US Rushing Anti-Tank Missiles to Iraq for Ramadi Fight

Pentagon Insists City Will Be Retaken 'Near-Term'

Pentagon officials today announced they are providing a rush shipment of 1,000 anti-tank missiles to the Iraqi military to aid in their attempts to retake Ramadi from ISIS.

The Anbar capital Ramadi fell to ISIS over the weekend after weeks of fighting, and ISIS looted a number of armored Iraqi vehicles left behind, including tanks and artillery.

Pentagon forces continue to reiterate their belief that Ramadi will be retaken “near term” and continue to downplay the seriousness of the defeat.

Despite the Pentagon’s attempts to portray Ramadi as of no real consequences, it is hard to imagine the city of 500,000 people, capital of the nation’s largest province and just 70 miles from Baghdad isn’t a loss of major consequence.

The provision of US anti-tank missiles to destroy US-made tanks looted by ISIS has a nice symmetry to it, though the tendency of Iraqi troops to abandon weapons means this could be the biggest influx of US anti-tank missiles to ISIS since the CIA stopped throwing them willy-nilly at any Syrian faction they liked.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.