MENA Mashup: Pentagon claims Ramadi a mere setback are ‘delusional’
McClatchy published this excellent report yesterday…Experts: U.S. claims Ramadi a mere setback are ‘delusional’
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration Monday called the fall of the capital of Iraq’s Anbar province to the Islamic State a temporary setback that Iraqi forces would reverse with U.S. support. Experts dismissed that assessment as ludicrous.
“Delusional, really, is the better word,” Ali Khedery, a former U.S. official who served as an adviser to five U.S. ambassadors to Iraq and three heads of U.S. Central Command, said of the administration’s statement. “It’s unbelievable, frankly. I now know what it’s like to have lived through Vietnam, I guess.”
Experts called the loss a stunning blow to the Iraqi government and U.S. strategy.
It wasn’t clear why the administration clung to an upbeat message three days after the Islamic State overran most of Ramadi and a day after Iraq’s best special forces unit fled the city with other troops, local police and tribal fighters. The message was delivered in nearly identical verbiage by White House, State Department and Pentagon spokesmen and was reinforced by a statement from Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“ISIL’s gains in Ramadi are a serious setback for its long-suffering inhabitants. It is also a setback for the ISF (Iraqi Security Forces),” said Dempsey. “Setbacks are regrettable but not uncommon in warfare. Much effort will now be required to reclaim the city. We will continue to support Iraq’s security forces with U.S. airstrikes, training and equipment.”
It wasn’t until Monday that the administration and U.S. military officials acknowledged the fall of Ramadi after several days of insisting that the situation in the city of 900,000 was fluid and contested and that the Islamic State was on the defensive in Iraq and neighboring Syria.
“This is something we’ve known was possible for some time,” said Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman. “Ramadi has been surrounded for probably a year now.”
Vietnam Vet and Middle East expert, Col. Pat Lang, took a very dim view on all the spin… The Borg speaks with one voice.
“Resistance is futile,” proclaimed the Borg in an endless, mindless repetition of the ultimate in group-think. Today we have the policy Borg speaking with one voice. John Kerry in South Korea and USMC BG Weidly in Baghdad have the same talking points, exactly the same talking points.
Thought control became a priority for the US military after US policy (not the military) was defeated in VN. After much soul searching and rummaging about in the farther reaches of pseudo spirituality and science, the armed forces leadership stopped looking at such things as; spoon bending, fire walking and psycho-kinesis as expressions of non-material power and an explanation for defeat in VN and decided that we had simply been defeated at home in the media and because of that among the people. Clausewitz would have appreciated that thought.
An infamous essay called “Mind War” was authored in that time by Paul Vallely (Fox News consultant) and a strange fellow named Michael Aquino. Aquino was later notorious as the High Priest of the Temple of Set, a Satanist cult in California (where else?). This paper, written by this pair of half baked psychological operations reservists, somehow insinuated itself into the thinking of the US Army, then into all of the Defense Department until it came to be an article of faith that “Information Operations,” (propaganda- IO) and “Kinetic Operations” (shooting people as necessary) were equally effective ways to wage war. This belief led to an exaggerated faith in the IO side of COIN (hearts and minds) and repeated attempts to change through persuasion the basic beliefs of the many different peoples of the earth who simply do not want to be changed by foreigners. As a result of this kind of thinking we have done all kinds of foolish things. Among them; we attempted to persuade the hard core Dawa Shia activist al-Maliki that he should be politically “inclusive” with Sunnis whom he regarded as the enemies of God and of his blood. We also situated outposts in totally hostile parts of Afghanistan next to villages from which our men would never be able to defend themselves. We were trying to be persuasively nice.
Worst of all it came to be consensual thought in the US government and among their co-opted media “friends” that it was normal to propagandize the American electorate in order to block political action intended to prevent or stop a war. This was an odd development for a country in which the United States Information Agency (USIA) was forbidden by law to direct its propaganda at US audiences.
That kind of approach took us into war in Iraq. The Republican Party is now trying to deal with the truth of that crime and their tribe of midget candidates is having a hard time justifying what their party did. Good! At the moment 76% of registered Republicans are shown by polling to think that the war in Iraq was a mistake. Good! Unfortunately it took a very long time for the Koolaid and BS to lose its potency.
We are still captives of the IO internal propaganda mindset and dogma. In Iraq, Syria and Yemen the US government in all its many parts continues to lie to us in order to control us. The government narrative is that all goes well. Defeat at Ramadi is nothing, “a momentary setback” is the theme propagated by the government while a minor raid in Syria is trumpeted as a distraction from the catastrophe that is now so clear to see in Iraq.
The most hurtful thing of all is to see an officer of the US Marine Corps, sworn to protect The Republic, stoop to lie to us from Baghdad in the service of WH talking points. Ah, but perhaps he believes the BS. When you are part of the Borg you eventually come to believe that the talking points are the only reality and that defeat is evidence of impending victory.
Locutas said that resistance is futile. Perhaps it is. pl
Today the Levant Report posted this bombshell… 2012 Defense Intelligence Agency document: West will facilitate rise of Islamic State “in order to isolate the Syrian regime”
On Monday, May 18, the conservative government watchdog group Judicial Watch published a selection of formerly classified documents obtained from the U.S. Department of Defense and State Department through a federal lawsuit.
While initial mainstream media reporting is focused on the White House’s handling of the Benghazi consulate attack, a much “bigger picture” admission and confirmation is contained in one of the Defense Intelligence Agency documents circulated in 2012: that an ‘Islamic State’ is desired in Eastern Syria to effect the West’s policies in the region.
Astoundingly, the newly declassified report states that for “THE WEST, GULF COUNTRIES, AND TURKEY [WHO] SUPPORT THE [SYRIAN] OPPOSITION… THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF ESTABLISHING A DECLARED OR UNDECLARED SALAFIST PRINCIPALITY IN EASTERN SYRIA (HASAKA AND DER ZOR), AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE SUPPORTING POWERS TO THE OPPOSITION WANT, IN ORDER TO ISOLATE THE SYRIAN REGIME…”.
The DIA report, formerly classified “SECRET//NOFORN” and dated August 12, 2012, was circulated widely among various government agencies, including CENTCOM, the CIA, FBI, DHS, NGA, State Dept., and many others.
The document shows that as early as 2012, U.S. intelligence predicted the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), but instead of clearly delineating the group as an enemy, the report envisions the terror group as a U.S. strategic asset.
While a number of analysts and journalists have documented long ago the role of western intelligence agencies in the formation and training of the armed opposition in Syria, this is the highest level internal U.S. intelligence confirmation of the theory that western governments fundamentally see ISIS as their own tool for regime change in Syria. The document matter-of-factly states just that scenario…
Today, b at Moon of Alabama penned this post… Obama Administration Dilly-dallying On Islamic State Action
The Islamic State took Ramadi with the help of armored bulldozers and some 10 suicide vehicles. That many of the nominal defenders of the city had no real will to fight also helped. But there is another important actor that allowed it to happen. In the critical 24 hours the U.S. coalition which had promised to defend Iraq and to defeat the Islamic State launched just seven air strikes and all only against minor IS targets around the city. That’s like nothing.
Now the paltry “dog ate my homework” excuse is a sandstorm no one but the U.S. air support group noticed.
Yesterday the Islamic State held victory parades around Ramadi. One hundred vehicles with black flags parading on a wide open road with black flags on every streetlight pole. The pictures show a bright and sunny blue sky. No U.S. air interdiction was seen. Remarks one knowledgeable tweep looking at those pictures:
The Islamic State in Ramādī yesterday. Quite amazing the coalition didn’t take them out actually. Makes one wonder about the coalitions rules of engagement. Now it “looks” as if Ramādī was offered to them on a silver plate …
Indeed. The Obama administration and the Pentagon tried their best to play down the strategic loss of Ramadi as something minor that could be somehow repaired within a few days or weeks. But as McClatchy notes: Ramadi joins lengthening list of Pentagon misstatements on Iraq and Experts: U.S. claims Ramadi a mere setback are ‘delusional’.
The U.S. does not take the Islamic State seriously. It is as if Obama has decided that a Jihadist state in east-Syria and west-Iraq is a bright idea that should be given full support. Do his people and those U.S. experts on Saudi/Qatari payrolls tell him that the Islamic State is no danger to U.S. interests? They are wrong…
*gah*
18 Comments
Profits are not delusional.,scoreboard baby! MICC is flush so lets keep that light at the end of the tunnel burning bright. Oh yeah sad about all the people dying but….look at my dividend check this quarter.
-Experts called the loss a stunning blow to the Iraqi government and U.S. strategy.-
Man, saying that takes a lot of gall. Strategy? What freakin’ strategy? Do they mean the strategy of giving away the treasury of the United States to corporations both domestic and foreign? Do they mean the strategy of convincing the rest of the world we’re a bunch of lunatic children armed to the teeth? Or do they mean the strategy of killing as many brown-skinned people as we think we can get away with.
But really, if they mean our Middle Eastern strategy in a geo-political sense, well, might just as well start laughing now and keep on laughing.
It’s actually a simple strategy, Shutter…! Divide et Impera
Funny how this works, eh…?
Fossil fuels subsidised by $10m a minute, says IMF
‘Shocking’ revelation finds $5.3tn subsidy estimate for 2015 is greater
than the total health spending of all the world’s governments
Yeah but profit you know. And what will we ever use to fuel those F 35s?
(aka ApplePie) After marathon-watching Marvel-Disney movies (I liked Thor the best) I can’t help thinking that US foreign strategy is being run by a bunch of comic book nerds, and this article seems to confirm that. If not the patsy Obama then Hillary: The super-soldiers must be deployed to defeat Hydra.
It’s a f-ing comic book!
Not surprisingly… U.S.-supplied equipment abandoned by Iraqi troops in Ramadi
Godspeed and safe travels for the Freedom Flotilla III…! Freedom Flotilla III arrives in Germany en route to France
was it difficult to blow ISIS out of Tikrit?
This proves that the people in power have NOT learned from history.
If they would read up on the history of the USSR and Afghanistan, and perhaps brush up on the US in Vietnam, they might just understand that there will NEVER be a “victory” in the Middle East.
While the can of worms has been unleashed, the best we can hope for is to leave before it bankrupts us, if it hasn’t already. What has been done cannot be undone, or even fixed. We might be able to support some players around there for a while, but eventually, something will have to give.
Very truthful comment. Ike was truthful in 1961.
http://www.npr.org/2011/01/17/132942244/ikes-warning-of-military-expansion-50-years-later.
“On Jan. 17, 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower gave the nation a dire warning about what he described as a threat to democratic government. He called it the military-industrial complex, a formidable union of defense contractors and the armed forces.”
“Eisenhower, a retired five-star Army general, the man who led the allies on D-Day, made the remarks in his farewell speech from the White House.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4p6QWwO420
I wonder if 60 years from now we will find out ISIS was a CIA/ Saudi Aramco funded creation?
Don’t forget “Operation Ajax?”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d'%C3%A9tat
“The 1953 Iranian coup d’état, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup, was the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh on 19 August 1953, masterminded by the United States (under the name TPAJAX Project) and backed by the United Kingdom (under the name “Operation Boot”).[2][3][4][5]
“Mossadegh had sought to audit the documents of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company(AIOC), a British corporation (now BP) and to limit the company’s control over Iranian petroleum reserves. Upon the refusal of the AIOC to co-operate with the Iranian government, the parliament (Majlis) voted tonationalize Iran’s oil industry and to expel foreign corporate representatives from the country.[6][7][8] Following the coup in 1953, a military government under General Fazlollah Zahedi was formed which allowed Mohammad-Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran (Persian for an Iranian king),[8] to effectively rule the country as an absolute monarch. He relied heavily on United States support to hold on to power until his own overthrow in February 1979.[6][7][8][9]”
That support was called “Savak!”
The Iranian Gestapo, trained by CIA operatives. Great legacy???? We did the same thing with Iraq, until Saddam outlived his usefulness after being installed like a Shah??
Nice can or worms we got here. Both Ike and the Ranger are correct.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein
“Many foreign countries opposed Qasim, particularly after he threatened to invade Kuwait. In February 1960, the CIA created an unrelated plan to oust Qasim by giving him a poisoned handkerchief, although it may have been aborted.[24]
Army officers with ties to the Ba’ath Party overthrew Qasim in the Ramadan Revolution coup of 1963. Ba’athist leaders were appointed to the cabinet and Abdul Salam Arif became president. The governments of the United States and United Kingdom were complicit in the coup.[25] Arif dismissed and arrested the Ba’athist leaders later that year in the November 1963 Iraqi coup d’état.”
“At the center of this strategy was Iraq’s oil. On 1 June 1972, Saddam oversaw the seizure of international oil interests, which, at the time, dominated the country’s oil sector. A year later, world oil prices rose dramatically as a result of the 1973 energy crisis, and skyrocketing revenues enabled Saddam to expand his agenda.”
Black Gold… Texas Tea…. “Same as it ever was”
Is Iran holding back from attacking ISIS until they get a peace deal with us?
ISIS came out of no where the first time they rook an Iraqi city the Iraqi army despite having more men and weapons fled I thought the iraqi army had been bribed to flee and most importantly leave behind their weapons, equipment, even vehicles something people who flee tend to take with them:) I think we are headed to war again but against ISIS, Syria, Iran?
Why didn’t the Turks do anything when Israel stormed that Turkish ship trying to get to Palestine? Whats the latest about Israel’s embargo on Palestine are Palestinians still not getting enough food? Bibi does not want Israel boycotted or for investment to withdraw because he is doing that to Palestine. He does not seem to realize that much like the Irish who fled to America helped fund opposition to English rule and organized political support for Ireland in America. Palestinian refugees are doing the same in America the more Palestinians leave the more who come here to America. Arabs in general already are a bigger voting block than Jewish people.
America subsidizes the cost of gas more than anyone except China is that in part because of Fracking? Also if subsidizes are removed what would the true cost of gas be world wide and in America? I would need more facts if I were to do the math myself I figure you might know or Kate who used to write the anti fracking posts.
But your dividends would be much higher with Republicans in control and sending in 10,000 advisors, then 50,000 to protect the advisors, and then 500,000 to get revenge for the deaths of thousands in the 60,000. And there would be no Nixon running on peace with honor, so your dividends will grow exponentially.
Vote Republican!
No, gas is subsidized far more in places like Venezuela and the UAE, where it sells for around 10 cents a gallon. The reason US fuel prices are so low (relative to the rest of the developed world) is that just about everyone else taxes it a few dollars per gallon, and we tax it 18.4 cents. Fracking has little if anything to do with it; they’ve been in place for many years.