The Pentagon has been of two minds about the timing of an Iraqi offensive on Mosul, saying in October that it would be conservatively a year before Iraq was ready to move on the city, and then in November talking up a January offensive.
That January offensive is getting awfully close, and Iraq is looking forward to what some officials were saying would be an “easy” attack on the massive, ISIS-held city.
Now, the Pentagon is back to warning Iraq they aren’t nearly ready, noting that Iraq likely won’t have serious local support and don’t have nearly the Sunni militia backing they need.
The new warnings aren’t being welcomed by Iraqi officials, and MP Hadi Ameri, the head of the Badr Brigade, which also controls the Interior Ministry, is accusing the US of trying to prevent Iraq from getting too many victories of its own too fast, saying “they don’t want the people of Iraq to liberate Iraq.”
ISIS is believed to have some 5,000 fighters in Mosul, and about 20,000 across the Nineveh Province. They routed the much larger Iraqi military over the summer to take Mosul, and it’s hard to see how the military can hope to have better success this time around.
It seems to me that our Government has a perfectly consistent position in Iraq and throughout the world: other nations are free to do anything they please — so long as what they please is what pleases our Government. I can't recall any exceptions to that position during my 83 years on this planet.
the military isn't the one that would be doing the fighting it would be the militias with with iraninan commanders on the ground with the american air power providing the support
It’s a sucker-bait trap to engage Iran in an all-out war. Iran just started to bomb Iraq, it no doubt has many troops on the ground and it has to be the most stupid thing Iran has ever done.
"…it’s hard to see how the military can hope to have better success this time around."
Two words, Iranian leadership.
The US objects because they are not yet back in Iraq in strength, which is their goal. If the Iranian military can take back Mosul with minimal "help" from US boots-on-the-ground, then the US can be kept out of Iraq,….. which is most certainly what both Iraq's and Iran's Shia leadership very much want.
Motivated — in contrast to the fake Iraqi army — and with the assistance of the Shia militias, the elite Quds Force, Iranian close air support, and Gen Suleimani, the retaking of Mosul should be bloody but straightforward.
We shall see. The wild card will be US unhappiness and attempts at sabotage.