Iraq diary - 22 June 2014

 

- It is now clear that Iran does not want the US back in Iraq.  this raises the odds for a direct Iranian intervention against the Sunni rebels.  It also increases the chance of Iraqi Shia direct action against US personnel in Iraq.

- An Iraqi Army brigade (several thousand men) evidently completely disintegrated under rebel attack yesterday in western Anbar Province. This raises the level of my concern that something similar may occur with regard to Iraqi Army forces in general.  Many armies are brittle instruments in which fear spreads from man to man untill all are running away, abandoning their equipment to the enemy.  

-  Haditha is now in rebel hands whether there are still Iraqi Army units in the area or not.  The direct road to Baiji is open.

-  The ISIS produced long tape on their occupation of Ramadi and Fallujah earlier this year reveals the hopelss incompetence of the Maliki government's forces.  In one scene a small group of ISIS fighters armed with small arms, RPG-7s and satchel charges attack and overrun what looks like a police station.  The facility is situated on the immediate side of the road.  There are no fields of fire open to defenders.  There are no fighting positions from which defenders can fire.  There is no barbed wire or other obstacles outside the fortlet. The attackers simply walk up to the wall, throw a satchel charge into the courtyard and then crawl through a hole in the wall to massacre the inhabitants.  Incredible!  This incompetence rivals that of the US Army in the construction and siting of outposts in eastern Afghanistan during the period of the greatest infatuation with the COIN nonsense.  pl 

 http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/06/22/iraq-qaeda-sunni-syria/11232403/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/22/us-iraq-security-idUSKBN0EX0BJ20140622

http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/iran-rejects-us-action-in-iraq-1.1707221#.U6bqc_ldVQQ

Comments

[VietnamVet]

Colonel,

I do not know what to say. I am waiting with disquiet for the next shoe to fall. It probably has fallen but is not being reported by the Western Press.

I would not be surprised if Iran and the House of Saud say the hell to USA, Israel and ISIS and join Russia and China and price oil and gas in Renminbi.

If the collapse of the Soviet Union is a guide, the first thing to be the eliminated after the collapse of the American hegemony will be government pensions; that is if we avoid WWIII.