Our Failing "Strategy" Against ISIS

     Yesterday, June 10, Pentagon announced that 450 more U.S. "trainers" will be sent to Iraq to help bolster the fight against ISIS.  So far our strategy against ISIS, as such, has been a dismal failure, despite claims to the contrary by our government.  The 450 U.S. "trainers" are to be embedded in Iraqi headquarters and be at their side to give advice and to call in airstrikes.  However, there will be no forward observers who can pin-point air strikes, nor will there be "advisors" in the field with the combat units.
     Advising from headquarters does not work.  It did not work in Vietnam and it will not work in Iraq. Washington has admitted that the Iraqi forces totally lack leadership in the field and that there were instances where the troops ran when they actually outnumbered ISIS 40 to 1!  Can you imagine 40 armed men facing one armed enemy and running away in panic?  It happened in Ramadi and it continues to take place.  Washington admits that ISIS fighters are not some "super warriors."  In fact, some of them, from a military standpoint, are very poorly trained.  But they are motivated.  The much ballyhooed Iranians that we allowed into Iraq experienced some success initially, but they too have bogged down.  As I have mentioned in the earlier blog, the Iranians were unable to defeat Iraq in their long bloody war, whatever made Washington think that they could defeat ISIS?
     The Iraqi Security Forces are just plain no good!  There are no leaders to prop-up faltering troops, there are no leaders to encourage and lead the advance!  Under such circumstances, American leadership is desperately needed.  We learned in Vietnam that those Vietnamese units that had American advisors with them in the field generally fought much better than those without American advisors.  The best units were those that were trained and led by American soldiers like the Montagnard and Nung Mobile Strike Forces.  We had units like that in Iraq.  They were trained and led by our Special Forces and were considered to be the best in Iraq.  The various units were called Iraqi "Commando" units.  But when we pulled our combat forces, these units, against our advice, were integrated into regular Iraqi Security Forces.  It wasn't long before they fell apart!  We just don't seem to learn from history or are simply ignoring it!
     Now we are going to try to arm and train Sunni tribesmen that we abandoned to Iraqi government back in 2011 when we pulled out our combat forces.  These Sunni tribes felt betrayed by us and some even joined ISIS, after all, ISIS are of Sunni faith.  The Kurds, also of Sunni faith, were the best fighters in Iraq and continue to be the best.  But they are in a desperate struggle to protect their own territory since they too were literally abandoned by Maliki government when we pulled out.  Now, under so-called new government of Abadi, everything is supposed to be better and the Sunni will be integrated into the Iraqi society and government......dream on!
     If we arm and train Sunni tribesmen and they succeed in defeating ISIS, the trouble in Iraq will only take on a different path.  A strong Sunni element will lead to a full blown sectarian war, and of course, we will be blamed for it, and we will be accused of taking sides, taking Sunni's side!  Considering that the majority of the population in Iraq is Shiite, you can guess how America will be viewed by the Iraqis should a sectarian war break out.
     Washington is very proud of the fact that there has not been a single American death associated with our fight against ISIS....well.....that's because we are not fighting ISIS!  We are using proxies to do our fighting, proxies that can't seem to get the job done.  The bottom line is that if we want to defeat ISIS, and not just "degrade" their ability as Washington is fond of saying (incidentally, we haven't "degraded" their ability to fight, if anything, they are stronger now!), then American troops will have to be used and American lives will be lost.  As unpalatable as it is to the American government and public, if we want to stop ISIS, we have to do it ourselves.  Iraqis won't do it, our European "allies" won't do it.  The only country, the only power that can stop and destroy ISIS is America, so we have to decide what we want and what we are going to do.