US officials are trying to downplay the threat of ISIS, with General Martin Dempsey incredibly claiming the city of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province and on a highway directly to the capital of Baghdad, is of no real value and that an ISIS takeover wouldn’t be a major blow.
Iraqi PM Hayder Abadi clearly sees it differently, and warns the latest ISIS push against Ramadi, a city which has been contested since January of 2014, proves the group is a growing threat.
Abadi warned ISIS is recruiting young people “not only in Iraq but across the world,” and is both a transnational nation and one that is capable of establishing a serious presence on the ground.
“If Daesh has developed this capability, no uniformed army can stop them,” warned Abadi. The comments come as he is trying to get more military aid from the US for the war against ISIS.
At the same time, Abadi expressed hope that the recovery of Tikrit would be a model for defeating ISIS. It doesn’t seem a great model, as a battle that was supposed to be days took a whole month, parts of Tikrit remain in ISIS hands, and the parts Iraq “liberated” have been awash in lootings and lynchings by Iraqi forces.
And the Bush thugs and murdering scum called this disaster (Operation Iraqi Freedom)!
And yet the Saudis and their 'Western' allies are bombing the hell out of Yemen, and the UN Security Council slapping an arms embargo on the Houthis. This cynical policy is diabolical in it's subtlety.
That horrifies. At least the UN could stay out of it, rather than be a party to genocide. But it's just one more tool of US policy, not in the least a representation of human aspirations..
I predict this will only result in Saudi Arabia being swallowed up in caliphate violence very soon. Good news for rope traders.
Ok, ISIS could become unstoppable; but as a Sunni I have to say that with the sectarian fighting at unbelievable levels, enough Sunnis will continue to see ISIS or Al-Qaeda as a better alternative to Iran-linked governments and militias, enough to keep it going for decades to come. It is a matter of making decisions of life and death in wartime, and most will not care about "who started it" or "who are the real terrorists".