Small Wars Journal

Getting it Right in Mosul

Sun, 11/20/2016 - 10:44pm

Getting it Right in Mosul - USA Today editorial

The battle to drive the Islamic State terrorist group out of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, is well underway, and every indication is that it's shaping up to be the bloody, grinding urban warfare military leaders have long predicted. The latest horror is that militants are arming children, even forcing them to execute citizens.

ISIL fighters might still break and run under the onslaught of U.S.-trained Iraqi and Kurdish peshmerga fighters, much as they did during the recapture of two other Iraqi cities, Fallujah and Ramadi, in the past year. But don't count on it.

When the shooting dies down, and some experts say that could take weeks, equally important will be the heavy responsibility victory brings. Winning the peace will require nimble negotiation efforts by U.S. and international diplomats and, quite possibly, an American military presence for years to come.

The surprise takeover of Mosul in 2014 by a few thousand ISIL fighters, who routed demoralized Iraqi soldiers, into a humiliating rout, and its proclamation of a new caliphate were signature achievements for the terrorist organization also known as ISIS. In a rare public appearance that year in Mosul's Great Mosque, ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi anointed himself ruler of all Muslims…

Read on.