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[CraigerGamer]

http://www.politico.com/magazine/st...isis-isil-obama-foreign-policy-kurdish-214121

This article starts off about how retaking Mosul could help Hilary but I really think the author is burying the lead here.

Senior military officers say the city in northern Iraq, which has been under Islamic State control since June 2014, will be enveloped in a complex pincer movement from Iraqi military forces battling their way into the city from the southeast and Kurdish units storming the city from the northwest. The military offensive, months in the planning, is now tentatively scheduled to begin sometime in early October, with a final battle for Mosul coming at the end of that month.

Iraqi forces and the Kurds, working together? This is fucking amazing. Like what has John Kerry and Obama been doing to get these folks to even sit at the same table to discuss such a thing?

The fight for Mosul will be done by a trifecta of military forces: Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (the controversial Hashd al-Shabi), the Peshmerga and Iraqi Security Forces, large numbers of whom are being trained by U.S. advisers.

Holy shit.

Two final quotes I found interesting...

According to the senior Pentagon official, the recently negotiated U.S.-Kurdish understanding came with strings attached, including Peshmerga battlefield coordination with Iraqi Security Forces operating on the Mosul front. Peshmerga commanders, according to this official, have now agreed to stand aside when the Iraqi Security Forces pass through their units during the initial assault on Mosul. The move is part of a U.S. effort to make sure that the units involved in the Mosul fight don’t end up battling each other. The memorandum of understanding was signed in Erbil, with the Americans represented by acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Elissa Slotkin. It was Slotkin who, back in January of 2015, gave the cold shoulder to Sunni Anbar leaders who came to Washington to plead that the U.S. government bypass the Baghdad government to arm them directly. The U.S. refused.

All evidence supports that notion, but U.S. officials have confirmed the Pentagon is planning ways to time their offensive against Mosul with an attack on the Islamic State “capital” in Raqqa, Syria. A coordinated Mosul-Raqqa military offensive could yield a dual defeat to the ISIS caliphate, unhinge ISIS power in both Syria and Iraq and have the added benefit of pinning ISIS units moving into Iraq along interior lines from Syria in place. In late March, the Centcom stepped up its monitoring of the Syria-Iraq border, with the intended purpose of spotting and bombing ISIS units headed toward Mosul.

I know many believe the Obama Administration hasn't played enough of a role in ousting ISIS from Iraq and Syria but perhaps he was just playing the long game. What good would have come if USofA just rolled in and starting taking over? Instead we are seeing people sitting at tables agreeing to help EACHOTHER, with long histories of hate and atrocities on both sides. Maybe I am making too big of a deal about this but I don't think I have been more impressed with our President and current Secretary of State than I was after reading this article.

 

[TheMan]

Why would they release this kind of info beforehand?

 

[CarpeDeezNutz]

Holy shit they rolling in there and whopping that ass? Thanks Obama.

 

[xenist]

Why would they release this kind of info beforehand?

Why not? It's not like ISIS has any more targets to go after. Why do you think they have stepped up the crazy lately? They've had their asses handed to them every time they fought a semi coherent force.

 

[Stinkles]

Why would they release this kind of info beforehand?

Hearts and minds. Helps cement ISIS as the current enemy and helps stop loosely connected splinter factions doing stupid shit out of scope/plan. Also means a few ISIS second-thought people will leave under cover of darkness and crawl back to their moms. Which in turn will deplete morale of the "troops" staying for the fight. Not like we don't know where they are, and not like they don't know they're surrounded.

 

[SlimySnake]

Obama's October Surprise for Hillary.

If we really defeat ISIS a week before the election or even better a week before the Foreign Policy debate, it would give Trump absolutely nothing to talk about. it will be amazing.

 

[DXB-KNIGHT]

Pay attention the Hashid Group,
They'll become the new Hezboloah if left as is

 

[Polari]

I know many believe the Obama Administration hasn't played enough of a role in ousting ISIS from Iraq and Syria but perhaps he was just playing the long game. What good would have come if USofA just rolled in and starting taking over? Instead we are seeing people sitting at tables agreeing to help EACHOTHER, with long histories of hate and atrocities on both sides. Maybe I am making too big of a deal about this but I don't think I have been more impressed with our President and current Secretary of State than I was after reading this article.

lol. I'm sure they'll start killing each other as soon as ISIS is finished (although they probably won't manage to hold out that long).

Al-Hashd is an umbrella organisation for 40 odd militias. I'm sure that will end well.

 

[LUFTRAUSER]

THESE TEN GROUPS ARE FIGHTING ISIS IN THE MIDDLE EAST! NUMBER SEVEN WILL SURPRISE YOU.

...but in all seriousness this is good news. I never thought I'd see these groups fighting alongside each other.

 

[thestopsign]

Part of me is worried that the fall of the Islamic State will just have bad aftershocks/out lashes from their terror cells. Though I seriously know zip about how they operate. Progress is progress though!

 

[Jackpot]

What's with the clickbait title? People actually think it's a good way to write?

 

[Evolution of Metal]

Both USA and Iran support Iraq when it comes to military operations, however, Iraq doesn't want foreign powers actually fighting for it:

http://en.alalam.ir/news/1844938

So whoever is calling for USA boots on the ground, it is not welcomed by neither Syrian government nor Iraq.

 

[Chmpocalypse]

THESE TEN GROUPS ARE FIGHTING ISIS IN THE MIDDLE EAST! NUMBER SEVEN WILL SURPRISE YOU.

...but in all seriousness this is good news. I never thought I'd see these groups fighting alongside each other.

How Obama will beat isis with this one weird trick!

 

[AYF 001]

How Obama will beat isis with this one weird trick!

Terrorists hate him!

 

[MMaRsu]

Obama's October Surprise for Hillary.

If we really defeat ISIS a week before the election or even better a week before the Foreign Policy debate, it would give Trump absolutely nothing to talk about. it will be amazing.

You cannot "defeat" ISIS

 

[Blader]

One of the Obama administration's biggest failures on ISIS is its inability to communicate its successes in fighting ISIS. We've made a ton of progress in pushing back ISIS, reclaiming about half their territory, over the past year or so, but if the media, GOP and even some Democrats are to believed, we've been sitting on our asses doing nothing the whole time.

You cannot "defeat" ISIS

Yes you can. This is not like al-Qaeda, where you're fighting loosely affiliated cells operating out of caves. You might not stamp out the ideology completely, but ISIS defines itself in geography, in occupying territory. You take away the territory, you defeat ISIS.

 

[Crisco]

I called this when ISIS first started taking territory and asserting itself as a regional power. At long last, the various political, militant, and religious factions in Iraq would finally have a common enemy to band together against that wasn't us.

 

[aliengmr]

Funny thing is Obama has been talking about this and for some reason people haven't been listening.

If we had gone in and destroyed ISIS, those regional forces would likely have been in the same state they were in when they were overrun. Training means fuck all against battle tested units and now Iraq has battle tested forces, which is going to go alot further in regional stability than the US doing all the work.

Terrorist attacks will continue, but that is going to be up to Intelligence services and Law Enforcement to stop. As opposed to the notion of "fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here", which, in my opinion, is only temporarily effective and does nothing long term.

 

[univariate]

You cannot "defeat" ISIS

You don't know shit.

 

[Walshicus]

Hang on, that's actually the original title and not a mod edit?

 

[RoyaleDuke]

Are you fucking serious, how in the fuck did they get them to be friendly enough to go kick some ass?

Whatever man, as long as they go and clear those assholes out and whoop that ass.

People uniting against a common enemy... nice.

 

[Dubbedinenglish]

You cannot "defeat" ISIS

They have a standing semi-professional army and land holdings. They can be defeated. Rooting out their ideology is another subject.

The Shia popular militias though need to be properly incorporated back under the Iraqi flag though as the have the potential to become another threat to Iraq. The joint operation is a good sign and gives actual hope to unity among the major ethic faults in Iraq.

 

[HStallion]

From the thread title I was expecting US ground forces.

 

[Baybars]

Rolling into mosul with kurdish and shia militias is a sure way turning mosul into another fallujah. Poor americans wanting quick victories not realising what gave rise to isis in the first place. Today isis, tomorrow another group.

Iraq will never settle and never heal as long as sectarian bloodletting remains rampant.

 

[HStallion]

Rolling into mosul with kurdish and shia militias is a sure way turning mosul into another fallujah. Poor americans wanting quick victories not realising what gave rise to isis in the first place. Today isis, tomorrow another group.

Iraq will never settle and never heal as long as sectarian bloodletting remains rampant.

This isn't a "quick" victory. Its taken years to get this point. ISIS didn't just appear last week.

 

[Baybars]

One of the Obama administration's biggest failures on ISIS is its inability to communicate its successes in fighting ISIS. We've made a ton of progress in pushing back ISIS, reclaiming about half their territory, over the past year or so, but if the media, GOP and even some Democrats are to believed, we've been sitting on our asses doing nothing the whole time.



Yes you can. This is not like al-Qaeda, where you're fighting loosely affiliated cells operating out of caves. You might not stamp out the ideology completely, but ISIS defines itself in geography, in occupying territory. You take away the territory, you defeat ISIS.

Generall petraeus, american troops and thousands of sunni fighters defeated al qaida.

Right now america is looking to defeat a more powerful enemy using kurds and shias. Its doomed to failure.

 

[Baybars]

This isn't a "quick" victory. Its taken years to get this point. ISIS didn't just appear last week.

Washington is looking for quick results. Unlike the surge in 08, obama is less concerned with who he uses and more how gets territory back. Not forgetting why mosul fell in first place

 

[RustyNails]

Hashd needs to stay the fuck out of Mosul, unless they want an ultra sunni terrorist group worse than ISIS.

Also this isn't surprising for those following the news. They have been coordinating for a while. Its how they captured major cities like Ramadi and Fallujah.

 

[RustyNails]

Rolling into mosul with kurdish and shia militias is a sure way turning mosul into another fallujah. Poor americans wanting quick victories not realising what gave rise to isis in the first place. Today isis, tomorrow another group.

Iraq will never settle and never heal as long as sectarian bloodletting remains rampant.

This x 100. Peshmarga arent extremely sectarian, as the Kurds are mostly Sunni. The paramilitary Shia units however (Sadr militia, Hashd) are horrible. From what I understand IA commanders did not allow them to breach Fallujah city limits. I heard reports that they didn't obey the directive and went in anyway.