Anbar Close to Capture by ISIS

By RHT

Foreign Policy observation from elsewhere on the web.

Link. http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2015/02/iraqi-troops-in-anbar-province-could-collapse-within-hours-cnn.html

“Iraqi troops in Anbar province could ‘collapse within hours” CNN

“An Iraqi tribal leader said Saturday that ISIS militants are gaining ground in Anbar province, predicting a “collapse within hours” of Iraqi army forces there if tribal forces withdraw.

Sheikh Naim al-Gaoud, a Sunni Muslim leader of the Albu Nimr tribe, called for more U.S. intervention — including ground troops, arming tribes directly or at least pressuring the Iraqi government to give the tribes more firepower.

While U.S. officials have said that ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State, is on the defensive in Iraq and Syria, al-Gaoud says that’s definitely not the case where he is.

“In Anbar, we are losing ground, not gaining,” he said.” CNN

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Yes, pilgrims, well, in spite of Twinkle Toes John Kirby’s dancing, this could go down anytime in Anbar. The Albu Nimr tribe fought AQ in Iraq. Then we walked away from them in support of our fantasy of a one man one vote government for Iraq, thus completely ignoring the actual ethnic and sect based structure of Iraqi society. The destabilization caused by US political interference provided an opening for Islamic extremists and now ten years later we have the result. IS is a coalition of forces that we unleashed inadvertently The US is selling snake-oil that insists that a re-trained Iraqi Army will be a better and far more capable force than the one that ran away a few months ago. Where on earth does that idea come from except from the kind of ambition fueled group think that i have seen so often?

Here we have this Albu Nimr sheikh telling what sounds like the truth to me. He will not be listened to. pl

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/14/middleeast/isis-iraq-syria/