Leaders of Iraq's Anbar province call for U.S. ground forces to stop ISIS

[Beefsquatch]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/11/world/...html?hpt=hp_t1

Leaders in Iraq's western Anbar province pleaded Saturday for U.S. ground forces to halt the relentless advance of ISIS, while hundreds of kilometers away in the city of Kobani, Kurdish fighters desperately struggled to hold off the advancing extremist group.
The situation in Anbar, just to the west of Baghdad, is "very bad," the president of Anbar Provincial Council told CNN by phone on Saturday.
Sabah Al-Karhout said the council has intelligence that ISIS has dispatched as many as 10,000 fighters to Anbar from Syria and Mosul in northern Iraq.

What do you guys think of this, is it inevitable that the US is going to be dragged into another Iraq war?

I personally hope some other country steps up to the plate...you know...like Saudi Arabia or Turkey.

[Independent voter]

Their progress has been pretty amazing. Considering what they do to people when they take over an area, you'd think the locals would fight harder.

[jugzilla]

Their progress has been pretty amazing. Considering what they do to people when they take over an area, you'd think the locals would fight harder.

Of course we will be going back into Iraq. Obama thinks Iraq can hold on until 2017, he will be proved wrong. Baghdad will fall. It will be the next US president's job to clean up the mess, but we will have to go back in there.

[Beefsquatch]

Their progress has been pretty amazing. Considering what they do to people when they take over an area, you'd think the locals would fight harder.

Fear of death, or worse for the women, keeps them from fighting so it seems. My hat goes off to those that have stayed to fight against all odds. It sucks to hear they are losing against those radicals.

[Zvinny]

I worked with the Iraqi military and, with some exceptions, they aren't quality fighters. The vast majority joined to get paid, and have no real loyalty to Iraq the nation, as much as they do their city, or sect or tribe.

If Iraq is going to defeat ISIS, the military has its role to play but most of the actual ground fighting should be left to folks like Maqtada al-Sadr. I'd like to see ISIS try and fight that guy and his boys.

[Notchris]

Baghdad will fall.

lol

Extremely doubtful they'll take Baghdad.
Baghdad is teeming with Shiite militias, like the Mahdi Army in Sadr City that's 60,000 strong, that will make any attempt at taking the city an absolute bloodbath.

You're talking about having to fight huge swaths of the population with light arms, and a tiny smattering of stolen armor. It'd be building to building, fighting these militias in their own neighborhoods.
It will be exponentially harder then what it was like in the northern areas where all they fought were a military unwilling to stand and fight a force that vastly outnumbered and out equipped ISIL.

[jugzilla]

lol

Extremely doubtful they'll take Baghdad.
Baghdad is teeming with Shiite militias, like the Mahdi Army in Sadr City that's 60,000 strong, that will make any attempt at taking the city an absolute bloodbath.

You're talking about having to fight huge swaths of the population with light arms, and a tiny smattering of stolen armor. It'd be building to building, fighting these militias in their own neighborhoods.
It will be exponentially harder then what it was like in the northern areas where all they fought were a military unwilling to stand and fight a force that vastly outnumbered and out equipped ISIL.

I hope your right, and I'm wrong. They got a couple years of mischief ahead of them. There will not be a serious American response under this president.

I worked with the Iraqi military and, with some exceptions, they aren't quality fighters. The vast majority joined to get paid, and have no real loyalty to Iraq the nation, as much as they do their city, or sect or tribe.

If Iraq is going to defeat ISIS, the military has its role to play but most of the actual ground fighting should be left to folks like Maqtada al-Sadr. I'd like to see ISIS try and fight that guy and his boys.

Thank you for your service. And you likely understand this situation better than I do. My perspective....there is no such thing as the Iraqi Army. Its just a welfare program. All that training we provided, all that equipment, we would have been better of pissing it into the wind.

[NYC17]

I hope your right, and I'm wrong. They got a couple years of mischief ahead of them. There will not be a serious American response under this president.

And what should a "serious American response" be?

[jugzilla]

And what should a "serious American response" be?

At the least send in the Green Berets to mix up with the kurds. Also send in small teams who can liason with the kurds and actually MAKE TARGETS. We got all the planes flying around for show but they don't have any damn targets. It makes our air power look useless if we don't actually strike targets.

[Noomz]

Of course we will be going back into Iraq. Obama thinks Iraq can hold on until 2017, he will be proved wrong. Baghdad will fall. It will be the next US president's job to clean up the mess, but we will have to go back in there.

You mean that mess that George W Bush junior started that he should never have started at all and that's entirely to blame for everything happening there now?
Yeah sure, blame Obama for having to take over that horrendous trainwreck...

[jugzilla]

Why doesn't China go? They get most of the oil from Iraq anyway..

Because China still has a 3rd world military except for shit they have in the tawain straits. You might as well ask Nigeria to deal with ISIS.

[NYC17]

At the least send in the Green Berets to mix up with the kurds. Also send in small teams who can liason with the kurds and actually MAKE TARGETS. We got all the planes flying around for show but they don't have any damn targets. It makes our air power look useless if we don't actually strike targets.

So, send in special forces, which we wouldn't acknowledge were there even if they were, to MAKE TARGETS.

Cool, what else ya got?

[jugzilla]

You mean that mess that George W Bush junior started that he should never have started at all and that's entirely to blame for everything happening there now?
Yeah sure, blame Obama for having to take over that horrendous trainwreck...

You mean the mess that GWB started, and then ended, and then Obama abandoned for politcal reasons?

[twelvethirty]

I find it ironic that the same people who couldnt wait to get rid of the US now desperately want them back.

[jugzilla]

So, send in special forces, which we wouldn't acknowledge were there even if they were, to MAKE TARGETS.

Cool, what else ya got?

I'm not exactly the Defense minister here. If you had any sort of sense of what is going on with this syria operation you would have heard that the Pentagon is being hamstrung by the administration. Its all political..

[NYC17]

I'm not exactly the Defense minister here. If you had any sort of sense of what is going on with this syria operation you would have heard that the Pentagon is being hamstrung by the administration. Its all political..

Please, detail this hamstringing.

[jugzilla]

Please, detail this hamstringing.

I think it would be more fun if I just leave you here alone to be snarky with yourself.

[Vaelanor]

I think it would be more fun if I just leave you here alone to be snarky with yourself.

Military strikes are never as easy as you may think they are dude, he's not being snarky when he's asking you to backup what you're saying..

[Kuntantee]

I hope Turkey will not step in. Like... defending fucking PKK from ISIS in Kobani, that's next-level treason.

- - - Updated - - -

I personally hope some other country steps up to the plate...you know...like Saudi Arabia or Turkey.

USA created this mess. If you wanna solve ISIS problem, solve it yourself.

[NYC17]

I think it would be more fun if I just leave you here alone to be snarky with yourself.

Whatever snark you detect does not negate the fact that you made statements. If you can't or won't support them then don't. Blaming it on snark is cute, but ultimately meaningless.