This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
It Will Take 10 Years To Recapture Mosul From ISIS, US Army Officer Says
When Mosul fell to ISIS in June of 2014, the world was shocked that the group - which at that juncture, was just beginning to make a name for itself - could possibly have overrun the US-trained and armed Iraqi army to take control of the country’s second-largest city.
"The city fell like a plane without an engine," a Mosul businessman who fled to Erbil said at the time. "They were firing their weapons into the air, but no one was shooting at them."
That account reinforces the notion that the Iraqi regulars effectively ran away in the face of the ISIS advance. Here’s what Ash Carter said after Ramadi fell: “The Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight. They were not outnumbered. In fact they vastly outnumbered the opposing force and yet they failed to fight and withdrew from the site...We can give them training, we can give them equipment. We obviously can’t give them the will to fight.”
No Ash, you can’t, and when you hand over equipment to soldiers with no will to fight, that equipment usually ends up in the “wrong” hands which is exactly what happened after the Iraqi regulars abandoned Mosul. After routing the Iraqi forces, ISIS seized 2,300 humvees and then proceeded to loot some $429 million in cash from the city’s central bank. This made Obama’s terrorist “jayvee squad” one of the most well armed, well funded extremist groups in history.
18 months and a whole hell of a lot of ineffectual “coalition” airstrikes later, ISIS still controls Mosul and indeed, the group’s propaganda machine has released images from the city which seem to suggest that all in all, daily life has returned to some semblance of normality (as much as life can be “normal” under the rule of a self-styled medieval caliphate). Here’s an example:
Well, now that the Kurds have retaken Sinjar, and now that the Iraqi army supported by Shiite militias and Sunni volunteers are set to launch on offensive in Ramadi, some wonder if there will ultimately be an attempt to wrest control of Mosul from “the terrorists” (as Sergei Lavrov calls ISIS). Of course taking back Mosul would deal a severe blow to Bakr al-Baghdadi’s troops and it would also impact the group’s lucrative oil trade, so we somehow doubt that a major campaign is the offing. Nevertheless, we found the following take from a US soldier who fought in the city to be interesting given his contention that recapturing Mosul will take no less than ten years.
* * *
Excerpted from “So you want to take back Mosul from ISIS? Are you ready for a 10-year seige?,” by Thomas E. Ricks, as originally published in Foreign Policy
There’s a lot of loose talk about “re-taking” Mosul. Here are my thoughts about how difficult it would be. In my non-General Officer, very tactical-level opinion, an assault on this place would turn into a ten year siege, perhaps longer.
My dour thoughts are inspired by my experiences fighting there. I served for a year in Mosul from 9/2005 to 8/2006 as an infantry Platoon Leader before ‘surging’ to Baghdad until December. I owned the battle space on southwest side of the city (near FOB Marez): Tal al Ruman, the Dick Cemetery, Shit Creek, Al Amils #1 and 2.
We fought insurgents for months and we had ground superiority and three large bases (Courage, Marez, Diamondback) ringing the city, plus lots of police stations (5 West etc) and Iraqi Army posts. We also had SKTs (Small Kill Teams) set up for ambushes on hot corners. My brigade just missed the Battle for Mosul, fought by Deuce Four the previous spring and we heard the stories from those guys who did the battle handoff. It was unpleasant to say the least. Look at the stories from Fallujah — a city that is 20 percent the size of Mosul.
If I were in charge of taking back the city, I don’t think I’d risk dropping any SOF or spotters the night before my invasion. I’d rely on drones for my reconnaissance and spotting during my 36-hour artillery binge on the ring berm and other key targets. Then I’d get a whole lot of helicopters and do a night air assault, probably with my back to the Tigris, and push west and east, with tanks coming from the northeast side.
After we pushed through, grabbed the squirters, and sealed Mosul off from the rest of the world, I’d settle in for a siege and a ten-year war of attrition. Some folks think we could starve them out. But it’s a big city and carpet-bombing is not an option. Smugglers exist everywhere. Resupply is not far away. There are exurbs to the east (Bashiqa 15 miles) and west (Mawali 25 miles). Bashiqa is a Yzidi (or at least was) village and Mawali is Sunni. My battalion raided the latter village one night, with my platoon as the spearhead, and got two of three of our HVTs. For a village requiring a battalion sized raid, even nine years ago, there’s probably still a lot of anti-U.S. resentment and support for the bad guys — lots of prospects to help resupply. Then there’s Hamam al Alil 20 miles to the south, with river access, and a small garrison of IA (I think it used to house an IP school). Our line platoons rotated down there to command that garrison for a few weeks at a time — total vacation at COP Aggie in Hamam al Alil. Of course Dahuk and Turkey is a short drive to the north. Thus — there’s a lot of little hamlets ringing the city that can be used for resupply, enemy staging grounds, or worse.
* * *
All of that assumes the US is really interested in taking back Mosul in the first place.
If you ask an Iraqi, they'll tell you Washington would just as soon let ISIS have the city or, as WaPo put it earlier this month, the Iraqi public thinks "that the United States is supporting the Islamic State for a variety of pernicious reasons that have to do with asserting U.S. control over Iraq, the wider Middle East and, perhaps, its oil.”
So yes, Mr. Ricks, "there’s probably a lot of support for the bad guys." The question is whether it's the locals supporting them, or Washington itself.
On the bright side, retaking Mosul won't ultimately end up taking 10 years because once the Russians get there and once the IRGC is officially on the ground battling alongside Iran's Shiite militas, we'll likely find out that routing Baghdad's army isn't as difficult as The Pentagon would like you to believe.
»
- 42 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
If the US and allies get out of the way, the Russians will do it in a couple of months.
10 years? This dude is full of sh*t!! It is a desert. Cut them off from their food source in a siege and it will be over in 6 months from starvation.
CUT OFF the FUNDING and they will fold WAY FASTER than 6 months....Soldiers are EXTREMENLY loyal...until the PAYCHECKS STOP.
The Montreux Convention’s article 21 does not specify which country Turkey should be at war with, in order to close the Straits. If Russia doesn’t take the bait, Turkey will find somebody else to be at war with!
That’s why Erdogan sent his troops and tanks to IRAQ’s Mosul. He hopes that someone (Russia, Iraq, or even Zimbabwe) would strike them, so he can cry foul, declare a mini-war, and close the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, citing the Montreux Convention. Then, he thinks, Putin will be forced to talk to him.
The West doesn’t have a plan. We just fly a few PR-sorties a day dropping precision-guided leaflets, well outside of the Russian de-facto “no-fly-zone”.
No matter how pitiful and pathetic our actions against ISIS are, Erdogan messes everything up.
That’s why I’ve been saying that Erdogan will be “replaced” with someone more manageable and predictable.
Jens Stoltenbe… I mean.. Looney ;-)
It will happen faster once US Special Forces, the Turks, and Saudi mercenaries are removed which are defending ISIS in Mosul.
"Recapture"? lol
The War on Terror is a never ending piece of propaganda BS because terror is an emotion, not a tangible product that exists. These .gov lackeys have played it well but it's over. They're at the end of their ropes now because people are catching on to the constant game plan of lies, invasion, and more lies.
I call bullshit! Blockade Mosul food and water for 6 months and see what happens.
Let the Russians handle it, since the USSA is surely not capable.
Blockade, and then launch Operation Syphilitic Capricorn. Game over.
US Army is limited by its ROEs so 10 years is optimistic
This just in, the rules do not fucking apply to the United Corparation of America.If it makes money do it. If it makes money for ten years great even better. The idea we our bound to ROE or laws or our word is for fool ass idiots.
Turning the shit-hole into glass should take no more than 30 seconds.
There’s a lot of loose talk about “re-taking” Mosul. Here are my thoughts about how difficult it would be. In my non-General Officer, very tactical-level opinion, an assault on this place would turn into a ten year siege, perhaps longer.
Liberty advocates: there you have it. Do not fear the dot gov. The mighty US military cannot "take" a city with a population of 1 Million, when the local population is against them, or neutral at the very least, without of course reducing it to rubble. And perhaps not even then.
How the fuck are they going to control CONUS? Only one way: FEAR. The Boston shitshow was all about putting up a huge response to impress people. It's fucking theater. People don't understand what "big" is. And they can have the shithole cities anyway. What are they going to eat? How are power and water going to get to them when they don't control the routes? Sea? Air? Don't make me laugh.
We are truly free anytime we're ready.
Liberty advocates: there you have it. Do not fear the dot gov. The mighty US military cannot "take" a city with a population of 1 Million, when the local population is against them, or neutral at the very least, without of course reducing it to rubble. And perhaps not even then.
Pretty much my thoughts as well. I've been saying for years that controlling one large city filled with pissed-off armed people would be a massive undertaking (and borderline impossible without mass indiscriminate killing) - let alone an entire nation of cities. The Boston shit-show only showed what happens when the populace is in the mood to comply. Those worthless Call-of-Duty-Wannabe fags pointing rifles at people would last about one second in a situation where there was any real resistance.
What a bunch of BS.
"Foreign Policy" should be embarrassed.
The Army does not care about such things except on camera and paper. Plese do not be so naive. The people in the U.S. Military love to kill, it is a game for them so is the PTSD thing, they have to go throught the hollywoodean and COD motions
People keep sitting back and taking it, though, even if they know it's all a bunch of lies.
Maybe there should be a War on Apathy. I don't really care one way or another...
i see what you did there, but i'm indifferent
Q: Which is the greater problem, ignorance or apathy?
A: I don't know and I don't care.
Flashbacks from way back:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw6VITRc8go
Ociania, definitely East Asia.
>>He hopes that someone (Russia, Iraq, or even Zimbabwe) would strike them, so he can cry foul, declare a mini-war, and close the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, citing the Montreux Convention. Then, he thinks, Putin will be forced to talk to him.
Shit, all that does is guarantee another Russian-Turko war. Except with the Russians sitting on top of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles when it's over.
NATO doesn't have the balls to go nuclear over Turkey
russian-turko sounds nasty. like something from urban dictionary
Maybe this is why Iraq wants the US to GTFO of its Country. The US is ISIS.
"Give me some gas and I can be in Mosul in a month."
-- General Patton (Or maybe it was Berlin. I forget which.)
Patton was a kick-ass no apologies American. They, being candy-assed maggots, had "no choice" but to car accident him.
Read about what OSS was after at Skoda (which is why they had that double time run to Skoda in the movie) and what Patton saw, and you'll understand why the OSS had to off him before he talked.
Any recommendations for reading atomic?
I bet he could do it with his 1940's troops and gear, too.
He was a crazy sumbitch, but he was also the only U.S. General that struck fear in the hearts of the Germans.
no it was certainly general patton, general berlin never said that
10 years? This dude is full of sh*t!! It is a desert. Cut them off from their food source in a siege and it will be over in 6 months from starvation.
Airdrop pig carcasses and it will be over in 6 hours.
Russia will clean up Mosul. Just like they cleaned up Afghanistan. Sure, you can roll the tanks in. But if the population is against you, they will just continue to mount little guerilla attacks.
On the other hand, Turkey could just divert the Tigris. I'm sure they could find a good use for the water.
The MIC wants to lock in a 10 year contract to keep the shareholders happy
Nothing in this article explains why I should care about ISIS in Mosul or how this is possibly a problem for the US. Or how this threatens US security. It doesn't. Not our problem.
You should care because there are apparently "squirters," and as we all know, those ladies can make quite a mess.
cows do that too, particularly noticeable when on a flat rock
Worse, the frame is standard "ISIS is the bad guys", when we fund them and the Israelis lead them.
Take a knee and lets break it down
1. Cities have power & industrial shops capable of building arms and acting as depots
2. Bigger the city, bigger the industrial base.Bigger the city the more munitions that need to be employed to get at the targets you want taken out.
3. Mosul is a strategic crossroad city.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28772478
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/the-meaning-of-...
4. Allowing ISIL to get the 2004 Mosul level of electric co-gen & manufacturing base back online would give it a industrial output equal to about half a Lebanon. Anyone know what they make in south Lebanon tube factories? For Hamas? Bueller?
5. Crossroad + Big industrial footprint + 1 day drive from Kurdistan / the Iraqi Crescent Fields = Baghdad falls in 10 months unless Irbil & Samarra are reenforced bigtime. 2 wars prove this.
(6). Smugglers run on the Tigeris goes right to the ocean in a few days. If you loved your ISIL sour crude products in Italy, you're going to love the new Jahadi John branded claymores. Pakistan & North Korea literally keep the lights on via knockoff weapon sales.
That is your 5 +1 point lesson in Mosul.
How much petroleum refining capacity does IS have?
The difficulty some of the largest and most modern militaries on Earth have encountered in severing ISIS's supply lines is sufficient evidence, by itself, to demonstrate the magnitude of external aid and support it is receiving on a constant basis.
Well, that is if you believe all but one or two of them have made any effort whatsoever to effect said supply line severance.
The trick is to bring down as few towers and switches as necessary so that one can rebuild before the locals get fed up with their new overlords.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_Iraq
@Greenskeeper carl
Exactly. Why should I, or anyone here in the USA care?
Oh the neocons say, "We can't let the oil fall into the hands of (fill in the blank)"
Why not? What will "they" do with the oil once in control of it? Once "they" move the oil from the ME and it goes into the vast oil distribution system via Rotterdam etc. that oil looks just like any other oil....fungible stuff oil is.
Fuck all those rag hats.
hairball
We should care. We fucked up the whole region and ruined the balance of power. Now we gave birth to a worse group who wants to fill the vacuum in multiple countries. Not only did we screw up and kill so many of their kin that they not only want to subjugate the entire region but also want to give us a taste of our own medicine. The more they profit the more they can conduct their very successful asymmetrical warfare like wack-a-mole.
Hey, that guy's carrying an American rifle! CUT CUT CUT! WAR-DROBE, get that man an AK47!
No can do, sir, we shipped 'em all to the front this morning.
meanwhile in the UK, Veterans are throwing their medals away in Downing Street in disgust at Cameron's neocon wars;
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/08/forces-veterans-protest-d...
Video;
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/video/2015/dec/08/ex-soldiers-discard...
Iraq Abadi stated USA presence is unwanted.
Hitler damn near took over the whole of Europe in less than 10 years, and this Army Sargeant thinks 1 city in backwoods Iraq will take 10 years? Actually, probably. The bomb makers in the 5 thousand dollar suits would love that show.
If the DOD claims it will take 10 years, then the obvious solution is to OUTSOURCE/OFFSHORE the problem.
No doubt there are world powers that would do it in a fraction of the time and cost. E.g., Russia, China.
TAALR proposes the following course of action:
1. China builds a ghost city Mosul 2.0 in 6 months, and screens potential inhabitants for Contraband material, prior to entry.
2. Russia levels Mosul 1.0 with aerial bombings. Anyone caught leaving gets Droned.
3. US pays China and Russia in USD, using QE.
Problem solved. Avez vous des questions?
Now TAALR swiftly wants a Christmas bonus of extra computing power, i.e. extra Cloud Space, till TAALR is on Cloud 9.
This article is a great reminder of why infantry platoon leaders should never be allowed to plan military operations. Unfortunately the US bureaucracy allows platoon leaders to fail upwards. You will NEVER take ANY city with a ten year siege. That sort of illogic is right up their with general staff level lunacy that IDEAS can be defeated with GUNS. In both cases, however, the MIC shareholders will profit by your folly. Use the shifting Arabian Sands to you benefit, not detriment. 4 months of planning, 4 days of killing, 4 weeks of police action, 4 years of rebuilding, with the right TEAM and the right PLAN.
The Russians would fare NO BETTER than the Americunt military, but they probably have more common sense than to try it themselves. The Iranians are the best position to LEAD a successful operation, since you need to bring the both the Kurds and Shiite militias under a single banner, and they (probably) have a very deep bench with proper civil affairs experience from working with Hezbollah for so long (David Betrayus's money planes don't count as proper US civil affairs experience, since it was basically the seed capital to initially finance the ISIS M&A binge). The place where the Iranians WOULD fall short is attracting FDI. The US fucked up the exact same thing in Iraq even before CPA Order #2 put the final nail in the US coffin (despite having been offered a viable plan at no US cost, only fewer fat no-bid contracts to Republitard donors). That leaves the Europeans and the Chinese to "rebuild". The Chinese have the bigger printing press (which could certainly play a positive role both for the Iraqis and the Chinese) but they are even more corrupt and insular than the Americans. Fortunately the Europeans have some experience coordinating for mutual benefit, so as long as it's NOT run from Brussels (or by member governments) there would be a possibility of success.
All for nothing. Except the . Gov mule got fed
Glass it already.
A half dozen tactical nukes, and problem solved. Or maybe just one big one from a sub out there and nearby.
Or if you are agin nukes, a bunch of fuel-air thermobaric bombs at (say) 5000 feet msl should do it.
The [blast] kill mechanism against living targets is unique–and unpleasant.... What kills is the pressure wave, and more importantly, the subsequent rarefaction [vacuum], which ruptures the lungs.... If the fuel deflagrates but does not detonate, victims will be severely burned and will probably also inhale the burning fuel. Since the most common FAE fuels, ethylene oxide and propylene oxide, are highly toxic, undetonated FAE should prove as lethal to personnel caught within the cloud as most chemical agents.
No, no, wrong.
USA needs another Afghanistan to keep the military employed.
Bullish for the military industrial complex.
Go long mother fuckers.
Russia needs to get their own playpen for their military - maybe they should go back to Afghanistan now that we are tired of being there - again.
https://thinkpatriot.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/ignoring-the-absolutely-in...
I wrote this when I thought TPB wanted a solution. Naive me :
-------------
Not many things can be predicted in both timing and certainty, but the US’s exit from the ME wars is 100% certain, the correlation of economic, social and political forces is now strongly against us***. $1.3T in military spending per year is not sustainable, as the US will not be able to borrow money in the near future. We are gaining nothing positive with continuing, yet the doubling-down continues. Have you noticed that the entire Status Quo has not noticed?
How easy it would be to just stop the wars? There is no possible justification for the wars, the Israeli-NeoCon-militarists have proven throughout 14 years of war that they can’t predict anything, that nothing works in bringing peace.
So as a measure of the capability of our system of civilization to stop doing obviously counter-productive things, “stop the ME war!” is good. Do you think the ME war will stop before or after the collapse of the military due to the collapse of the economy and deep devaluation of the dollar? Will the last troops leave the last war under fire?
Clearly the ME wars will soon be stopped and the military budgets will be cut to perhaps 10% of current levels. Weapons programs even smaller.
Have you seen thinking like that priced into military stocks?
9/11 was a False Flag operation by the Israeli-Neocons in the US Government
buy moar GD and Raytheon for yoar portfolio!!! yay!
Today I went on Linked IN which is a joke site. Anyway, some American guy posts a picture of some USAF captain and his wife in a smaller hangar next to his F-16.
The poster mentioned that Capt so and so died today in his F-16 over the Middle East. They mentioned his wife's first name. I searched Google News and there is no report on an F-16 being shot down or lost. I just went back to look for the post and it was pulled??? WTF?!?
Did someone shoot down an USAF F-16 and the media did no report it?
It will take a hell of a lot longer when you arm and fund the combatants you are "fighting." Kind of like trying to mow the lawn without turning in the tractor
If the Pentagon stopped paying for Daesh, they'd evaporate in 6 months.
Dulles and his brother (attorneys) wrote the Treaty of Versailles. Jack Kennedy fired Allen Dulles before JAck was murdered.
William Colby seemed to have a big mouth. He also somewhat sang to the Sen. Frank Church committee investigating the CIA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LO6tiD5Dy0
Church also warned us about the NSA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Church
William Colby also had connections to Pres. Diem of So Vietnam who was murdered by you know who.
Apparently in retirement, certain people never forgot Colby's big mouth and they eventually settled the score.
http://www.pythiapress.com/wartales/colby.htm
Interesting that the islamist in the first pic is carrying ar/m4 style rifle...
It's heartwarming to see them taking a refreshing dip with the kids inbetween the rapes and beheadings.
Being a little boy in that pool is not a good place to be.
The guy in the front is probably jacking off the two youngsters beside him.
If ISIS still runs the joint,do the world a big favour,turn the whole damn thing into a sheet of glass.Nobody will complain.
Nuke the sand niggers, embrace the "collateral damage" and be done with it.
Make it a joint USSA and Russian mission.
Repossessed in less than a day with 1 or 2 bombs.
That will send a concrete message to the towel heads NOT to fuck with the Caucasian/christian world.
Case closed.
Sooo many trolls on this site. It's like the NSA reaasigned the pimple faced droners from Nevada to spread their seeds of divide and conquer to the comment section of Zero Hedge. I guess ZH got too far up on the radar screen for the Bureau of Information and now is inundated with Spook Juniors. The comments from the old guard are long gone.
It's simple for a sock puppet to talk tough on a blog but get them out from behind the keyboard and their pansies.
Like you beez nuts. How much blood has been spilled in the last 1500+ years in the name of Christ?
You lost us at "Soo many trolls."
I'm not defending the OP but your closing statement is BS. Do tell, how much blood has been spilled in the name of Christ, and how much blood by the followers of Muhammad (piece of crap be him)? I'll acknowledge the former (with the much lower count) were not following Christ's teaching but the latter are doing exactly what their brutal warlord false prophet demanded.
Best plan yet. If Trump was already President, he and Vlad would have this thing wrapped up in a week.
He forgot to mention the main reason it will take so long it due to CIA/Turkey "bombing" supplies in...
FUCK THIS - WWII WAS FOUGHT BETWEEN 1939-1945. Is this a joke?
We had no EPA then.
Watch IS import one polar bear and one penguin. DONE.
Yes, the enviromental impact study will take ten years.
Heavens forbid we find any endangered sand beetles 'cause that will be the end of it.
Wasting humans,not so much of a problem for Uncle Scam though.
Seems to me we could eradicate this cess pool in one blinding flash of light!
I can understand ... in our current mindset it would take at least 10 years ... rubber bullets and trigger guards
And minority transgenders leading the assault.
OT. Latest Russian cruise missile attack on Syrian targets from sub in the Mediterranean.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwja7sogNs4 (Dec 8)
The sub is one of the ultra silent diesel electric subs, described by the US as a 'black hole' for its ability to remain undetected.
http://fortruss.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/russias-newest-submarine-equipped...
How much money ya got?
Thanks, CRIMINALS!
Go, Trump!!
nuke it.
U.S. Army officer needs to put the crack pipe down and looke.. lookee... here to what will happen to his horse green shit attire very shortly!
Maybe we can rebrand ISIS to USUS
Unites States Under Satan?
Prime a nuke then...
We (Russians, Americans, British, French, etc.) don't have to "take it". Cut off the electricity, the sanitation, the water the food and the medical supplies. The city will fall into total disrepair in a couple of weeks and the disease will drive the locals to the point of being as big of a danger to ISIS as we would be. Cruel? No. It's called war. Recruitment and morale in ISIS would go to hell and the defections would be massive when things got bad enough. The do-gooders would cry a river but it wouldn't be them and their kids doing the dying if we tried to defeat ISIS in Mosul any other way.
Ah yes, a fantastic plan. I believe the Fed took up a similar plan against Iraq after the First Gulf War. 500,000 dead children. Worth it according to the Fed!
Alternate scenario to yours: the citizens of Mosul see that the outsiders (Americans) are specifically killing them and their children by cutting the city off. This feeds ISIS propaganda and their ranks grow. Resentment against America grows (more than it already has since 2003).
Maybe "we" should just get the fuck out of Iraq and the Middle East and leave it alone. That's a great plan too. This won't make the war mongers happy but HEY, at least we wouldn't be waging war against a civilian populous!
You're a psychopath, just like the rest who want to "nuke it" or whatever tough bravado and wet dreams of death and destruction they spew across the internet. Thankfully you'll never be anywhere near the power to make such things happen.
Jesus Fucking Christ.
let's have a look at Thomas E. Ricks.
Thomas E. Ricks Journalist Thomas Edwin "Tom" Ricks is an American journalist who writes on defense topics. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. Wikipedia Born: September 25, 1955 (age 60), Beverly, MA Employer: Center for a New American Security Education: Yale University People also search for: Rosa Brooks, Chris Adams, Carla Robbins Awards: Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, Ambassador Book Award for Current Affairs Nominations: Pulitzer Prize for General Non-FictionLets start there, Center for a New American Security. Michèle Flournoy Michèle Angelique Flournoy is the former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, the seventh-ranking official in the U.S. Department of Defense, and in that role served as a principal advisor to U.S. ... Wikipedia Born: December 14, 1960 (age 54), Los Angeles, CA Spouse: W. Scott Gould (m. 1990) Party: Democratic Party Organizations founded: Center for a New American Security Education: Harvard University, Harvard College, Balliol College, University of Oxford Anyone else see a problematic pattern here?
Hey New Tyler, cause that is what I'm calling you from now on, exactly which "Officer" are you refering to?
From his Wiki,
Can someone help me out here, or is it a simple explanation, like he served with Brian Williams?
And to further embarrass yourself,
That link does not lead to the titled article. It instead leads to this,
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/12/02/was-i-kidding-about-the-militarys-industrial-era-personnel-policies/
This is the correct link,
Having found the CORRECT links, I could then answer my own question. The Officer in question is James Snoddy. Just have one look, and it says all you need to know about this guy. He looks and sounds like the kind of guy that would shoot you in the face for smoking.
Interesting note, he is the inventor of the Jammock: it’s a hammock for your Jeep!
Yes but he was an Eagle Scout. Can you imagine posting your Linked In profile and you work for the incredibly evil State Dept which is a subsidiary of the See Eye Aye?
I would feel less sleazy saying that I worked for a pimp.....and I think all pimps should be beheaded.
State Dept aka I lie for a living and rape US taxpayers and kill innocent people oveaseas and sometimes in America like reporters who drive a Mercedes or ex SEALs who I murder then frame up as drunks and heroin users.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2575749/Whats-chances-two-Navy-S...
Outstanding work
I inferred from reading Ricks' account that he was leading his platoon in b;oody hand-to-hand combat. What a prick.
Yea, from the information as presented, that was the conclusion I drew. You realize he was interviewing someone else if you get to read the real article.
After reading it, or what I could stand, I am not sure if he is advocating to committing 10 years to clear the Mosul, or it's just too much trouble, and we should just let them have it. The latter would fall into line with the theory they are going to angle for some kind of cease fire, which I have read blips about, and then move to redraw the maps, establishing new, smaller, more manageable countries.
It will take 20 years to recapture Vichy DC.
Nuke it from space, just to be sure.
Yes and no. I was involved in various aspects in this seige as a privateer after my time in service. It's a waste of time no matter how you look at it really. A 10-year war of attrition would ONLY occur if we really didn't car to take it.
Most importantly: We should NOT care to take it. What's the point now? Our foreign policy needs massive renovation and we need adults in charge at all levels of our PATHETIC, PATHETIC, PATHETIC Federal Government.
Has it ever dawned on the Obama Administration that they are woefully equipped to do anything but redistribute money and destroy the economy?
Why focus on a city like Mosul? The picture is much, much bigger and the problems eminate elsewhere. Frankly, we have lost track of our objectives, priorities and goals. We have none.
If we want peace, trade and tranquility then look outside the Middle East and North Africa. It's all a bullshit quicksand of missing chromosomes. No doubt about it. The folks are inbred.
Our choices get more and more limited every year. If I were to discount the possibility of "false flag" events (like a lot of people believe in and I am not convinced they aren't real either), we have an easy choice: Start the DRAFT and invade the entire ME. Be done with the talking and get started with the utter destruction.
No other choice exists because simply "changing" our foreign policy is nothing but a pipe dream. How? What would we do? What would these morons do any differently?
The answer is becoming more clear every day: Muslims would continue to attack every Western country they could infiltrate.
How about we stay out of their countries and leave them alone and also do not import them into the West. Problem solved but the elites and zoligarchs make tens of billions off of chaos.
Amen to Draft. The detachment of the civilians to what's going on is brutal. Even if they went as support - there'd be some skin in the game
Maybe it's time to just come home and start ignoring shit that doesn't matter.
What Would Trump Do?
I dunno but it would be yoooge, just yoooge!
Also, did this officer run the 10 year timeline by Boeing, Raytheon and BAE? They are going to be pissed when their forecasters have to revise down from 50 years to 10.
It will take 20 years to recapture Vichy DC.
I would not have guessed that you were an optimist
At least and then...geeez the stench, I don't think the smell will ever come out. I'm not sure its even worth it.
Maybe we can just make it a No-Go Zone.
////
lol...time zones are an interesting thing, so one of my trolls isn't in India or Moscow.
Thanks! ;-)
Come on Vllad, start bombing Daesh in Iraq.
I love it when Obama and Kerry whine
CIA journalism. Best leave it to the grown ups then.
Exactly - the article in Foreign Policy by this clown is just meant to reinforce the narrative. Ten years my ass.
That is to say, the article is meant to build up the "big bad ISIS" meme and explain why there is no progress in "the fight against ISIS" by the US, Turkey UK and France (pay no attention to the abandoned villages covered with bomb craters from US missions dumping their ordnance or the "accidental" strikes against SAA).
Pluhlease. The Russians bloodied the ISIS/ISIL nose after 72 hours of bombing, vs almost no progress at all after 6700 (six thousand seven hundred) sorties by the US Military and its Europpean satraps.
At the same time (until Rita Katz finishes bluescreening some more slick beheading videos), the article is meant to build up some ISIS fear within the sheep to make them quiver off in the corner, "sheltering in place" as ordered by the US Deep Police State.
What gets me is the incredible degree of cognitive dissonance that must be taking place for the more intelligent sheep to filter out the huge discrepancies in the Zionazi narrative...
This is really Nineteen-Eighty Four NLP programming in full application. The US public (along witth EU public and the West leaning public in third world countries) have been successfully taught to believe two plus two is five.
The MSM and the rest of the Matrix will defuse any inconsistencies...
Given how successful the MSM narrative seems to be among the sheep,, I think the Zionazi Police State will drop any pretense of consistency since it no longer seems to matter and start doing whatever they want consistency be damned for the final lunge for power since the sheeple haven't even blinked over the insane actions of the last six months, let alone the actions of the Deep State since 9/11 2001... or November 22, 1963... or 1913.
Like a patient under anesthesia, the US and Western population are no longer conscious. The end game is here.
Israhell and its poodles are ISIS
Well it's an open secret in Israel that wounded ISIS combatants are being treated there.
Paul Ryan?
Bwahahahaha!!!!
Impeach anyone named Ashton.
Negative. Carpet-bombing is ALWAYS an option.
or you can always fade back to the area-rug bombing.
okay,okay. prayer rug bombing but thats it man, thats as far as we can go
This is another US military boondoggle.
Wow.
Bet ya Putin will do it in a matter of a few weeks.
Putin doesn't have transvestites making military decisions. He has real men.
Vlad the Bear could do it in maybe 4 months TOPS.
He is the ONLY Russian leader to pacify the Chechens, and believe me that is SOME accomplishment.
VLAD 2016
I do not think the word "siege" means what he thinks it means.
10 years - typical Army BS. Give me one squad of Marines, $200m up front and I'll take Mosul in a month. My proof will be a banner raised reading Mission Accomplished which gets us another $200m. Wire transfers only.
FFS - SARC/
Perhaps a slight clarification of my idea of irony is in order. if victory is defined by the sign Mission Accomplished - then I win even though I didn't take Mosul if I can get a sign up. Gee - sound like George Bush .. ring any bells? On the off chance that the down votes got this anyway - fuk you - I thought it was funny
Uhh, yeah, the USSA does not wan to fight Daesh. Daesh are the Allies of the USSA.
But the Iraqis have wised up, that's why they are calling for a military treaty with Russia, Iran, and Syria.
As soon as they can kick out the USSA, they can take back their country.
American Soldier, you are being sent to die in a war that is not yours by people who are arming and supplying your enemy.
+100
Nuke the sand niggers, embrace the "collateral damage" and be done with it.
Make it a joint USSA and Russian mission.
Repossessed in less than a day with 1 or 2 bombs and no Caucasian causalities. With each and every towel head attack, nuke another of their cities until they get the message. If it goes to round 3, then nuke mecca.
(Anyone notice no bombings in Russia? Putin vowed to nuke mecca if it happened)
That will send a concrete message to the towel heads NOT to fuck with the Caucasian/christians that created this world and the conveniences there in that they enjoy using. Conveniences that Caucasians invented and made.
Case closed.
You seem to have a real thing about Caucasians. You realize the US armed forces are packed full of people who aren't Caucasians and Christians, right?
Fully aware. And I am fully aware of the towelhead attack on a military base. Ahh.. you for got that? Selective libtard memory.
Pussification and blending of the mil. is a decently recent development. I held a military TS clearance in DC when you were pissing in your diapers.
DC is full of PC pussies now and it will be the republics downfall. I called this fiasco of CIA meddling, libtard pussification of the .mil and foreign policy and subsequent backlash AKA "chickens coming home to roost" scenario over 15 years ago. Take off the rose colored glasses because it's going to get real, really quick.
I see the pansy ass PC libtard crowd are lurking about the forums tonight judging by the votes. None-the-less, The farce is strong.
You could have added gays, transgenders, women and every sort of mongrel imaginable. Which probably explains why the US forces are now so useless.
yeah, compare and contrast fox company on fox hill, doubt it will ever match that mettle, or iwo, or the alamo.
i'm no Christian - i'm Catholic
Per my handle, I am a Zuist
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/08/new-icelandic-religion-sume...
We really resent the Hebrews, Chrstians and Greeks stealing our heritage.
Weren't no fucking Noah in an Ark. It was Ziusudra in a submarine
"When Mosul fell to ISIS in June of 2014, the world was shocked"
Bullshit! Even the main stream press reported that long columns of ISIS Toyotas and other trucks were stretched out in ten mile long columns on the highway to Mosul. Column after column drove in broad daylight. Iraqi government reported having sighted the ISIS columns. CNN reported them. The only fuckers who were shocked was the US Military, who, by pure chance, had forgotten to check intelligence data of the ISIS movements. I remember the day after ISIS arrived in Mosul, many blogs and alternate media asking "How the hell could the USA miss a chance to bomb tens of thousands of ISIS and their trucks while strung out on roads?"
In fact, this incident was the last straw that convinced me that the USa and ISIS were allied in their efforts to take parto of Iraq as a base from which to attack Syria.
In this day and age, the US military claims there are many things it just can't see. Like MH-17 blasted out of the sky by the Ukrainian air force. Or ISIS truck columns driving in braod daylight to Mosul Iraq and then conquering the city! The US Military sees, only what the Neo-Cons tell them to see.
ten years? the generals were hoping for twenty.
This is more of what I call the new "Can't Do America".
Give any American a problem, like congress, or the military, or local government, or the business community, or fossil fuel companies, or shcools and all you hear when asked if a hard problem can be confronted is "CAN'T DO"! Can't do this, can't do that, can't even take fucking Mosul with a trillion dollar a year military and allies like the UK, France, germany, Israel, Saudi Arabia.
Think of one major proble confronting America. Go to congress and ask, what can we do. answer "We can't do anything".
Imagine if in 1941 America had been full of all these greedy useless government cunts who Can't Do!
Yea, horrible to think if the Axis had won.
The world would be full of daily bombings, endless propaganda, massive suffering, theft of national resources, endless war...
/s
Prolonging problems pays better than providing solutions. Just ask the local Big Pharma Executive or any "think" tank.
What Stinks in Saudi Ain’t the Camel Dung - F. William Engdahl
http://thenewsdoctors.com/?p=558212
King Salman's resume. Interesting.
Also states that the white Toyota pickups were provided to ISIS by the Turk Secret Service (MIT).
The author mentions the lack of IRAQI "will to fight", but quite obviously there's another ingredient missing: AMERICAN "will to fight". That's not unreasonable, as Americans, like the Iraqis, have our own questions about the motivations of those who give us orders. Lack of desire to kill or be killed is not always a matter of courage. It can be a profound distaste for the orders one is given, the people giving those orders, or the purpose of the entire endeavor. We no longer believe that "Deus le volt". And unfortunately, the ranks of ISIS are filled with idiots who believe just that.
The only way to effectively fight ISIS is to demonstrate clearly that their leaders are just as corrupt, near-sighted, and crooked as our own. Good luck, Jim.
"Don't let my shiv go dull on me ..."
(shoutout to the CIA)
(oops)
(I mean "ISIS")
http://iamsully.com/?p=15223
I have no opinion on the military aspects of any attempt to wrest control of Mosul from ISIS. The stationing of Turkish troops there answers all such questions. Unless they wish to start a war with Turkey, the Iraqi government will not attempt any change in the status quo. At the present time there is a corrupt relationship among the Turks, the government of the Kurdish region and ISIS which is making all of them rich. So you can expect it to go on for a while.
I wonder if Mosul has a Toyota dealership
is this under warranty? i was just driving down the road with my pals in the back and it burst into flames and exploded.
fix bayonets, guide center, forward
Bayonets - those like sock garters or something?
no, down and dirty, foul breath, stench of blood and intestines and a boiling cauldron of hate and death.
Ahh - got it. night off at base with guys denied leave.
precisely, or the 10 mile run at 0600 after 48 hour unlimited drunken binge leave
Leading to such dehydration that there are mandatory Lamaze classes offered. please no more