Brutal Truths: Retreat in Ramadi should trigger a review of coalition's ISIL strategy [View all]

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Brutal truths about ISIL victories
Retreat in Ramadi should trigger a review of coalition's ISIL strategy.

20 May 2015 12:19 GMT | War & Conflict, Politics, Middle East, Iraq, ISIL
Afzal Ashraf

Afzal Ashraf is a consultant fellow at Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) and served in the UK Armed Forces. He was involved in developing a counterinsurgency strategy and in the policing and the justice sectors in Iraq.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/05/iraq-truths-isil-victories-ramadi-150519050240243.html

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As with many things in the Iraq conflict different people can interpret the fall of Ramadi in different ways. The US chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff's claim that Ramadi was "not symbolic in any way" could be construed as reasonable. Certainly Ramadi has always been a city where the insurgency's influence has ebbed and flowed, ever since the US-led invasion in 2003.

But it is also reasonable to question the effectiveness of the coalition against ISIL, particularly the willingness of Iraq's army to fight for its nation's security. The overall strategy of fighting ISIL using Western-led air power and Iraqi-only land forces is another issue worthy of critical review.

Over a year on from the blitzkrieg advance of ISIL in Iraq it seems that whatever reorganisation, training and re-equipment that the army was given, it has failed to redress its previous humiliating defeat.
Who is accountable for the fall of Ramadi?

The primary cause of its defeat a year ago was the failure of the generals to stand and fight. Despite the Iraqi prime minister's pleas to stand and fight now, it seems that soldiers are continuing to desert their positions.

Face-saving Myths

A great many face-saving myths have been created about ISIL having superior weapons and training. These are largely baseless. ISIL lacks the armour, mobility, intelligence support and air power that the Iraqi army has at its disposal.

The superiority of ISIL is in its leadership and the motivation of its foot soldiers. That is a hard pill to swallow for not just the Iraqi government but also for the US. It was the US-led war for regime change in Iraq and its considerable investment in blood and treasure to establish a new form of government that is now proving to be an embarrassing failure.

These failures translate into successes for ISIL, which in turn feeds off one victory to produce another. ISIL's success threatens not just the Iraqis and Syrians but also the rest of the world. It has caused one of the largest displacement of people in history, it has motivated one of the widest recruitment of foreign fighters ever recorded and its stated ambition to overthrow a large swath of the Middle East, Africa, Asia and even parts of Europe is unprecedented for a non-state actor.

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http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/05/iraq-truths-isil-victories-ramadi-150519050240243.html