The US airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq have had an only extremely minor impact on the ISIS fight against the Kurds, and they look to be even less worthwhile today, as military officials reveal ISIS changes in tactics to respond to them.
Before the US began attacks on Friday, ISIS was behaving like a traditional military, with its forces moving deliberately and in plain sight. Once the US strikes began, the ISIS troops dispersed, using familiar insurgent tactics to blend in with the local population.
The transition severely limits the US ability to target ISIS fighters on the ground, but doesn’t seem to be limiting their ability to continue to press the offensive along various frontiers with both the Iraqi military and the Peshmerga.
The US clearly should have seen this coming, as ISIS is essentially just the old al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) insurgency from the last US occupation, only bigger and much better equipped.
The US has plenty of experience unsuccessfully fighting insurgencies, and must be well aware of how little value aerial attacks are against it. That the administration bothered to go down this trail at all once again suggests that the long-term assumption is to escalate the war into a ground invasion.
The audacity of ISIS not lining up in the desert to be blown to bits is really galling. Utilizing tactics to evade US aircraft?? This is not going to sit well w the war planners. Now if this were the US trained Iraqi army, they would know how to respond appropriately… throw down their weapons, take off their uniforms and high tail it somewhere far away (or join ISIS). Sheesh.
Maybe, just maybe the US are the secret allies of ISIS? Who funds, arms (good quality) and gives accurate logistic support to ISIS?
"…suggests that the long-term assumption is to escalate the war into a ground invasion…"
You think? The neocons are not fully invested and represented in the Obama Administration for nothing.
See that? No respect I tell ya. The least they could do is stand still so we can kill them. They don't even need to be in neat rows like we had the Iraqi army do for us. Sheesh. The audacity of these people.
" doesn’t seem to be limiting their ability to continue to press the offensive " – quite the contrary. ISIS ran rampant over Iraq by virtue of its ability to move and concentrate using precisely those truck convoys. It was their superior mobility that allowed them to outflank the Pershmerga. These few air strikes have stripped them of that ability, leveled the playing field, and brought them to a screeching halt.
The tactics that gave them their success are now fatal. They are very capable, and have gone to ground immediately; but it remains to be seen if they can continue to advance now that they have been stripped of the mobility that was the key to their superiority in the past.
That's dashed inconsiderate of them, the blighters, to scatter when the group is threatened. What a cunning plan- didn't see that one coming, did we, Baldrick?