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2015-05-23 Terror Networks
Obama Says US Not Losing Against Daesh
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Posted by Fred 2015-05-23 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ]  Top
 File under: Islamic State 

#1 "I don't think we're losing,", he said. "We are simply not winning at a positive rate. A result of the situation I inherited from the previous administration."
Posted by SteveS 2015-05-23 01:43||   2015-05-23 01:43|| Front Page Top

#2 Interesting phrase, that. Not winning at a positive rate. Does that mean we are winning at a negative rate? Isn't that the same as losing?
Posted by Deacon Blues 2015-05-23 08:37||   2015-05-23 08:37|| Front Page Top

#3 indicative that the training of Iraqi security forces, the fortifications, the command-and-control systems are not happening fast enough

So who was it, Mr. President, who pulled out the trainers before the Iraqis could stand up on their own? It wasn't the Bushian Surge, was it>
Posted by Bobby 2015-05-23 08:37||   2015-05-23 08:37|| Front Page Top

#4 This turns into sort of a Richard Feynman type argument, that winning is the same as loosing, just moving in opposite directions in time. (Feynman used it to describe how antimatter would behave, not how to deal with it.)
Posted by ed in texas 2015-05-23 09:49||   2015-05-23 09:49|| Front Page Top

#5 Geez,

I swear we've been "training" and equipping the Iraqi Army since 2004 and we still have no positive results.

Wow.

That's discouraging, especially given how Iraqi young men would stand in line for hours to enlist and endured jacket wallahs and snipers and mortar attacks to keep their place in line.

Thank you Paul Bremer. If we had kept the officer corps from the Old Iraqi Army and used it to organize and train the NEW Iraqi Army, maybe we would have a good army in Iraq and those ex-Saddam officers wouldn't be training Daesh.
Posted by Bill Clinton 2015-05-23 11:45||   2015-05-23 11:45|| Front Page Top

#6 Correction, we HAD positive results. Then almost everyone who knew what they were doing, was sacked by Maliki and replace by stooges. Obama wanted out, allowed this, and then when it came time to show mettle the grunts of the Iraqi army looked for orders. Then discovered everyone officer and up basically fled, leaving them with no command structure.

After that, Mosul fell, and you know the rest. Remember, we had something of an army trained in 2008. It's just that army was gutted, and it's festering corpse left in place until the vultures of ISIS finished the job.
Posted by Charles 2015-05-23 16:36||   2015-05-23 16:36|| Front Page Top

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