Top Iraqi officials said their intention was to “liberate” the western half of Mosul by the end of the month, and their official statements on the matter suggest they are well on track to do so, with Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool saying that over half of the west was recovered, and “up to 60 percent.”
That’s a lot of gains in the past few days, and particularly hard to believe since it’s only been a few days since they declared 33% recovered, and in those days that followed, fighters had described the advance as virtually halted by ISIS snipers and inclement weather.
The US troops aren’t buying it either, with Maj. Gen. Joseph Martin directly contradicting the Iraqi claim, and saying they believed Iraq had only recovered “a little over a third” of the west, or roughly the same as what they had a few days ago.
It is not unusual for Iraq to dramatically overstate its gains in various offensives, and to declare entire cities “liberated” with weeks of fighting yet to go, in order to meet a deadline that the political leadership sought. In much the same way, Iraq has claimed to have fully held eastern Mosul for well over a month, but there’s still fairly regular fighting there.
Iraqis can be successfully convinced to go to war against their own people but they always seem to slip back to promoting their own best interests. It will likely always be that way, and that poses a real problem for the US and it’s agenda for Iraq.
Curious comment. Why can Iraqis be convinced to go to war against its own prople? Then who exactly are they fighting? Some fine people that the bad government is now abusing? And will continue to do so, for as long as US pwysvthem? And who is paying and arming these good people? Or is this the case of utter happiness — as you think it proper that those Iraqis keep on killing each other — constituting thus “killing their own people”. Who is whose “own people”. Strange.