Desperate to shift the narrative away from their mounting losses, the Iraqi military, backed with US airstrikes and a substantial number of Shi’ite militia members, have attacked the Anbar capital of Ramadi, in what officials are saying is an offensive aimed at cutting off ISIS supply routes into the major city.
Militia leaders are as usual optimistic about the prospects, saying the offensive won’t last long and that the city is already “surrounded on three sides.” Iraqi officials also made reference to new weapons being used in this battle that weren’t during the defense of the city.
Iraqi officials have been talking up efforts to retake Anbar, the nation’s largest province, for months now but have mostly lost ground to ISIS in the area.
Pentagon officials termed the new offensive a welcome sign, but concerns of another sectarian bloodbath are already mounting, with the Shi’ite militias giving the operation a codename related to a 7th century sectarian battle that led directly to the schism between Sunnis and Shi’ites.
Iraq has tended to rely on the militias to do the heavy lifting in fights with ISIS, but have consequently struggled to cope with violent crackdowns on local Sunnis by those militias whenever a city is “liberated.” Allies have warned that such crackdowns are helping ISIS’ image with Iraq’s Sunni Arab population, but so long as Iraq’s own military remains unable to fight on its own the reliance of militias will likely continue.
This was really just what has been predicted since day one. The ex-Bath party military guys are taking back their provinces from the Shiite. This was bound to happen the second that the US left. Now of course we might chase them out for now with out air power. But they will be back again and again and again, in one form or another. Right now it's ISIS and there is a religious bent to it. Now that is a little worse than expected but still completely predictable. Who really though it would turn out otherwise? In one form or another the Sunni were going to take back control of their lands. So what happens now? Does the US remain the air power in a forever neverland in both Iraq and Afghanistan? Fighting them over there so they don't have to fight them here? Looks like that is the plan to me. Blood soaked stinking mess that drains our treasury each and every day! How long before some wise guy decides that it can't go on forever this way and thinks that they can change it with another ground war? It's seriously either that or the forever war because these jokers don't seem to want to admit that there is nothing we can do but make it worse. But then maybe that is what they want after all. Total destabilization of the entire region. That is after all one way to maintain hegemony and what the hawks in Israel seem to support. If destabilization was the goal and I think it was at the very least the back up plan, than this all makes a whole lot more sense. After all we are the one exceptional nation and the world must be a better place as long as we stay on top right?
Don't count the lives, don't count the money just be glad we are bigger and badder than them!
AW you missed an important piece of news. In Afghanistan the Taliban has taken most of Uruzgan.