Killed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] near the town of Erbil on a reconnaissance mission before the battle for Mosul, an elite Navy Seal paid the ultimate price. Pulling out U.S. combat forces from Iraq Dec. 15, 2011, President Barack Obama has been reluctant to get back involved for this exact reason: The cost of U.S. lives. Killed in action, the Navy Seal, whose name has not yet been released, was “on a Peshmerga position approximately 3 to 5 kilometers [1.8 to 1.3 miles] behind the forward line of troops,” Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in statement. Breaking through Kurdish positions with a truck bomb followed by automatic rifle fire, the battlefield near Mosul has been morphing into hazardous territory. With ongoing U.S. drone strikes and Peshmerga ground attacks, ISIS terrorists are engaged in preemptive strikes before the ultimate battle for Mosul.
Embattled 63-year-old Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi promised Dec. 28, 2015 to retake Mosul by the end of 2016. While that’s possible, the U.S. Iraq-Syrian policy has been tripping on its shoelaces. Watching the Turks pound Peshmerga positions in the Syria near the Turkish border shows how Obama has buried the U.S. in quicksand, placating all sides while elite U.S. forces pay the ultimate price. White House officials don’t see the linkage between Turkish attacks on the Kurdish Protection Units [YPG] and PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] and the main U.S. fighting force in Iraq and Syria. Watching the latest round of Syrian peace talks fail in Geneva shows how Obama’s policy has made things worse in Iraq and Syria. Massacring scores of patients in an Aleppo maternity hospital, the U.S. backed rebel group Nour Al Edin Al Zenkey claimed responsibility.
More U.S. special operations troops are bound to die in an escalating conflict for Iraq to retake its key oil-rich city of Mosul. Dying May 2, a week after Obama announced another 250 Special Forces, the death of a Navy Seal portends things to come as the battle for Mosul heats up. Whatever one thinks of the Iraq War, Obama was stuck cleaning up former President George W. Bush’s mess but chose, after winning his Nobel Peace Prize Oct. 9, 2009, to end U.S. military involvement in Iraq Dec. 15, 2011. Arming the Free Syrian Army’s Brig. Gen. Salim Idris paved the way for Saddam Hussein’s leftover Revolutionary Guards to steal the heavy equipment and war materiel before morphing into ISIS. After seizing some 30% of Iraq and Syria in 2014, it’s far more complicated today to get rid of ISIS. Obama’s one-foot-in, one-foot-out Iraq-Syria policy has added to the chaos.
Only willing to commit Special Forces to Iraq and Syria, Obama’s paved the way for more U.S. deaths. “This sad news is a reminder of the dangers of our men and women in uniform face every day in the ongoing fight to destroy ISIL [ISIS], and end the threat the group poses to the United States and the rest of the world,” said Cook. What Cook doesn’t say is that U.S. Special Forces are inappropriately used without combat forces preparing the battlefield. Obama can’t have it both ways: Sending small numbers of Special Forces into Iraq and expecting to properly prepare the battlefield. Iraq and Syria are high-risk places precisely because they lack adequate U.S. combat force reinforcements. “Our coalition will honor this sacrifice by deal ISIL a lasting defeat,” said Cook, unable to explain how small numbers of Special Forces can possibly defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Obama’s one-foot in, one-foot-out military strategy can only lead to more U.S. casualties. More U.S. casualties are expected without a corresponding combat troop buildup, something Obama leaves for the next president. With the battle of Iraq’s Mosul and Syria’s Raqqa looming, it’s unrealistic to think the beleaguered Iraqi and Kurdish forces can handle the heavy lifting without U.S. help. “It is a combat death, of course. And a very sad loss,” said 61-year-old U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, making another characteristic faux pas. When Carte speaks of combat deaths, it’s precisely what the Obama White House denies: That the U.S. has any combat troops in Iraq or Syria. “Killed in northern Iraq as a result of enemy fire,” Carter, admits that elite Special Forces are being used inappropriately. Pentagon officials shouldn’t talk about defeating ISIS without a bigger U.S. footprint.
Before more U.S. Special Forces die in Iraq and Syria, the U.S. better get its strategy right before joining battles in Mosul and Raqqa. Dug into Iraq and Syria with about 30,000 terrorists, the U.S., Iraq and Kurds have their work cut out for them if they hope to retake Mosul, as al-Abadi promised, by year’s end. Al-Abadi’s power-base has been challenged by radical Shiite Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose al-Mahdi militia still commands clout in Iraq. With al-Sadr protesting in Baghdad, it’s threatening al-Abadi’s U.S.-backed regime. Al-Sadr has close ties with Tehran, once shielded during the 2004 first-and-second battles of Fallujah. “Prime Minister Abadi stands for, and has been a partner in, all the things that are important to Iraq’s future, namely, a country that holds together and doesn’t just spiral off into sectarianism,” said Carter, yet offering him very little actual support.
