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Page added on May 20, 2015
In Iraq, ISIS Is Winning And The United States Is Losing
During the Iraq war more than 4,000 U.S. soldiers died, countless others were severely injured, and the total cost to U.S. taxpayers was more than 2 trillion dollars. But now whatever the U.S. military accomplished during that war is being completely undone by ISIS. On Monday, we learned that ISIS had fully taken control of the strategically important city of Ramadi. Despite nine months of airstrikes by the U.S. military, ISIS continues to move forward and take new territory.
Just a few years ago, American soldiers fought some incredibly bloody battles on the streets of Ramadi, but now that city is in the hands of the most ruthless terror organization on the entire planet. And since it is only about 70 miles from Baghdad, Ramadi is going to make a fine staging area for an all-out assault on the capital. No matter how you cut it, the cold, hard reality of the matter is that the United States is losing in Iraq and ISIS is winning. So what will the U.S. do if ISIS actually takes control of the entire country?
Ramadi is traditionally known as the ‘Gateway of Baghdad’, but in recent days it has experienced utter carnage. According to the Daily Mail, “mutilated bodies” now lie everywhere along the streets of that once proud city…
ISIS militants have held a twisted victory parade after taking the key city of Ramadi in an orgy of violence and beheadings – and the extremists could march on the Iraqi capital Baghdad within the next month.
Mutilated bodies scatter the streets of the ‘Gateway of Baghdad’, where Islamic State slaughtered around 500 and forced nearly 25,000 to flee their homes over the last few days.
Now ISIS has released images of militants celebrating, children wielding automatic weapons and a fleet of pick-up trucks carrying its jubilant fighters through the blood-stained streets of Ramadi.
U.S. military officials insist that it really isn’t that big of a deal that Ramadi has fallen, but they made similar pronouncements back during the days of the Vietnam War. Just consider the following passage from a recent Wall Street Journal article…
In the closing years of the Vietnam War it was often noted sardonically that the “victories” against the Viet Cong were moving steadily closer to Saigon. The same could be said of Baghdad and the victories claimed against Islamic State, or ISIS, in Iraq in the past year. The ISIS takeover of Ramadi in the Anbar province over the weekend exposed the hollowness of the reported progress against ISIS. The U.S.-led bombing campaign in support of Iraqi forces isn’t working.
And guess what? As the “Iraqi Security forces” folded, they left behind large amounts of military equipment and large numbers of armored vehicles for ISIS to capture. In the end, this will make ISIS even more formidable. The following comes from Fox News…
Although there were a large number of Iraqi security forces occupying Ramadi, most troops fled after ISIS fighters began their assault on the city center Sunday, leaving behind Humvees and armored vehicles supplied by the U.S. military, a separate senior U.S. military official told Fox News.
“The Iraqi security forces were pushed out by a much smaller [ISIS] force,” the official said.
This is a theme that we have seen time after time. ISIS is taking over both Iraq and Syria largely using captured American weapons. Vehicles, equipment and weapons that our tax dollars paid for are being used to establish and expand a terrorist state in the heart of the Middle East, and Barack Obama seems almost ambivalent to the whole thing.
Even those that are on Obama’s side can’t quite understand what Obama is doing. For example, just consider the words of Piers Morgan…
But Obama’s had plenty of time to devise a successful strategy for dealing with the emerging threat of ISIS, and so far he has spectacularly failed.
As they beheaded Americans, he made somber speeches, then played golf minutes literally seven minutes later.
As they burned Jordanian pilots in cages, Obama assured us with almost casual confidence that he was on top of things.
As they threw gays to their death off rooftops and slaughtered Christians on beaches, still the leader of the free world exuded calm.
The clear message? ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got this all under control..’
Only he hasn’t.
For years and years, we heard about what a “threat” al-Qaeda was. But the truth is that al-Qaeda never was much of a threat at all. Most of the time their leaders seemed to be hiding out in caves or bunkers, and they never actually controlled any real territory.
But now we have a very real Islamic caliphate which has become so powerful that it can successfully fight a multi-front war against the Syrian government, the Kurds and the Iraqi government. Since it was first established, the amount of territory that it has captured is larger than the British Isles, and smaller terror groups all over the planet are rapidly swearing allegiance to it.
Unlike al-Qaeda, ISIS appears to be the real deal, and nobody in the western world can seem to muster up the will to do anything about it. The following is how this new Islamic State was described in a recent article in the Telegraph…
It is one of the strangest states ever created. The Islamic State wants to force all humanity to believe in its vision of a religious and social utopia existing in the first days of Islam. Women are to be treated as chattels, forbidden to leave the house unless they are accompanied by a male relative. People deemed to be pagans, like the Yazidis, can be bought and sold as slaves. Punishments such as beheadings, amputations and flogging become the norm. All those not pledging allegiance to the caliphate declared by its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, on 29 June last year are considered enemies.
Almost every day now, there are global headlines about the latest ISIS atrocities. You can find a couple of particularly disturbing examples right here and right here.
There is no negotiating with these guys, and they will not stop until the entire Middle East is under their control.
I want to share with you two maps. This first map is the territory that ISIS controls today…
This second map is what ISIS claims belongs to them…
So what should be done about ISIS?
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28 Comments on "In Iraq, ISIS Is Winning And The United States Is Losing"
Davy on Wed, 20th May 2015 7:24 am
This ISIS civil war cannot be won by either side. It is ethnic and religious in nature. The outcome will be destruction and dismemberment of Iraq. ISIS cannot be beaten because they are Sunni and control Sunni areas. The US and its Shia protectorate can make open conventional attacks extremely dangerous for ISIS because of airpower. Without large heavy unit strength brought to the attack ISIS will never be able to dislodge the Shia’s from Shia stronghold.
The US airpower will render ISIS heavy unit movement and their necessary logistics null and void. Baghdad is an example of a location ISIS will likely never take. They can infiltrate and terrorize but likely never take. The Kurds and the Shia will likely maintain their strongholds the Sunni ISIS theirs. This is a no win game for all involved. Iraq is a no win game for the global system. It is Iraqi oil that needs to be brought to market in great amounts now to stall peak oil dynamics a few years. With an Iraqi civil war this will likely not happen.
There will be a mixed bag of battles being won by both sides. The war cannot be one by either side especially with the outside influences on all sides. The author uses the tired worn out Vietnam analogy to describe this situation. It comes from an anti-American site that allows its agenda to get in the way of the truth. The site appears to be a good site for anti-establishment ideas but there is a limit to agenda’s fairness and balance.
This is part of the end game of BAU. If there is any region that is most exposed to collapse it is the ME with large populations, lack of stability, and a desert environment. At some point oil will lose its value. Without a vibrant BAU oil cannot be utilized except in localized applications. When oil cannot be a global commodity for exchange with fiat money and BAU goods this oil card is over. That is when these Muslim idiots in the ME will be in search of food and water.
Pops on Wed, 20th May 2015 8:39 am
ISIS is just the Saddam regime under a different banner—isn’t it? What did Cheney and Rummy think was going to happen when they turned them out?
This is an exact duplicate of the cold war, only the names have been changed. Then we were fighting for supra-national corporations’ ability to expand markets, now we are fighting for the ability of supra-national oil companies to expand production.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/05/the-right-and-wrong-questions-about-the-iraq-war/393497/
Ralph on Wed, 20th May 2015 9:18 am
ISIS is not re-warmed Baathist regime. It is a Sunni religious organisation with imperial expansionist policies. They fully intend to be a new empire, by controlling territories and killing or expelling any non-Sunni population who do not accept their new sub-human status.
Not so different from any other empire in history, it only gains traction because of 1. A large population of Sunnis who have been subject to discrimination and suppression for a long time, enabling an illiberal culture to propagate, and 2. Resource constraints that can only be overcome by taking direct control of the remaining resources by any means necessary.
The rest of the world is extremely afraid of ISIS because ISIS is a mirror of their own history.
BobInget on Wed, 20th May 2015 11:20 am
As I’ve mentioned repeatedly, it’s as if this were Victorian England, sex was a forbidden topic. The challenge is finding ANY reference to MOTIVE in reporting on ‘Oil’ Wars.
It’s All About Oil. Religion is an important
recruitment and unit cohesion device.
If IS gains control of significant oil assets, it will no longer be profitable for the US to ‘take them out’. The West will simply do what Turkey has been doing from day one, simply buy crude from IS instead. After all,l we will rationalize, if we don’t China will.
As long as we are at war, so to speak, let me alert you all. US backed Kurds are making
steady headway in Syria under strong us air support. That’s the good news.
Here’s why I’m writing. As we know Russia and Iran are strong supporters of the Syrian government. Saudi Arabia, lately the US are supporting rebels groups; IS, al Qaeda, included. This is absolute proof. Ideology
is not at issue. Oil Is.
Should Iran and Russia step up Syrian support confrontation with US forces is a certainty.
The 64 billion dollar question: Who controls Syria? The main contenders;
Saudi parented al Qaeda and ISIS or President Assad, backed by Iran and Russia or the Vatican. (only the Vatican has the money to rebuild and repopulate that shattered nation-;)
Readers, understand, we are ten years into a thirty years clusterfuck of a terrible oil war to end all oil wars.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/19/world/middleeast/isis-fighters-seized-advantage-in-iraq-attack-by-striking-during-sandstorm.html?_r=0
Oh-BTW, KSA continues to double down in Yemen.
http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/05/19/yemens-capital-sees-heaviest-airstrikes-since-truce-expired
Obviously KSA is getting targeting advice.
When all of Yemen’s infrastructure is destroyed, as in Syria, disparate so called ‘terrorist groups’ move in as they have in Libya, Somalia, occupied Syria, Iraq, et all.
and
BobInget on Wed, 20th May 2015 11:32 am
Shocking news:
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Islamic State fighters fought their way into a part of the central Syrian city of Palmyra on Wednesday, bringing them within blocks of one of the world’s most magnificent ancient sites.
As they have swept across Syria and Iraq, the extremists have destroyed or damaged numerous ancient sites and major cultural artifacts, condemning them as idolatry, even as they pillage and sell off more portable items to finance their activities. The militants’ approach to the ruins of ancient Palmyra, with their grand 2,000-year-old colonnades and tombs, has raised fears both locally and internationally that they too may be destroyed.
Modern Palmyra, also known as Tadmur, is a relatively remote desert outpost of 50,000 people, but it sits astride the main road from the Islamic State strongholds in the east to the more populous west of Syria. It is also near gas fields that the militant group has repeatedly attacked, and last week managed to partially seize. Syrian government forces held the militants out of the city for several days, but withdrew from some checkpoints on Wednesday, residents said.
Continue reading the main story
Anne Barnard Reporting on Syria
The New York Times Beirut bureau chief has chronicled the brutal civil war in Syria and the role of the Islamic State.
Last year, Ms. Barnard traveled to Palmyra to witness the damage to the ancient city.
This year, she reported from Iraq on the Islamic State’s destruction of ancient sites there and in northeastern Syria.
Follow her on Twitter, @ABarnardNYT.
The fact that the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has been able to advance into Palmyra, five days after seizing Ramadi, in the Iraqi province of Anbar, demonstrates its ability to carry out complex operations simultaneously on multiple fronts, in the face of pitched resistance on the ground and from the air.
In battles overnight, the militants captured several important locations in the northern part of Palmyra, including two security facilities and the public central bakery, according to local anti-government activists.
Khaled al-Homsi, an activist who opposes both the government and the Islamic State and closely monitors the Palmyra ruins, said that government workers removed artifacts from the museum near the site on Wednesday, and that other objects were taken away earlier for safekeeping. Syria’s chief antiquities official told Reuters that hundreds of statues had been relocated.
He said that in recent days, strikes by Syrian government warplanes had come dangerously close to the site’s medieval citadel. Islamic State fighters were moving farther into the modern city on Wednesday afternoon, he said, but had not yet reached the ancient site.
Continue reading the main story
Graphic: After Taking Ramadi, ISIS Continues Offensive
“I’m here and still breathing,” he said in a text message.
The city, whose Tadmur prison is notorious for the torture of political detainees, was partly held for a time earlier in the Syrian civil war by non-Islamic State rebel fighters, before the Islamic State was a major factor in the conflict. More recently, though, the city has been in government hands, and the relatively moderate Syrian insurgents have no presence there, leaving some opponents of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in the odd position of hoping his troops can succeed in protecting the site.
The symbolism of the ruins has been claimed by several sides in Syria’s multifront war. Local rebels once called themselves Sons of Zenobia, referring to an ancient queen of Palmyra, and some government troops have vowed in social media posts that “Zenobia will never fall.”
International antiquities officials have said that it would be catastrophic if the ruins, which stand as a crossroads of ancient Greek, Roman, Persian and Islamic cultures, were to be destroyed or damaged.
At the same time, residents lament that more attention has been focused on the threat to the ruins than on the plight of the 50,000 residents and tens of thousands of displaced people in and around Palmyra. There have been reports that Islamic State fighters massacred captive soldiers and civilians in outlying villages last week.
Several Palmyra residents said on Wednesday that they were staying indoors and hoping to remain neutral.
Hwaida Saad and Maher Samaan contributed reporting
Perk Earl on Wed, 20th May 2015 12:56 pm
Hey, guess what–those birds are gone. I never did anything to them, they’re just gone. First the male, then the female as of today. Maybe they figured discretion was the best part of valor -lol!
Anyway, loving the peace and quiet vs. the constant drum of war in Iraq with ISIS apparently controlling a big part of the country. It seems like the harder we wage war in the ME the harder those people become. Ironic too that no matter how much money is spent there the US seems to continue to be on the hook to spend more.
GregT on Wed, 20th May 2015 1:35 pm
Maybe somebody else took them out Perk. I’m sure you weren’t alone.
Plantagenet on Wed, 20th May 2015 2:09 pm
Ralph is right. The Hussein regime was socialist and nationalist—-the Caliphate is instead based on Islamist teachings and is internationalist in scope.
Its amazing how many people don’t understand what ISIS is all about—even Obama moronically dismissed them as the “JV”, an underestimate that led directly to his involving the US in two new wars in Syria and Iraq.
GregT on Wed, 20th May 2015 4:45 pm
Of course Planter,
You have a much better idea of what is going on in the Middle East, than the President of the United States of America.
You are one truly amazing person! Go Planter Go!!!!
dissident on Wed, 20th May 2015 5:04 pm
The US is not losing. It is winning. The Sunnis Wahabbi nutbars are de facto US allies. They are aligned with the interests of the US client state, Saudi Arabia. It is the Shi’ites who are losing and hence Iran is losing as well. You may recall that after the Iraq invasion, the Shi’ite majority in the country finally got its voice. But instead of kissing Uncle Sam’s a**, they showed support for Iran. ISIS is payback by proxy from Uncle Sam.
Davy on Wed, 20th May 2015 5:05 pm
Planter, where in the world have you been? It has been at least 2 weeks since you commented.
GregT on Wed, 20th May 2015 5:20 pm
Planter, where in the world have you been?
Probably trying to hide Davy.
“Alaska winters are long, dark and cold and the coming of summer is greeted with relief and delight. However, that delight is tempered by the arrival of another sign of summer — the mosquito.”
“Based on an estimate of the amount of mosquitoes killed by spiders, Sikes said every year Alaska is home to 17 trillion mosquitoes, weighing in at a whopping 96,191,666 pounds.
This number seems large until you compare it to the combined weight of all the insects in Alaska, which is anywhere from 340 million to seven billion pounds, according to Sikes. Many of these non-mosquito insects — such as black flies, no-see-ums, horseflies, fleas, lice and ticks — also bite and feed on vertebrates.”
http://www.newsminer.com/science_and_technology/they-re-back-the-end-of-winter-also-means-the/article_aa9bfc06-ed7e-11e4-9208-3394a46d46e6.html
Davy on Wed, 20th May 2015 5:27 pm
I remember Greg. I have been on 2 trips up to Alaska.
GregT on Wed, 20th May 2015 5:33 pm
People have been known to go crazy up there Davy………….
Perk Earl on Wed, 20th May 2015 6:08 pm
“Maybe somebody else took them out Perk. I’m sure you weren’t alone.”
Maybe you’re right, GregT.
Meanwhile, saw this headline on Google news. ISIS takes a town in Syria just days after taking Ramadi. Those guys are on a gruesome roll.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/isis-seizes-control-of-syria-s-ancient-town-of-palmyra-1.2381944
ISIS seizes control of Syria’s ancient town of Palmyra
, a stunning triumph for the group only days after it captured the strategic city of Ramadi in Iraq.Islamic State extremists acaptured the ncient Syrian town of Palmyra after government defence
Plantagenet on Wed, 20th May 2015 6:19 pm
@Daver — I’ve been traveling for the last couple of weeks—-mainly int the Aspen area of Colorado. Hope you’re having a great spring!
@GregT — Your faith in Obama’s Iraq policy is nice, but perhaps you are unaware that the Caliphate just captured Ramadi—the capital of Anbar Province and only 60 miles from Baghdad. The defeat of Iraqi forces in Ramadi and the failure of the US and its Iraqi allies to stop this latest advance by IS suggests that O’s strategy in his two new wars in Iraq and Syria isn’t working.
Or do you believe O is intentionally failing?
Hahahahahahah!
Cheers!
dubya on Wed, 20th May 2015 6:23 pm
Mission Accomplished!
Plantagenet on Wed, 20th May 2015 6:26 pm
@ dissident
Your claim that ISIS is a secret ally of Obama and the US doesn’t make any sense. Don’t you know that the US air force has conducted hundreds of air attacks on IS forces in both Iraq and Syria, and even sent in special forces to kill a high level IS commander in Syria and kidnap his wife just a few days ago?
If you’re going to push nutty conspiracy theories, at least try to make things up that are remotely possible..
GregT on Wed, 20th May 2015 6:27 pm
I believe that the plan right from the get-go was to destabilize Iraq Planter, as well as most of the rest of the ME. Long before O ever got into the white house. There is plenty of documented evidence to support this.
Hahahahahahah! ( See, I too can act like a nutter)
Cheers!
GregT on Wed, 20th May 2015 6:30 pm
Sometimes it’s really difficult to tell whether you’re really serious, or just playing dumb Planter. I’m hoping it’s the latter.
Apneaman on Wed, 20th May 2015 6:55 pm
Violent warfare is on the wane, right?
Many optimists think so. But a close look at the statistics suggests that the idea just doesn’t add up
https://medium.com/bull-market/violent-warfare-is-on-the-wane-right-99223faa45e6
roman on Wed, 20th May 2015 7:06 pm
This is natural population control. When you have too many sheep the wolf population starts increasing. I bet ISIS’s mouth is watering when they see retarted, pussy whiped western sheep.
Davy on Wed, 20th May 2015 7:20 pm
Some of the country boys around here would love to hear one of those pussy ISIS boys squeal Roman. Remember Deliverance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqNMjZpSbnU
Plantagenet on Wed, 20th May 2015 7:34 pm
@ GregT
If Obama’s plan is to intentionally destabiliize Iraq and Syria as you suggest, then Obama is doing a crackerjack job of it. Of course he got some practice by destabilizing Libya first.
However, I take Obama at his word. I don’t think Obama’s plan is to intentionally destabilize Iraq, Syria and Libya—-I think Obama is such a screw-up that he is accidentally creating these messes.
Cheers!
justeunperdant on Wed, 20th May 2015 7:34 pm
ISIS is mainly young man actually doing the job of natural population control.
Same thing during Baltimore events, mainly young man trying to start natural population control in USA. My main point is the action of young man will tell us how close we are to chaos and natural population control, as Roman puts it.
Strength, force vitality belong to young man, therefore they will be the ones doint the natural population control as Roman puts it.
GregT on Thu, 21st May 2015 12:06 am
@planter,
Try not to disappear for such long periods of time. I really miss your bizarre sense of humour.
apneaman on Thu, 21st May 2015 12:24 am
justeunperdant, They all loopy. steps 3&4
OVERSHOOT LOOP:
Evolution Under The Maximum Power Principle
Here is a synopsis of the behavioral loop :
Step 1. Individuals and groups evolved a bias to maximize fitness by maximizing power, which requires over-reproduction and/or over-consumption of natural resources (overshoot), whenever systemic constraints allow it. Differential power generation and accumulation result in a hierarchical group structure.
Step 2. Energy is always limited, so overshoot eventually leads to decreasing power available to the group, with lower-ranking members suffering first.
Step 3. Diminishing power availability creates divisive subgroups within the original group. Low-rank members will form subgroups and coalitions to demand a greater share of power from higher-ranking individuals, who will resist by forming their own coalitions to maintain power.
Step 4. Violent social strife eventually occurs among subgroups who demand a greater share of the remaining power.
Step 5. The weakest subgroups (high or low rank) are either forced to disperse to a new territory, are killed, enslaved, or imprisoned.
Step 6. Go back to step 1.
The above loop was repeated countless thousands of times during the millions of years that we were evolving[9]. This behavior is inherent in the architecture of our minds — is entrained in our biological material — and will be repeated until we go extinct. Carrying capacity will decline[10] with each future iteration of the overshoot loop, and this will cause human numbers to decline until they reach levels not seen since the Pleistocene.
http://www.dieoff.org/
JuanP on Thu, 21st May 2015 7:56 am
“So what should we do about ISIS?” I can’t talk for other people, but I think the best thing to do about ISIS is nothing at all. Those guys are not my problem, they are very far away and I will never meet any of them because I am not stupid enough to go where they are. ISIS are a non issue as far as I am concerned. I will never understand why people get all worked up about ISIS or any other fools like that.