Advancing toward the bloody battle of Mosul, U.S. Special Forces, the Iraqi Army and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters all joined in to clear out the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] from fortified towns and villages north of the city. Dying dismantling a roadside bomb, a U.S. Special Forces bomb specialist was the first U.S. soldier to die the current operation fighting along side Iraqi and Kurdish fighters. Showing competing interests among major combatants in Iraq, Turkish forces continue shelling Kurdish Protection Units [YPG] and Kurdistan Workers Party [PKK], despite the Kurds being an integral part of the Iraq-U.S. effort to defeat ISIS. Since the failed July 16 attempted coup, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has relentlessly persecuted all groups, especially the Kurds. White House officials can’t get Erdogan to stand down from attacking the Kurds.
Speaking last night at the final presidential debate in Las Vegas, Democratic nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton talked about her support of rebels seeking to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. GOP nominee real estate mogul Donald Trump reminded Hillary that she didn’t have a clue about the terror groups she supports in Syria. Hillary ripped Russian President Vladimir Putin for hacking Democratic Websites, embarrassing her campaign with a string of unwanted revelations. Unlike Trump, Hillary backs Sen. John McCain’s (R-Az.) call to escalate U.S. involvement to protect Saudi-U.S.-backed opposition groups. Trump accused Clinton of getting badly outmaneuvered by Putin, admonishing Hillary to stop talking tough about Russia. If Hillary of McCain get their way, they’d set up a dangerous no-fly zone to stop Syrian and Russian bombing.
Watching the first American die in the battle for Mosul, underscores the risks of putting U.S. soldiers on the ground. While Obama insists that no American boots are on the ground in Iraq or Syria, the latest casualty proves that false. Whether they’re called infantry or Special Forces, U.S. forces are part of a coalition to defeat ISIS. Trump pointed out that if he were present, there wouldn’t be an ISIS because he would not have created a power vacuum in Iraq, pulling out U.S. forces Dec. 15, 2011. Battling IEDs, suicide car and truck bombings heading into the town of Bartella, nine miles from Mosul’s city limits, Iraq, Kurdis and U.S. Special Forces come under siege. Today’s death drives home the consequences of continued U.S. military involvement in Iraq. With over 5,000 Special Forces in Iraq, the U.S. presence has been steadily escalating for the last year.
Iraqi, Kurdish and U.S. Special Forces are bound to suffer more losses once the battle of Mosul officially begins. Fending off waves of IEDs and ISIS suicide car and truck bombers, Iraqi, Kurdish and U.S. forces come into harm’s way. “After we break them in Bartella, everywhere else, they will crumble,” said Iraqi Maj. Gen. Fadhil Barwani, admitting that ISIS had abandoned Bartella, leaving behind only a few snipers and suicide bombers. Iraq’s Shiite Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told a post-liberation conference in Paris that liberating Mosul was going more quickly than planned. Iraqi, Kurdish and U.S. “forces are currently pushing forward . . . more quickly than we thought, and more quickly certainly than we established in our plan of campaign,” not yet facing too much adversity. When Iraqi forces faced ISIS in 2014 the army collapsed, handing ISIS a great victory.
Heading into Sunni territory in-and-around Mosul, al-Abadi doesn’t know what to expect, considering the failure in 2014. Without the Kurd’s Peshmerga fighters and U.S. Special Forces, the Iraqi army wouldn’t deal well facing mainly Sunni militias. Sunni militias and ISIS fighters have been dealing with Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah militia and Iran’s al-Quds forces for nearly two years, stoking sectarian strife. Whether the Iraq’s army can get beyond sectarian strife between Shiites and Sunnis is anyone’s guess. What’s known for sure is that the multi-ethnic Kurds are hated by both Shiites and Sunnis. Erdogan’s Salafist Sunni slaughter of the Kurds exposes the complexity of sectarian war in Iraq and Syria. When the going gets tough, there’s no guarantee Iraq’s Shiite army will hold up not from ISIS but the numerous Sunni militias backed by the Saudis, U.S. and Turkey.
Reports of Iraq’s Shiite forces running into problems with Kurdish and Sunni militias have already started. Many of Iraq’s Humvees heading into battle were decorated with Shiite religious symbols, running afoul with Kurds and Sunnis. “They asked if we were militias. We said we’re not militias, we are Iraqi forces, and these are out beliefs,” said Ali Saad, a proud Shiite Iraqi Special Forces soldier. Iraqi forces cut-and-ran in 2014, handing their U.S.-made equipment over to ISIS because former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki couldn’t hold together Shiite and Sunnis in the same army. Hoping that things are different now, there’s no reason to believe that there’s unity inside Iraq’s army between Shiites and Sunnis. Shiite and Sunnis have a lot of fence- mending before they can fight under one flag. When it comes to the Kurds, they’re hated by all groups, especially the Turks.
