Iraq in Crisis- Merged Superthread

[tomahawk6]

3d Armored Brigade Combat Team from Ft Carson with 4000 troops are deploying to Kuwait.

http://www.stripes.com/news/army/fort-carson-brigade-headed-to-kuwait-for-possible-showdown-with-the-islamic-state-1.329247

 

[tomahawk6]

The 3d Brigade 82d Airborne is already in country training the Iraqi Army.It would be nice to catch them in the open where we can defeat them in detail.

http://www.fayobserver.com/news/local/paratroopers-from-panther-brigade-headed-to-iraq-this-week/article_9c551cb3-c72c-55cf-9214-a0d44c92b105.html

 

[a_majoor]

The 3d Brigade 82d Airborne is already in country training the Iraqi Army.It would be nice to catch them in the open where we can defeat them in detail.

http://www.fayobserver.com/news/local/paratroopers-from-panther-brigade-headed-to-iraq-this-week/article_9c551cb3-c72c-55cf-9214-a0d44c92b105.html

Of course the entire point for "them" is to avoid being in the open where superior Western sensors and weapons can get at them. This was a lesson learned as far back as the Viet Nam war, where VC and NVA units learned to "hug the belt" of American units in contact to prevent superior American air and artillery from beig turned on them (since they were well within the danger close distance).

I'm sure that there are examples from earlier conflicts as well (one can think of Pancho Villa being close enough to see the American troops hunting him in Mexico, or George Grivas having British troops come very close to his hiding place in Cyprus). The PIRA "Brigades" in Ireland were also well hidden in the local community during the "Troubles", preventing British Army units or the Ulster Constabulary form getting to grips with them.

To date, the only really successful ways of dealing with this sort of threat have been developed by the Romans ("They create a wilderness, and call it peace"), the British in South Africa (the "blockhouse" system to eliminate Boer mobility) and the French Colonial forces in the 1800's (tache d'huile , pioneered by Hubert Lyautey and Joseph Gallieni). Some variation of one of these methods will be needed to achieve a successful outcome against ISIS.

 

[Old Sweat]

The British "blockhouse" method worked because they also had rounded up the rural population and housed them in concentration camps, while collecting their animals and destroying their crops and buildings. That wouldn't fly today, although if you look at a couple of the other "campaigns" you cite, depopulating selected areas would have provided a solution.

The challenge is how to separate the enemy from their base, or at least refuges in the country. Maybe a combination of massive bribes, targeted assassinations and resettlement, as well as a restructuring of the country into autonomous regions (which could help with the Sunni-Shia mutual dislike) might be a start.

 

[CougarKing]

The Iraqi Army launches another offensive against ISIS:

Reuters

Iraq says launches offensive on Islamic State north of Baghdad

By Dominic Evans

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's army and Shi'ite militia have launched a long-awaited offensive against Islamic State in Salahuddin province, a stronghold of the radical Islamist fighters north of Baghdad, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Sunday.

The ultra-radical fighters control several strongholds in the mainly Sunni Muslim province of Salahuddin, including Tikrit, hometown of executed former president Saddam Hussein.

They also hold other towns on the Tigris river, north of the government-held city of Samarra which Abadi visited on Sunday.

"The prime minister and armed forces chief ... announce the start of the security campaign to liberate Salahuddin," a statement issued by Abadi's office said as he met military leaders in the province, where thousands of troops and militia have gathered for battle.

(...SNIPPED)

 

[CougarKing]

PMCs/contractors back in demand in Iraq?

Defense News

US Looking for Contractors to Help in Iraq

WASHINGTON — The Department of Defense only has about 250 civilian contractors in Iraq supporting the 2,700 US troops deployed there; but a handful of new solicitations and potential contracts may soon add to that number, according to items posted to a federal contracting Web site.

For the past two decades, the resource-heavy American way of war has dictated that where US troops go, civilian contractors follow. It's a way of doing business that has become ingrained in the Pentagon's culture as end strength has slowly been whittled away while global commitments show no sign of slackening

(...SNIPPED)

 

[KevinB]

DoS is sending a lot of WPS folks over.

 

[CougarKing]

More on the above:

(...SNIPPED)

And its not only civilian personnel that are being tapped to support the uniformed personnel in Iraq. On Feb. 27, the US Transportation Command issued a Request for Information looking for a contractor to provide eight "heavy Rotary Wing aircraft."

While not an official solicitation just yet, the US government said that it is looking to identify contractors who can provide birds that can each ferry a minimum of 12 passengers and move a load of at least 5,000 pounds. The aircraft and their civilian crews would be positioned at the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center, and "missions may involve destinations throughout Iraq" transporting troops, food and water, fuel, and ammunition.

Source: Defense News

 

[CougarKing]

Refurbishing equipment like worn-out T62s and T-55s used in the Iran-Iraq War?

Reuters

Iraq's newest conflict rescues rusting tanks from scrapheap

By Aref Mohammed


(...SNIPPED)

Baghdad's Shi'ite-led government appealed for reinforcements from across the world to help it fight back. But for retired military mechanic Madhi al-Sukaini, the answer lay nearer to home.

"The scrap yard where thousands of bits of army equipment are dumped is close to where I live and it was a constant reminder of the long war with Iran," Sukaini said, referring to the relics from the 1980-88 conflict.

The scrap yard also contains guns, vehicles and tanks - some of them identifiable only by barrels still poking through the sand - from Iraq's 1990-91 occupation and defeat in Kuwait and from the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

"One time I passed by and an idea flashed in my mind: Why don’t I repair some of the dumped armored vehicles to help in the war against Daesh?" he said, referring to the Islamic State by its Arabic acronym.

So the 65-year-old veteran of Saddam's army set to work with his sons to restore some of the old vehicles and supply them to Shi'ite militias now fighting to push Islamic State out of the late dictator's home city of Tikrit, north of Baghdad.

(...SNIPPED)

 

[KevinB]

Several of the airbases had a lot of mothballed equipment when I was there last ('08) a lot of running Tanks, SPG etc.

 

[McG]

ISIS unsuccessfully attacked Kurdish position in Iraq with chlorine gas.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/kurdish-officials-claim-isis-used-chemical-weapons-on-peshmerga-forces-1.2279773

 

[CougarKing]

More barbarism on the part of ISIS fighters:

Daily Mail

Killed with a bullet to the head: ISIS execute ten doctors after they refused to treat wounded members of the terror group in Iraq

Jihadis were fighting in Hammam al-Alil, south of their Mosul stronghold

Several of them sustained injuries so visited local doctors for treatment

Doctors reportedly refused to help because they did not support ISIS

Terrorists then dragged the 10 men out in to the desert and shot them

(...SNIPPED)

 

[George Wallace]

More barbarism on the part of ISIS fighters:

Daily Mail

That logic really escapes me.

 

[Edward Campbell]

Ian Bremmer tweets:

"Actually, Critics: No US Plan Before Fall of Ramadi"

In my opinion, there has been no coherent American strategic plan for anything, anywhere, since about 1970 (Nixon's pivot to China); what passed for a strategic plan under President Reagan (1980s) was, really, just listening to Prime Minister Thatcher. There has been no strategic vision or planning or any sort post Reagan.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

The British "blockhouse" method worked because they also had rounded up the rural population and housed them in concentration camps, while collecting their animals and destroying their crops and buildings. That wouldn't fly today, although if you look at a couple of the other "campaigns" you cite, depopulating selected areas would have provided a solution.

The challenge is how to separate the enemy from their base, or at least refuges in the country. Maybe a combination of massive bribes, targeted assassinations and resettlement, as well as a restructuring of the country into autonomous regions (which could help with the Sunni-Shia mutual dislike) might be a start.

The painful reality is that the Sunni Tribes have nowhere else to go but to the ISIS, the Baghdad Shia's and their Iranian friends made sure of that. Carve out the Anabar region into a Sunni state with SA as their patron and use the tribes to dismantle ISIS, Give the Northern Regions to the Kurds and the Shia the rest. Iraq as a country is done, way better to accept it now. The Iraqi Shias will be a nice drain on the Iranian purse. There was a moment when Iraq might have pulled it off as a country, but that moment is now long gone.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Carving out Anbar province, etc will not solve anything without the forces to re-establish and hold the northern border that is now an imaginary line.  The same can be said for northern areas.

:2c:

 

[Infanteer]

...meanwhile, Ramadi is lost and the Iraqis may not have the will to fight.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/u-s-defence-secretary-questions-iraq-s-will-to-fight-after-ramadi-defeat-1.2388434

 

[Eye In The Sky]

They need to get to the deeper fight IMO.  Until then they are robbing Peter to pay Paul.  Secure the NW border, cut off their LOC and FOM, then find fix and destroy.  My  :2c:

 

[George Wallace]

...meanwhile, Ramadi is lost and the Iraqis may not have the will to fight.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/u-s-defence-secretary-questions-iraq-s-will-to-fight-after-ramadi-defeat-1.2388434

Sorry.  If they don't have the will to fight, why are we doing it for them?  It may be time to STOP; Create a CORDON (Nothing IN/Nothing OUT); and let the chips fall where they may.  These 'cesspools' don't seem to want to be 'cleaned up' and slide further into the depths as soon as we pull out our troops along with financial and humanitarian support.  Let Darwin's rules take over.

 

[Infanteer]

http://www.understandingwar.org/report/isis-defense-iraq-and-syria-countering-adaptive-enemy

ISW's reports are, in my view, some of the best open source reports out there.  Note the detailed breakdown of ISIL's campaign history, starting far before we all took notice in July 2014.