Urban Combat Will Test US Strategy in Iraq by Missy Ryan and Mustafa Salim, Washington Post
The Obama administration has touted the modest successes in recent months of Iraqi forces and paramilitary fighters, backed by U.S. air power, as they have fought to wrest towns, villages and parts of Iraq’s rugged countryside from the Islamic State.
Now, the renewed U.S. campaign in Iraq faces a greater challenge as American advisers scramble to prepare Iraqi forces for an offensive to reclaim some of Iraq’s most important cities, which remain under the militant group’s control.
Attempting to take back the city of Mosul, the country’s second-largest, as well as Tikrit and Fallujah, will test not only the fighting power of Iraqi forces and the country’s fragile sectarian compact but also President Obama’s indirect strategy for containing the Islamic State…
Comments
It appears strategists are looking to level the playing field with our enemy and fight this urban war like police swat teams. Move the thought process from that concept and a counterinsurgency concept to a military strategy that would allow our soldiers to survive and win. If we are in a fair fight some leader has done something wrong. Change the rules of engagement to allow soldiers in contact to blow the place away. Our enemy needs to know that the soldier on the ground has immediate and overwhelming fire support.