ISIS Caught in Vise As Battle For Iraq Rages - NBC News
Hopefully our Aussie friends contributed to this push back near Kirkuk!
Something in that article, however, made me a bit unhappy.
The battle for Tikrit is very different from the assault by the Kurds. It's massive; at least 24,000 troops, according to Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. Of those, he says 20,000 are from various Shi'ite militia groups. They in turn are trained, armed and backed by Iran. Iranian commanders are on the ground in Tikrit helping them, including one of the most famous fighters from Tehran, the head of the Revolutionary Guards elite force, Qassem Suleimani.
Before the 2003 invasion, one of the arguments against that invasion, made by people who knew that region (including the most recent CENTCOM commander before General Franks) was that all it would do would improve the position of Iran in the region.
Looks like the intended Domino effect W wished to have is not only not happening, but Iran is getting more fingers into Iraq, thus improving its regional hand ... and making (among others) the Saudis very, very paranoid. Can there be a doubt that the Sauds are (on the quiet) trying to get their hands on a few nukes? For example, from Pakistan?
