Another City Falls in Iraq - Tikrit falls to militants

news.yahoo.com...

Tikrit (Iraq) (AFP) - Militants took control of the Iraqi city of Tikrit and freed hundreds of prisoners on Wednesday, police said, the second provincial capital to fall in two days.

Mosul fell yesterday. Now Tikrit has fallen.

"All of Tikrit is in the hands of the militants," a police colonel said of the Salaheddin provincial capital, which lies roughly half way between Baghdad and Iraq's second city Mosul which fell on Tuesday.

A police brigadier general said that the militants attacked from the north, west and south of the city, and that they were from powerful jihadist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

This new offensive started just a few days ago, and has been extremely successful for the ISIL. All of Nineveh province is now under their control, parts of Salaheddin and parts of Kirkuk are also now under their control. The Iraqi army basically fled these areas immediately once they came under attack. No doubt the ISIL has captured a large amount of equipment and bolstered their numbers with all of the prisoners freed.

With the rate this is going, expect more cities/provinces to fall in the next few days.

a reply to: buni11687

I am sure they are enjoying all those weapons the US taxpayers payed for. Why did we go there again? Oh yeah, we wanted to fatten a few pockets rather than rebuilding our own crumbling infrastructure. Sounds about right....

Good luck to the people of Iraq!

a reply to: buni11687

LMAO great job Bush, Cheney, Clinton and Obama...you caused more problems then you solved. You made Iraq unstable and you made the rest of the world hate us. Put all their brains together you wouldn't have enough intelligence to blow your nose.

Somebody break out a Ouja board and lets get to asking the ghosts of servicemen if it was worth it.

originally posted by: Evanzsayz
a reply to: buni11687

LMAO great job Bush, Cheney, Clinton and Obama...you caused more problems then you solved. You made Iraq unstable and you made the rest of the world hate us. Put all their brains together you wouldn't have enough intelligence to blow your nose.

You got that right.
Now if we only knew who was behind the curtain, pulling the strings.

This saddens me, I lost quite a few friends in Tikrit, I dont know whether to be remorseful of their loss or angered right now.....

Semper Fi devil dogs....

originally posted by: thisguyrighthere
Somebody break out a Ouja board and lets get to asking the ghosts of servicemen if it was worth it.

I dunno if you meant for this to be disrespectful or to point out the irony..

But to those men who saved the lives of their brothers standing next to them at the cost of their own, yes it was worth it...

When you are in battle you dont fight for your president, you could give give two sh*ts about politics, why youre there in that moment doesnt matter, what matters is making sure your buddies get back home to their families..

This is however as I think you were pointing out, a slap in the face to the men who fell in battle.

a reply to: ManBehindTheMask

I hear ya as I too was stationed just outside Tikrit for all of 05 at Speicher. This is a sad thing that is happening here and could of been avoided.

My observations of people there is dependent on who they were. The IA's for the most part we trusted, the police not at all. Our main job was IED patrols and the large majority of them were placed within eyesight of IP checkpoints. One soldier was killed by an IED (on mothers day no less) that was placed inside a hesco barrier right outside an IP's LPOP. Either they did it or their friends did.

Most times the IPs only had 1 magazine for their pistols. Then again I've known Iraqi MPs who had no firearms and only clubs. I can see how the army ran when I'm willing to bet they had no ammo or even weapons to fight.

I am sorry for having taken part in destabilizing a country.

originally posted by: thisguyrighthere
Somebody break out a Ouja board and lets get to asking the ghosts of servicemen if it was worth it.

This post nails it. My God .. what a damn waste. Young Americans offer to enter military service to defend America, and instead they get put into some idiot politicians meat grinder on the other side of the planet. There will come a day when America really will need to be defended ... and by then everyone will have decided not to volunteer because the politicians have abused them as canon fodder though the decades.

a reply to: ManBehindTheMask

When you are in battle you dont fight for your president, you could give give two sh*ts about politics, why youre there in that moment doesnt matter, - See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...

I understand that notion. It is righteous amongst all that fight, no matter what language you speak or color of your skin.

That moment does matter, yes. I just wish those moments could be avoided by realizing other moments that lead to the moment you speak of.

what matters is making sure your buddies get back home to their families.. - See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...

True, that matters the most.

Why cant the moments be realized when your ordered to go to war, that the best way in making your buddies get back home is to never have them leave and kill someone else s father or brother in another land.

All war is deception, all our leaders lie to us if war must be fought. It matters not whether the leaders are fanatical Muslims or Conservative Christians, the only way to get support for war is through deception of some sort.

Wars cannot be fought with truth, because the truth is we all want to live.

Thank you for the honesty. a reply to: IncognitoGhostman

a reply to: neversaynever

How do you really feel? Disagree with a government policy fine. Wishing death to someone or to a group and actually finding joy in it is another thing all together.

a reply to: buni11687

It is not Long before the Caliphate is re-constituted

... most likely right after 2016 when Obama-Soterro vacates the presidential office

Nice, liberation of Iraq is at work. Democracy and Freedom working well it seems.

Oh no! That place that's been a warzone since creation is experiencing violence?
Well we better politicize the hell out of this!

a reply to: buni11687

The biggest question this raises is what does it mean for Iraqi Kurdistan?

The province of Nineveh with its capital Mosul has a massive Kurdish population.
The Kirkuk region is very Kurdish also, and I have no doubts the Kurds will destroy ISIS, they have a lot of oil wealth to spend on weapons and training.
However the bigger question is with Iraq falling into chaos, and the Iraqi Kurdistan region relatively peaceful and affluent then the potentiality exists that the Kurds may retake Mosul and Kirkuk, and then annex part of the region to their state and declare Independence, many locals would welcome this as they are ethnic Kurds or despise the Baghdad government.

We are watching the breakup of Iraq, the Kurds may be the ultimate victors, reclaiming lost land and finally gaining their hard won independance.

Very interesting times.

a reply to: neversaynever

Americans, as in people, don't have control over the government. Yes there are lot of war mongers disguised as average american, but still, im sure they were misled by the spreading of "freedom and democracy".. which was more like pillage and rape.

I sorta wonder whether the west is letting Iraq become taken over by militants. because they know, that the only thing keeping Iran in check is a unified Iraq. Saddam may have been a bad person but he sure kept his population under control. Ther Western powers may want another type of Saddam in power