I forgot he said that until you brought it up.
Quibble? The democrats were going ballistic at the time claiming Trump was about to get us in a full scale war with this “escalation”.
Troop numbers and types are a very good way to determine strength and capability along with commitment.
We more than doubled the combat troop numbers and dramitically increased the air and missile strikes along with taking the gloves off and letting the commanders on the ground take the fight to the enemy as they saw fit for the first time in the conflict.
The result was the rapid destruction of the Caliphate.
The fact we dramatically increased the capability of the Kurds with a huge load of lethal aid and air support was no small factor either.
Give me a break. You’re still quibbling. They were already history.
Quibbling hell, I’m stating facts you find uncomfortable.
Obama spent three years doing next to nothing and never made any serious effort to destroy ISIS, Trump did. Fact.
You obviously missed the above post. You lack real knowledge of the what preceded the Trump coming to office.
Everything I said is 100% true, get over yourself. Obama turned a blind eye to ISIS for three years insisting they were the “JV”, then looked like someone slapped him with a frozen Tuna when he woke up and figured out that Iran now had control of Iraq and had become the biggest player in the region due to his abdication.
Obama didn’t want to send US troops into a meat grinder like guys Lindsey Graham were pushing him to do. He took the time, told the Iraqi’s to reorganize Iraqi leadership(Maliki out) and a revamping and integration or the Iraqi army. That’s why indigenous fighters are doing all the fighting and there’s been hardly any US casualties. Someday you’ll wakeup to this reality. And yes, When Trump came in he had to make it look like he was doing something and he uped US manpower and airpower numbers.
That’s not what I said. I am specifically talking about the ISIS comment not others. I wouldn’t have said they are 100% defeated like he did, just saying they are defeated as the Caliphate. Just because a few hundred are huddled together in an area the size of two football fields doesn’t mean they aren’t defeated. Obviously they will go on as an insurgency but the days of holding swathes of territory are over unless Iraq or Syria let it happen again.
But I would agree he should have waited until that pocket was gone. They are some trying to escape across the Euphrates river, but on that side of the river is the SAA, Iran and Russia they have no where to go.
I’ve seen some pretty idiotic statements here but that has to be near the top.
Handing control of Iraq to Iran goes right to W when he decided to oust
saddam Hussein, disband the Iraqi army and let the majority ■■■■■■ put a president in office.
By the time Obama got in office it was a done deal. You can’t be that naïve. Or is it just blame it all on Obama time.
Meat grinder my ass. At pea strength the Caliphate forces consisted of around 40k, including support troops and their entire support network relied on about three major roads All they held were the towns along those roads.
The other key element was their oil production, again completely dependent on those roads.
With an air campaign alone we could destroy anything moving on those roadways, could have shut their oil revenue off completely, destroyed their headquarters, training, and all logistical support without ever putting a single American Ground unit in country allowing the reconstituted Iraqi forces and Kurds to do the dirty work.
He didn’t want to do it because he ran as the anti war candidate and his single biggest promise was to end the war in Iraq.
He abdicated our position and made Iraq dependent on the Iranians or suppport and ended any hopes of a free and democratic Iraq keeping Iran at bay in the region.
He was a gutless blunderer from day one and was directly responsible for the rise of ISIS and it’s spread throughout the world.
What a pile of crap. You still haven’t said who’s going to clear out the cities.
A, I did, that was the Kurds and Reconstituted Iraqi Army.
B, With the cities cut off from all supply you simply have to starve them out.
War by siege and attrition.
Obama did the kurds and Reconstituted Iraqi Army
the fighters were a small % of pop., you’re going to starve the population.
You’re just another armchair general, these aren’t realist solutions.
This is just standard Obama derangement talking point to deflect blame from W for loosing Iraq to Iran influence. Just cant give it up. Since there’s no real way to refute it’s and easy bit of BS to keep pushing. If Booooosh doesn’t invade, Saadam stays in power, Iran is checked, all is good. And a whole lot of other really good thing happen. And a bunch a really bad things don’t happen.
I put the worst interventions in my lifetime as the second Iraq war removing Saddam as well as removing Qaddafi in Libya.
I read a lot of Christopher Hitchens back in the day and he made a compelling case as to why Saddam should be removed. That being said the amount of treasure we lost on that deal is unfathomable, and I find it hard to justify even though he was a tyrant.
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I agree with your sentiments, and there were certainly lots of good reasons to get rid of him. Unfortunately, we had more important geopolitical reasons to keep him, or at least his party, in power.
A sus ordenes.
That is definitely obvious now. I just saw this if interested this is the tent town that ISIS is left in Baghuz
Obama relied on an Iraqi army that couldn’t defeat a boy scout jamboree and starved the kurds of the weapons and munitions they needed to mount an effective offensive.
By the time Trump came into office they were out of beans, bullets, medical aid, and any sort of heavy weapons.
Had Obama provided them the same level of support Trump has ISIS would have been defeated by 2014 but of course in 2014 he was still pretending they were the “JV” and no threat.
Armchair general? I used to make these decisions and execute the plans.
You can’t provide the basics to the general population without provideing aid and comfort to the enemy.
When “The People” have had enough, they leave. Instead they remained and suffered horrendous collateral casualties as a result.
I was fighting in the sandbox before you could even find it on a map.
When Bush left office Iran had zero influence in Iraq.
Obama ensured that was reversed.
