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Iraq
Get Out of Iraq Before It's Too Late
2014-06-26
Moved to Thursday for continued commentary.
Once the ISIS force surrounded the embassy, we would face a similar situation to that of the French forces in Dien Bien Phu, a French-held fortress in Northwest Vietnam in 1954. French forces retreated into the fort when the Vietnamese communists engaged in a concerted offensive. No one could get out of the fort and the ring of defenses around it made reinforcement or evacuation from air or ground impossible. The Vietnamese leaders made a strategic decision to target Dien Bien Phu as the best avenue to accomplish a strategic goal "-- get the French out of Vietnam. The U.S. Embassy with thousands of people in Baghdad could create a similar strategic target for ISIS.
Posted by:KBK

#11  Contractors I have talked with are staying south or else well inside Kurdistan.
Posted by: OldSpook   2014-06-26 20:49  

#10  Benghazi II

There are a number of Iraqi heroes. An elected female member of their parliament, with the army retreating, acquired a bazooka and took out 3 ISIL jihadists before she was killed by an ISIL sniper.
Posted by: Thineng Angailet7166   2014-06-26 16:07  

#9  The same thing is true of Afghanistan, just delayed 3 years.

Joe is right.

Last week end our war movie club watched Battle of Algiers. In almost his first sentence Col Mathieu says there are 400,000 people out there. (in Algiers) They are not all our enemies. He was wrong. Look at history and the wars that effectively change things are wars in which they are all treated as enemies and the culture is broken. Germany, Japan, the American South, all were utterly and thoroughly defeated so that the culture could be rebuilt. We will need to do the same in the Middle East, at least to one country. Our effort in Iraq did not even come close.
Posted by: Vespasian Oppressor of the Visigoths8235   2014-06-26 14:17  

#8  The U.S. Embassy with thousands of people in Baghdad could create a similar strategic target [Dien Bien Phu] for ISIS. Also the Communists believed that you should get close enough to your enemy to grab their belts to minimize the effects of air support. If they get that close, we have a problem.
Posted by: JohnQC   2014-06-26 11:10  

#7   I kept stabbing the Tomorrow button, but it didn't seem to do anything. Is it a toggle? It doesn't highlight...

A number of bugs crept into the system when Fred made the changeover, KBK. I'll forward your comment to him for fixing. But you can also manually change the date, I think. Try that next time, if the button still hasn't been fixed.
Posted by: trailing wife   2014-06-26 11:04  

#6  JM,
Yes.
Posted by: Cliter Glaique5068   2014-06-26 08:57  

#5  I'd said long ago that the nature of the Radical Islamist threat was such that the US may have to conquer the world irregardless of whether Washington + mainstream America likes it or not, wants it or not, because the enemy is going to come after you no matter the merits or how many concessions the US makes.

History says this idea of unilaterally leaving the battlefield to the enemy has never worked, + only serves to inspire the enemy to demand or take more.

E.G. America = Amerika is under threat because zealous ideologues would rather protect Failed-n-Still-Failing Socialism at any price than protect the borders + other.

WID EYES WIDE OPEN, N-O-T EYES WIDE SHUT.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2014-06-25 22:26  

#4  I kept stabbing the Tomorrow button, but it didn't seem to do anything. Is it a toggle? It doesn't highlight...
Posted by: KBK   2014-06-25 22:14  

#3  If there are still thousends, and Balad is under attack, it may be too late.

Why didn't they leave a week and a half ago, or did they have to play host for Kerry?
Posted by: swksvolFF   2014-06-25 21:18  

#2  The General has it exactly right. Balad air base is currently under attack. This article needs to be run tomorrow for a full day's worth of comment.
Posted by: Besoeker   2014-06-25 21:10  

#1  s/becore/before Thanks.
Posted by: KBK   2014-06-25 21:08  

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