It sure is nice to know that ISIS is on the run! Especially since they just captured the city of Ramadi, where they are busily raping, kidnapping, torturing and murdering at will. Hundreds, at least, have been killed in the most recent battle for Ramadi and thousands fled for their lives. Men, women and children by the hundreds are being slaughtered in the city streets, but according to top U.S. military officials it is just not that big a deal.
You can read reams of copy detailing the various U.S. missions to secure the city from “insurgents” during the Iraq war and its aftermath. Nailing down the number of American lives lost in the campaigns in and around Ramadi is near impossible, but many Americans were wounded and killed. The statements recently released by top brass at the Pentagon, claiming the Islamic State is on the defensive certainly mirrors the current president’s campaign rhetoric leading up to the 2012 election. He made the broad statement that “al Qaeda is on the run.” Stupefying as the statement was, particularly knowing all that has transpired since, the Pentagon and Dept. of State are making that claim again.
Maybe you saw the news footage of Humvees and various U.S. supplied military vehicles racing to evacuate Ramadi and get away to safety, and it says plenty. The Iraqi troops that held Ramadi up to this point are said to be the elite fighters of the Iraqi army, equipped with American weapons and vehicles. But they didn’t get away with a lot of the U.S. supplies and armaments. ISIS has just been supplied once again with a major cache of U.S. arms and armor, reportedly including U.S. tanks and missile launchers.
People have been fleeing Ramadi in fear of ISIS for months, but it’s no small town. Population is said to have been 850,000 at its height. Now that the Iraqi military has fled, all left behind will have to convince ISIS that they’re on their side or suffer torture and death. But the Pentagon leadership (military men who’ve sold their souls as political shills for the current administration) tell us there’s not much to see there. ISIS is on the defensive and Ramadi wasn’t all that important anyway. Never mind how many U.S. servicemen gave their lives or their limbs to secure this place. “We’ll just have to take it back later,” say Pentagon spokesmen.
They apparently have little choice but to repeat politically expedient talking points for the current administration, while ISIS zealots litter Ramadi streets with beheaded, mutilated bodies before casting many into the River Euphrates. Because as everybody knows this president has never made a mistake, and is incapable of making a mistake. Just like it was “the right thing ta doo” to precipitously pull all U.S. forces out of Iraq leaving it wide open for the advent of ISIS.
If and when the U.S. has to get involved in trying to retake the sprawling city, our guys will be facing our own humvees, armored vehicles, missiles and bullets. It’s another in a long list of disasters wrought by this president and his lackey spokesmen in America’s formerly respected military institutions who now roll over and spout idiocy for the consumption of the uninformed. Military families, particularly those who lost close family members in the streets now occupied by ISIS’ murderers, must be beside themselves.
Iran is offering military troops to help push ISIS back, but that would open up another can of worms. Accepting that offer would obviously complicate languishing nuclear negotiations, but would also contribute to Iran’s long-term ambition to control if not annex Iraq.
The sprawling city of Ramadi is only 70 miles from Baghdad. You don’t suppose…
