Strategies
"Even with these additional personnel, the mission is not changing. The mission continues to be one of training, advising and equipping Iraqis, and Iraqis are the ones who are fighting on the ground, fighting in combat. So we are keeping the limiting factor on the mission. We are adding personnel to better carry out the mission and again to support the Iraqis as they move forward with their campaign plan."
U.S. Official statement
Surges, troop surges from the United States military to complement the Iraqi military, appear a formula for success in combatting sectarian push-back creating violent disagreements within an unsettled, Saddam Hussein-free Iraq. The dictator who maintained order by sheer force of fear borne out by relentless atrocities practised against dissenters kept the Shiite Iraqi majority oppressed by the Sunni Iraqi minority.
With his removal, sectarian hell moved into position, the sects finally free from his constraints, and practising their fundamental killing skills on each others' communities. General Petraeus's brilliant strategy worked back in 2007 and those who represented American mid-level military personnel at that time have resurrected the strategy as generals this time around.
Forgotten in the obscure mists of time since U.S. military personnel were tasked to mentor Iraqi brigades during the U.S.-led occupation where the Americans had virtually rebuilt the Iraqi military from the ground up after they had summarily discharged all the skilled Sunni commanders and fighters who had fought in Saddam's military, was the failure that evinced itself with the collapse of the Shiite divisions when faced with the ISIS onslaught.
But that was then, even if not all that long-ago-then, and now brigades of the Iraqi forces are set to be trained in a manner similar to the last round of American-sponsored training; how soon do we forget. Assistance with command and control, leadership, intelligence gathering, logistics compilation and basic manoeuvring will all be addressed. American mentors will not appear on battlefield off-base missions, however, the Iraqis will be left to their newly-reminded devices.
Except for the fact that the Islamic State militias have established themselves fairly securely within a wide swath of Syrian and Iraqi geography, and that said U.S. retraining of Iraqi forces for whom the previous round of training didn't quite penetrate their shield of indifference to the art of war, instilling in them the confidence to pursue their cause against that of an adversary, the unfortunate fact is that this will all take time, a lot of time, before confidence can be restored to the reluctant Iraqis.
Time during which the Islamic State can with confidence, establish themselves ever more securely within the largely Sunni-majority areas it has taken for its exclusive territory. And their modus operandi seems to be seriously thought-out, unsparing to the delicacies of human rights nonsense forever bemoaned by the West. Any who oppose them are destined to be slaughtered. Any who fail to obey, similarly dispatched.
Any capture of Shia military members, disposed of ruthlessly. Community leaders failing to cooperate, non-Sunnis refusing conversion, their death warrant signed by their stubbornness. And what is left is a people either cowed into submission, or a greater number that represent those so infused with hatred for the ruling Shiite government that dispossessed its Sunni minority that it prefers being governed by their own regardless the circumstances.
Having established that the Iraqi Defense Forces are comprised of about nine brigades, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff figure that the brigades, with about 2,500 troops each, in principle well-led, equipped and psychologically fit to the offensive, failed. To the rescue the concluding theory of returning a surge situation to stiffen the resolve of the Iraqi brigades. U.S. advisors and trainers to return; nine cadres of trainers and advisors; one for each brigade.
Nine advisor teams to be dispatched with up to 150 trainers each, along with communicators, security personnel and whoever else is required, totalling 1,500 troops. And, needless to say, hoping for the best, that a repeat of instructions and morale boosting will turn the Iraqi military from a turn-tail failure to a fully-fledged fighting force, no longer needing Iran's Al Quds Republican Guard and the terrorist Shiite militias to do their job for them.
.
Labels: Conflict, Iraq, Islamic State, United States
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, November 13, 2014
<< Home