The War Nerd: Here’s everything you need to know about “too extreme for Al Qaeda” I.S.I.S.

[eridani]

http://pando.com/2014/06/16/the-war-nerd-heres-everything-you-need-to-know-about-too-extreme-for-al-qaeda-i-s-i-s/

This is one of those dramatic military reverses that mean a lot less than meets the eye. The “Iraqi Army” routed by ISIS wasn’t really a national army, and ISIS isn’t really a dominant military force. It was able to occupy those cities because they were vacuums, abandoned by a weak, sectarian force. Moving into vacuums like this is what ISIS is good at. And that’s the only thing ISIS is good at.

ISIS is a sectarian Sunni militia—that’s all. A big one, as militias go, with something like 10,000 fighters. Most of them are Iraqi, a few are Syrian, and a few hundred are those famous “European jihadis” who draw press attention out of all relation to their negligible combat value. The real strength of ISIS comes from its Chechen fighters, up to a thousand of them. A thousand Chechens is a serious force, and a terrifying one if they’re bearing down on your neighborhood. Chechens are the scariest fighters, pound-for-pound, in the world.

But we’re still talking about a conventional military force smaller than a division. That’s a real but very limited amount of combat power. What this means is that, no matter how many scare headlines you read, ISIS will never take Baghdad, let alone Shia cities to the south like Karbala. It won’t be able to dent the Kurds’ territory to the north, either. All it can do—all it has been doing, by moving into Sunni cities like Mosul and Tikrit—is to complete the partition of Iraq begun by our dear ex-president Bush in 2003. By crushing Saddam’s Sunni-led Iraq, the Americans made partition inevitable. In fact, Iraq has been partitioned ever since the invasion; it’s just been partitioned badly, into two parts instead of the natural three: the Kurdish north, and the remainder occupied by a weak sectarian Shia force going by the name of “The Iraqi Army.” The center of the country, the so-called “Sunni Triangle,” had no share in this partition and was under the inept, weak rule of the Shia army.

By occupying the Sunni cities, ISIS has simply made a more rational partition, adding a third part, putting the Sunni Triangle back under Sunni rule. The Shia troops who fled as soon as they heard that the ISIS was on the way seem to have anticipated that the Sunni would claim their own territory someday. That’s why they fled without giving even a pretense of battle.

[Trajan]

1. So we don't need to know about their essential disregard for humanity?

Their mass executions of local populations?

Their scorched earth implementation of strict theocracy?

Hmm ... ok ... if you insist ...

Um ... wait ... no can do ... no can do ...

[eridani]

2. They are not going to be able to permanently control the Sunni majority

These are the folks that used to buy the booze when Christians ran the liquor stores under Saddam, remember?

[KurtNYC]

5. truth is the first casualty of any war

Likely many other accounts of ISIS are overblown or even AP to give the US a pretense to go into Syria (when Russia takes the Ukraine). Same as it ever was, same as it ever was...

[sabrina 1]

6. Well, we weren't hearing about the 'Iraqi Army's' essential disregard for humanity over the past

number of years. Whistle Blower, Chelsea Manning TRIED to report it but was told to STFU. The Brutal Regime of Maliki especially towards the Sunni population almost guaranteed the emergence of ISIS or some other 'rebel' force.

Maybe if WE hadn't ignored what Maliki was doing, maybe if reports from people like Manning had been heeded, maybe if Maliki had not handed over 80% of Iraq'a Oil Fields to the control of Global Oil Corporations, maybe if Maliki had LISTENED to the PEACEFUL protests of the Iraqis instead of sending out that 'Iraqi Army', trained by US, to shoot them and as Manning reported, torture them, and maybe if WE had not killed and tortured over one million of their people, maybe if we had NOT INVADED their country and sent in DEATH SQUADS to slaughter them, or if Fallujah had never happened, perhaps there would be NO ISIS??

But it's too late now to bring back the dead and restore health to the maimed, or ensure the healthy births of Iraqi babies.

It's ironic that we especially on the Left who PREDICTED much of this as a result of the CRIMINAL INVASION of that country, should now try to place the blame on Iraq. WE STARTED THIS and our WAR CRIMINALS were never held accountable.

Have you forgotten the Death Squads Cheney et al sent there, speaking of 'disregard for human life'?

Remember the FOUR MILLION refugees to Jordan and Syria, driven out of their country by the VIOLENCE WE PERPETRATED on that country?

And now Libya, another one of our Western creations. Been paying attention to the violence in THAT country lately, or will it too be ignored until another 'rebel army' surfaces, (it has already btw) and then it will be used to GO BACK for MORE WAR and more money and more sales of Weapons.

We need to STOP because everywhere we go we bring violence and instability and bloodshed, see Ukraine also.

And maybe one day in the far distant future our War Crimes against so many people will be FORGIVEN and peace will happen. But that WON'T happen until we do something about the War Mongers here in this country.

So, why WEREN'T we hearing about Maliki's brutality over the past several years? Should we have been hearing about it? Why is Manning in jail while the real criminals are still running around promoting MORE WAR?

[Trajan]

7. All of that is correct

But it's a Tu Quoque fallacy ... it is irrelevant to the other subject ...

[Fantastic Anarchist]

9. It is relevant ...

... because none of what is happening today happened in a vacuum. What we did has consequences, and is pertinent to what is happening now.

It's not a fallacy at all.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

3. That was a fantastic read.

Thanks for sharing.

[CJCRANE]

4. Thanks. That was very informative.

It's useful to have some indepth information instead of the usual soundbite scaremongering.

[reflection]

8. best thing I've read all day.

Thanks.