone there who is interested in democracy (or even gets the concept), was a waste not only of lives and money but of the deterant that quickly toppling both the taliban and hussein established.

This. If we went in and toppled, then left, we are victors. By nation building we are exiting in defeat.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

 

[MisterChester]

Going in to destroy sadist hussein's rogue regime that had established chemical, bio, (at one time) a nuke weapon, programs; had kicked the UN inspectors out 5 years earlier; and used terrorist organizations as proxies; was one thing. FWIW, getting him personally could have been left to his enemies in the aftermath of a civil war. "nation building" as if there is anyone there who is interested in democracy (or even gets the concept), was a waste not only of lives and money but of the deterant that quickly toppling both the taliban and hussein established.

What did we find there again? I think I missed that current events class 10 years ago.

 

[T.Lex]

This. If we went in and toppled, then left, we are victors. By nation building we are exiting in defeat.

I disagree with this, mostly. Leaving after toppling the gov't is worse because it leaves a vacuum. Iraq was very secular and the nationbuilding part was really pretty easy, relatively speaking. (Not diminishing the hard work that we put into it, just comparing it to a place like Afghanistan, which is not secular and has no history of being an organized nation.)

The problem IMHO was withdrawing too early and... leaving the vacuum anyway. We needed to have a comprehensive foreign policy that gave our partners trust that we would follow through on our principles. That would have created a better environment for a status of forces agreement that worked for both sides.

 

[Birds Away]

I really hate that pic. It is taken completely out of context.

 

[wtfd661]

Truth doesn't matter 'round these parts....

Yep