Observations On Iraq and Iran

by Jack

According to some Iraq elected regional leaders in the contested areas of Iraq, the military sent by Baghdad was so poorly led and mismanaged it could barely provide for their own basic necessities, let alone be an effective fighting force. This was underscored in the most brutal way when approximately 1600 air force (Shiite) recruits were captured by ISIS forces. They were paraded around for the media, then forced to lay face down in a ditch and executed one by one. We haven’t seen this kind of barbaric treatment of prisoners since the Nazi rounded up the Jews for extermination in WWII.

ISIS forces are extremely well armed with American supplied weapons captured from fleeing Iraqi forces and this allegedly includes American Stinger missiles, capable of shooting down American aircraft should we enter the fray, and it appears we will. (At least with some airpower.)

Yesterday an Iraqi central bank located in the fallen city of Mosul was looted to the tune of $500,000,000 dollars, which not only makes ISIS (Sunni) well armed, but well funded. The major blunders, cowardice and rampant incompetence of the formerly US Trained Iraqi forces are seemingly without end as city after city falls into the hands of ruthless ISIS forces.

At this moment latest reports say bombs are falling on Baghdad and Iranian forces are scrambling to build fortifications to defend the city. The US embassy has evacuated most of its personnel to safer ground with only a few key diplomatic officers remaining behind to coordinate with Iraqi leaders and Iranian forces.

The quality of ISIS forces seems to vary greatly from well led forces using effective military style tactics, to something akin to a rampaging mob armed with heavy weapons. Since the ISIS forces are fighting in their own territory, support and supply has not been a been a problem so far. However, if the Iraqi forces can stall their advance and buy time, this may test the staying power of ISSI forces.

So far the (Sunni) ISIS forces have easily routed Iraqi home guard units, but with the introduction of Iran’s military that may change, but clearly at this point the momentum goes to ISIS. The question is will the introduction of Iranian forces be a case of too little, too late? President Obama has said no American forces on the ground – he’s sees this as a sectarian war and says it’s coming close to an all out civil war. Many would say this is, beyond any doubt, an all out civil war with rebels in control 3/5ths of Iraqi and the major cities, with the exception of Kurdish regions and Baghdad.

During the last Iraq war (2003-2011) the Iranians (Shia) supplied the bomb making supplies and technical assistance to insurgents (both Shia and Sunni) that eventually killed thousands of US soldiers during the nine long years of war with the insurgency.

Prior to the ISIS retaking of former Sunni dominated regions of Iraq, the US and Western allies feared that a Shiite controlled Iraq, absent a viable Sunni power sharing plan would lead the government into failure. The risk of a Shiite victory now would risk opening a corridor between Iran, across Iraq and all the way to Lebanon and Libya, leading to a further destabilization of the Middle East. It is beyond ironic that we’re now being asked by Iraq and Iran to fly air cover for them to block the ISIS advance. Not to make this any more confusing than it already is, but Hezbollah has long been a major terrorist organization operating out of Lebanon with sponsors in Iran. Hezbollah, in addition to rocketing Israel almost weekly, has been helping President Assad in Syria hold off the rebellion. Iran and Russia have also been supportive of Assad’s regime.

Here are some helpful links that I use to further explain what’s happening in Iraq right now. I thought the Russian news agency was surprisingly well done, with the best links to the most up to date information from many perspectives:

http://www.iraq-war.ru/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/06/15/iraq-us-qaeda-insurgency/10545803/

http://www.theguardian.com/world/iraq

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/iraq/index.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/10903135/Iraq-crisis-how-ISIS-grew-from-guerrilla-band-to-a-national-force.html

http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/us-navy-ship-with-0-marines-on-board-entering-gulf/