Telegraphing Mosul
According to the Washington Post, Donald Trump urged the Pentagon to stop telegraphing their intents in Iraq. Specifically, in Mosul. The armchair generals at the Post write that Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about;
“The biggest problem I have with the stupidity of our foreign policy, we have Mosul. They think a lot of the ISIS leaders are in Mosul,” Trump said, using an alternate name for the militant group. “So we have announcements coming out of Washington and coming out of Iraq: We will be attacking Mosul in three weeks or four weeks. Well, all of these bad leaders from ISIS are leaving Mosul. Why can’t they do it quietly?”
He later added: “How stupid is our country?”
[CNN’s armchair general Martha] Raddatz countered that there could be reasons military commanders have elected to share details about the planned mission, including “psychological operations,” in which information is selectively shared to achieve a desired outcome. She cited allowing civilians to flee as one example — a strong possibility in Mosul, a city of more than 1 million people.
Well, another thing that could happen is we give enough warning beforehand so that the ISIS folks have to time booby-trap the city, dig earthen fortifications and tunnels from which to defend the city from the US troops and Iraqis tasked to take the city back. In fact, that’s what they’re doing, according to Reuters;
Islamic State militants have placed booby traps across the city of Mosul, dug tunnels and recruited children as spies in anticipation of an offensive to dislodge the jihadists from their Iraqi stronghold, Iraqis and U.S. officials said.
[…]
The battle for the city, expected later this month, will help shape the future of Iraq and the legacy of U.S. President Barack Obama. Even if Islamic State is driven out, there is a real danger of sectarian strife, especially if civilian casualties are high in a mainly Sunni city wary of the Shi-ite led Iraqi government and the Shi’ite militias it depends on.
The jihadists, who swept into Mosul almost unopposed two years ago as Iraqi forces fled, have rigged its five bridges with explosives, prepared car bombs and suicide attackers and stepped up surveillance, according to four residents who spoke via telephone or social media.
The Kurds are well-acquainted with ISIS’ unexploded ordnance.
“The strongest weapon they (the militants) have is the bombs left behind. The main fight for the Peshmerga against ISIS is avoiding the bombs left behind by them. Each time the Peshmerga take a village they see a lot of bombs,” [Peshmerga General Salar] Taymour said.
Last month, a Peshmerga explosives expert told Rudaw that Kurdish bomb disposal teams have defused more than 13,000 booby traps and landmines left behind by ISIS since the start of the war in August 2014.
He said that, in addition to improvised explosives and landmines, the Peshmerga have also defused 800 munitions, cleared 240 homes of bombs, and destroyed six tons of TNT. He added that, on average, Peshmerga bomb disposal teams defuse more than 17 bombs per day.
Maybe we can get the Washington Post editorial staff and Martha Raddatz to lead the troops into Mosul since they have such a firm grasp of the intent of the operation. It should be a clean sweep.
Thanks to Chief Tango for the links.
Category: Terror War
In my frustration over Rules of Engagement, I have long advocated to put a JAG officer as point on any incursions. In this instance, I would say that one of these “expert reporters” could fill the point slot quite well. We would suddenly see some great changes.
I would agree! And I am “only” well read, no combat anything.
Obama’s legacy?? what? you mean that big , humongous pile of dog shyt?
It wouldn’t chap my arse, over much, if the entire JAG, root and branch, was rounded up and prosecuted as undocumented enemy agents.
Ever since CTS began the march up the TRV, there has been no doubt that Mosul was the prize, and that after seizing Q-West…it was only a matter of time before staging for Mosul would begin. ISIS has been building fortifications since January at least. They’ve had plenty of warning.
Probably, maybe even accurate.
She’s still a foaming-at-the-mouth LibProg waste of time, water, and oxygen.
‘Maybe we can get the Washington Post editorial staff and Martha Raddatz lead the troops into Mosul since they have such a firm grasp of the intent of the operation. It should be a clean sweep.’
I think that’s a splendid idea. I think it should be initiated immediately. In fact, I think sending along a live team of on-camera reporters to report the entire thing as it happens is something that should definitely be included. They can be the ‘frontline’ reporters!
Armchair strategy always works in football, hockey and combat, doesn’t it?
I read somewhere that during WWII, Walter Cronkite and several other reporters underwent aircrew and gunner training so that they could fly a single combat mission with 8th Air Force bombers. Cronkite and the rest made a huge deal out of the risk they were taking, going so far as to call themselves “The Legion of the Doomed”…because they were going to fly ONE mission.
Apparently Andy Rooney was the only member of the group who wasn’t a complete self-important douchebag, as he called Cronkite and the rest out on their bullshit, saying something along the lines of, “We’re flying one mission, assholes! How about the guys we’ll being flying with, who have to fly 25?”
Of course Cronkite and the rest were predictably unfazed. God forbid the self-righteous liberal media types not be the most important thing in the universe.
“Hey, Raddatz – you got point!”
Oh, Goody…..a bullet and tripwire discovery specialist.
I do believe she is qualified to hold that MOS/rating.
Remember that one scene in “The Big Red One?”
“Know how you look for a sniper? You send a guy out into the open and see if he gets shot.”
…”Now, kiss your addatz goodbye. Make sure the camera team is up close & personal so they get a good shot of the consequences of your stupidity.”
Hmmmm…My understanding is that Raddatz was a college drop out with no Military Science education.
how exactly is she qualified?
She’s on TV!
Well….that being said, when can we expect Kim kardasian and Kanye to lead the next hostage rescue mission?
n a recent interview with SaturdayNightOnline.com, the rapper compared the perils of his on-stage maneuvers to those faced by members of law enforcement and soldiers on the front lines.
“Like, I’m just giving of my body on the stage; I’m putting my life at risk, literally!” West said of his performances.
Evidently the big risk on his “Yeezus” tour is the manufactured mountain he performs atop during the show.
“I think about when I’m on the ‘Can’t Tell Me Nothing,’ and ‘Coldest Winter’ moment, like that mountain goes really, really high. And if I slipped … You never know,” he said. “And I think about it, I think about my family and I’m like, ‘Wow.’ … This is like, being a police officer or something, in war or something.”
Yeah…..because blathering about how great you are on stage for millions of dollars is just like war…..
Will someone PLEASE kick that dickhead’s ass?
My God, he might trip and fall on stage with his heavily-armed bodyguards ready to pounce! The HORROR! I’d like to see that numbnut fuck chase a running fire up a steep slope under erratic wind conditions with 75 pounds of hose and gear on his back. Or dig around a coal vein 1200 feet underground with shitty ventilation. Or wrangle crab pots in the Bering Sea. Or chase a PCP-tripping scumbag with a knife around a corner in the middle of the night. Or trade bullet with some daesh cocksuckers in the middle of the desert. Or…I could do this all day.
Fuck that dickshitting retard piece of roach shit and his dumb whore girlfriend straight to hell.
Yep!
He has fans that like the lyrics to his “music”, And those are the same ass wipes that are up in arms about Trump talking shit about a woman with another guy, in private.
It almost makes my head spin.
Trump does seem loyal to his people. He also seems to understand the military value of “surprise”, also that the goal is -defeating- the enemy, not demonstrating resolve, etc.
Stupid phone, I didn’t mean to hit the report button, 11b.
You mean we shouldn’t worry about giving the jihadis jobs? That’s this regime’s mentality.
It’s WaPo. ‘Nuf said …
Martha Raddatz would probably give the troops a motivational speech that sounds something like this “Please don’t shoot anyone Muslim, this attack has nothing to do with Islam, were taking this city back because Bush invaded Iraq”.
This whole pile of warm runny shit is typical of what this administration has done for the last 7 3/4 years.
Reminds me of the whole scene from Airplane where he’s bombing the rail yard at Daiquiri at 1800 hours tomorrow, coming in low out of the sun.
But when are you coming back?
I can’t tell you, that’s classified.
In the spring of 1944, Ike shitcanned a staffer who was a longtime personal friend because the dickhead got drunk and told some people “We’re gonna cross the Channel pretty soon.” Supposedly, the come-to-Jesus meeting included the Supreme Allied Commander asking the dumbass how many of our own boys he was willing to kill in order to look good.
I think the lesson there is obvious. Of course, this was the same Dwight David Eisenhower who prepared a speech in the event of the failure of Operation Overlord in which he would assume full responsibility for the disaster. But then again, Ike was a leader. He really wouldn’t fit in among the ass-kissing, ass-covering Pentagon-dwellers of today, would he?
Everyone who works in the White House from the gardener to that guy in the oval office need to be locked in the White House theater and forced to watch 72 hours of AFN OPSEC commercials. Nonstop. No bathroom breaks.
Raddatz works for ABC News, not CNN. The CNN moderator was the fabulous Anderson Cooper, who at the start of the first Gulf War didn’t know what a tank was. As a moderator, Raddatz also had no business engaging in debate with Trump unless her intent was to act as a proxy for Hillary Clinton.
Dan Lamothe’s story in the Washington Post is somewhat better in providing balance except it relies on examples prior to ISIS.
Trump has a point about the need for operational security. While it’s true that the strategy of taking Mosul is not a secret, the actual tactics and timeline should be closely held. Here’s an example:
In June 1944, it was no secret that Allied forces would make some attempt to breach Hitler’s Atlantic Wall. The specific details of how that would happen were kept under wraps to the extent that for hours after the invasion began, the Wehrmacht remained convinced that the landings in Normandy were a feint, and that the main attack would be near Calais.
There’s also the idea, at least in Sun Tzu’s Art of War perspective, that you can go a long way towards winning a battle if you fuck with the enemy’s head first. And the best way to do that is in such a way that the enemy is not aware of it. Something the media should not be concerned with except maybe after the fact.
“All war is deception”
“She cited allowing civilians to flee as one example — a strong possibility in Mosul, a city of more than 1 million people.” Yeah, that’s the way ISIS operates. They have the best interest of the civilians at heart. Sure they do. My money says that ISIS packs kids into buildings and then fires rockets from their roofs to draw retaliatory fire. My money says that old men and women will be put into vehicles which will be driven straight toward the Afghan forces. And why not? The US isn’t going to wipe out ISIS with drones and we sure as hell aren’t going in there in force to do what needs to be done. And, of course, those civilian deaths will be laid at the feet of the US. Do we have to make it so easy for the bastards?
Use Martha Raddatz for mine clearing. Accomplish two things at once: clear mines and booby-traps and give her a lesson it why you don’t telegraph what you’re going to do. Unless you are a member of the Odumba Administration. In that case, you tell everybody when you are coming (or when you are withdrawing!) and then wonder why it doesn’t work out the way you anticipated.
Here’s the Mosul update. The 300,000 heroic forces of the ISF are now reported to number 50,000, none of which are in Mosul. ISIS, however, has banned cell phone use and executed 40 civilians for being traitors to the cause. The bodies were then displayed from telephone poles.
Another Mosul update. The Heroic Forces of the ISF are in a pickle. You haven’t read about recent progress because there hasn’t been much, if any, it seems. The problem is what anybody with at least one working brain cell saw over a month ago: Mosul civilians. ISIS didn’t run and they aren’t going to mass forces outside of the city that bhas been theirs for 2+ years. “Come and get us. We’ve been waiting for you.” And so they have, killing civilians they see a need to kill, holding most in place to set up what the Heroic Forces now face: the quandary of wanting to flatten a city while not killing the hundreds of thousands of people they are trying to liberate from ISIS. Comes news today that the issue requires a change in tactics that are yet to be installed. You can bet that the in fighting among the Heroic Forces has begun. Hell, when this began, the leadership’s biggest concern was Kurds and others who shouldn’t actually go into Mosul but would fight separately to gain outlying villages. The villages were never defended strongly–ISIS knew where the real fight would be–and, I believe, they are ready to load those buses and trucks with civilians and drive them to the Heroic Forces for annihilation. The PR will be wonderful.
For the record, here’s what I be;lieve will happen. The dribs and drabs of ISIS executions of civilians will become a tidal wave of such reports, with thousands being murdered. This will be a fabrication in order to set up the justification for an all-out assault. It’s a variation of the “if only one can be saved….” That is, the announcement will be made that although many civilians will doubtless die in the assault, standing by as ISIS kills them is untenable and will assuredly result in more civilian deaths than the assault would cause. The White House will not like this but wants to go out with one win under its belt. Right now, it’s batting .000
The Heroic Forces haven’t ever faced a real siege, in which everything – EVERYTHING – is cut: supply lines, ammo, water, food.
The Iraqi/Kurd/whoever on the outside needs to take a lesson from the Romans and the Greeks: start the siege NOW. Has no one ever heard of the Siege of Jerusalem? Or Carthage? Or Ilium?
Let Daesh slaughter people. They’ll do it anyway. They’re already doing it for its shock value. They’re still living in the 10th century, remember?
Start the siege now.
I agree except there’s the political fallout from killing thousands that one claims to be trying to save. It’s a bit of a sticky wicket. The thing is, it was an inevitability so I can only guess that the Heroic Forces banked on ISIS taking off in a convoy of pickup trucks.
If there is political fallout from the deaths of all those people, it should land on ISIS/Daesh. They are invaders, usurpers and thieves following a death cult. They could have simply asked for space and probably gotten it, but they did not do that.
They are going to go on with this mass slaughter, regardless, and it is not the fault of those outside in the Iraqi/Peshmerga/Other groups. It is a naive idea, and a hallmark of media stupidity, that when a quasi-political group like Daesh there is anyone at fault other than the group doing the slaughtering.