Monday, August 1, 2016

POLITICO Get Ready for Obama’s ‘October Surprise’ in Iraq

Mark Perry at Politico reports:
The American public could be treated to a major U.S.-led military victory in Iraq this fall, just as voters are deciding who will be the nation’s next president—but U.S. military officials insist the timing of the operation has nothing to do with politics.
Iraqi and Kurdish military and paramilitary units are preparing for a push on Mosul, the Islamic State-held city that is now in the cross hairs of the U.S.-led coalition battling the terrorist group across the Middle East. “The idea is to isolate Mosul, cut it off, kill it,” a senior U.S. Central Command officer told me... 
The ambitious plans for Mosul and Raqqa reflect a shift in tactics and deeper U.S. involvement that has not been fully reported in the U.S. media—or talked about in the presidential campaign. Most recently, Centcom has gained White House permission to deploy U.S. advisers with Iraqi units at the battalion level, which would place U.S. advisers and trainers in greater danger, but would also give them more control of the battlefield.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/iraq-offensive-2016-mosul-islamic-state-isis-isil-obama-foreign-policy-kurdish-214121#ixzz4G5N1S7Iw
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NOTE: The problem is not taking the land, the problem is that U.S. occupation would be required for a generation to prevent a re-emergence of bad actors.

  -RW

2 comments:

  1. So the non-boots on the ground US "advisers and trainers" aligned with Centcom commanded Iraqis and Kurds (???) are gonna win this decisive battle to "retake" Mosul from ISUS? Someone on another site a while back posited that the Pentagon would soon be fighting the CIA over there. Might it be that day has come? This is the October surprise? Good grief...

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    1. Considering israel's ties and support to those fighting assad I would wager it's more of a cia/mossad not just cia. But at what point does the cia and pentagon overlap? Is there a real division between the 2? It's too bad there are so many innocents going to get caught up in this...again.

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