Interring the Islamic State in Iraq
(From a perennial favorite - Strategy Page. Zim.)
http://www.strategypage.com/on_point/20170822225120.aspx
President Barack Obama's 2011 decision to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq was not based on the political and security conditions within the country. Obama's 2012 re-election campaign determined the withdrawal timetable. Obama intended to sell himself as a war-ender no matter the real world conditions.
No debate -- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Iraqi government blundered, repeatedly. But in Iraq American troops served as mentors, honest brokers and a reassuring security presence. When the GIs left the Maliki government's sins multiplied. One of its worst mistakes was sectarian favoritism in the security forces -- giving unqualified Shia Arabs commands at the expense of more qualified Sunni Arabs, Kurds and other minorities.
Obama claimed he followed Bush's withdrawal timetable. The Bush plan, however, was contingent on achieving stable conditions. In 2011, as Arab Spring revolutions erupted, squabbling Iraqi political parties couldn't agree on a common plan for retaining a residual U.S. force in their country. Iraq's political blocs behaved like political cowards -- they wanted the U.S. to be the adult and insist its forces remain in order to protect Iraq's hard won economic advances and ensure a successful transition from dictatorship to democracy. Obama, however, had no interest in remaining, despite Arab Spring disruptions and the bitter civil war in neighboring Syria.
With the U.S. military gone, Iranian bullying increased. Tehran rattled Baghdad using political proxies.
Bullying is one thing, invasion another. In late Spring 2014, it became clear that the U.S. withdrawal had created a classic power vacuum as the jihadist Islamic State launched attacked Iraq from bases in Syria.
ISIS took city after city and approached Baghdad, its forces committing hideous mass murders and rapes as they advanced. ISIS made the Iraqi city of Mosul the capital of its "global Caliphate."
To stem the tide, America provided Iraq with aid, training, airpower and -- finally -- troops on the ground.
Iraq's grinding offensive to defeat ISIS began in 2015. Mosul was officially liberated in July 2017.
The Iraq war spawned by Obama's supercilious weakness isn't quite over. Iraqi and coalition forces must liberate Tal Afar, about 50 miles west of Mosul in northern Iraq. ISIS forces still control several towns in Iraq's huge Anbar province. These holdouts could continue guerrilla-type resistance for several months.
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