The Last Battle?
We can only hope that the game of ‘whack a mole’ has just become some good ‘ol rat killin’. Al Qaeda and their allies in Iraq seem to be on their last legs with their hopes of true victory or ability to seriously destabilize the area severely undermined.
The Iraqi military has demonstrated the capability to deploy such a reaction force over the past six months. The deployment in Mosul is preceded by deployments in Basrah, Diwaniyah, and Diyala, where the security situations dictated a need for additional forces.
The Mosul deployment highlights the growing capacity of the Iraqi command to plan, deploy and support its forces on short notice. This is a capacity that was nearly non-existent just one year ago when the surge began, and represents the future of operations in Iraq as US forces begin to draw down.
Dave - the Infidel Sage
gurusteve
E the Wise
Andre the Defiant
pg - your humble messenger
hairybeast
thompaine
Little talked about by the surrender-and-retreat crowd is just how long it takes to build a modern fighting force from scratch. “It hasn’t worked yet, the Iraqis are failures, abandon them and leave.” Wiser voices said that we were making slow and steady progress, that more US forces could help in the meantime, and that the US influence over the Iraqi army would very gradually decrease over many, many years, but would need to remain substantial in the meantime.