Iraq's response is to now send in the Iranian backed Shi'a militias.
Ramadi fell despite several airstrikes in the past few days. Our strategy is not working.
The deterioration of Anbar over the last month underscored the ineffectiveness of the Iraqi Army, which is being trained by American military advisers, and raised questions about the United States strategy to defeat the Islamic State. At the same time, now that the militias are being called upon, the collapse of Ramadi has demonstrated again the influence of Iran.
The loss of Ramadi is far more significant than yesterday's raid in Syria.
More important is to create Sunni military forces in both Syria and Iraq that are able and willing to fight against ISIS with American help. But there is scant sign of progress on this front, because the Obama administration has held U.S. policy in Iraq hostage to the dictates of Baghdad, where the Shiite sectarians who are in control are, to put it mildly, unenthusiastic about arming Sunnis.
That’s why Ramadi fell and why there will be little success in rolling back ISIS’ gains in Syria and Iraq–because Sunnis still see ISIS as the lesser evil compared to domination by Shiite extremists armed and supported by Iran. That is the fundamental strategic problem that must be addressed in order to make progress against ISIS. Special Operations raids, no matter how successful, are of scant importance by comparison.
Baghdad can't defeat ISIS without the support of Sunnis. Its refusal to arm them and continued reliance on Iranian backed Shi'ia militias will lead to more ISIS victories. Most analysts I'm reading share this view:
Falluja and Abu Ghraib are next - ISIS cannot be defeated in Iraq until Baghdad chooses Sunni Iraqis ahead of Iran
We are just throwing our money down the drain in providing arms and training to Iraq. As to yesterday's raid, as one of its fighters says:
Obama: "Hey look what we've done ya'll!!(killing a IS Amir and some fighters in the middle of nowhere)
IS in the meanwhile? Taking cities.
Our military involvement in Iraq is just fueling violence. Here's an excellent article on why U.S. military involvement not going to defeat ISIS or help the Iraqi or Syrian people. We should be exiting the arena, not doubling down.