Ramadi Remedy

 

The Iraqi army retook Ramadi and is in the process of finishing off the ISIS die-hards whom you may think have not a chance in hell of winning Ramadi back…..unless you listen to the BBC which downplays the hard-won victory and sees only more war, destruction and of course refugees coming out of more such attacks on ISIS positions.  The BBC’s reports following the main battle seemed solely concerned with the suffering of the civilians rather than the extraordinary victory of the Iraqi army which the BBC has always written off as undisciplined and lacking moral and at odds with the Sunni tribes.

That has now all been turned on its head…the Iraq army defeated ISIS forces in the hardest form of combat, urban warfare, and they did it with the help of Sunni tribal militia…who the BBC now admits were present…

Over the weekend Iraqi troops and allied Sunni tribal fighters helped civilians to safer places in Ramadi.

Listening to the BBC report on FOOC you knew you were being ‘groomed’ to be expected to accept more refugees due to the war and that the plight of the civilians was so awful that they had no choice but to flee to Europe….only as an after thought did the Iraqi army’s victory get a word or two of modest praise for their achievement.

The BBC’s unwillingness to ring the bells is nothing new of course…..it has spent years attacking the British army and doing everything it could to prevent it doing its job by making the politicians run scared of casualties both ours and civilians….

A former Army commander says there is a “real risk” that Britain could lose the conflict in Afghanistan.

Col Stuart Tootal, writing in the Sunday Mirror, said a lack of political will could damage the military campaign against the Taleban.

Col Tootal said that if the conflict was lost “it will not be in places like Helmand, but in the corridors of power in cities like London and Washington.

“Counter-insurgency conflicts are rarely lost by the fighting troops, but in the arena of domestic public opinion when there is a lack of the political will to make the right commitment to see them through.”

Col Tootal said he believed the campaign in Afghanistan to be “winnable”.

But he added: “Mounting casualties and an incoherent and under-resourced strategy paint a pessimistic picture.

“It will take statesmanship to put extra troops, helicopters, equipment and proper development programmes in place, but the benefits are considerable.”

 

The politicians are lacking the will because they know they will be hung out to dry by the BBC….a BBC already licking its lips at the prospect of British troops being dragged through the courts once again due to ambulance chasing lawyers drumming up allegations of abuse from any Iraqi they could get to make the claims.

David Vance said it all way back in 2009…

It must be awful to be a UK military family listening to the BBC for news of the campaign in Afghanistan. Radio Taliban would be less depressing than the State Broadcaster. The meme concerning Afghanistan has now morphed into the same one that prevailed when we were in Iraq. The cause is hopeless, we cannot win, UK lives are being sacrificed for no reason, we must get out. It’s defeatism, of course, and it is something the BBC excels at promoting.

Nothing has changed…here’s the BBC today trying its best to paint an entirely negative picture of British airstrikes in Syria……Are UK bombs making a difference in Syria?

Despite the vote, the focus of British military action has continued to be on Iraq. The RAF’s much lauded brimstone missile has not yet even been fired over Syria.

The prime minister’s claim that the RAF would make a “meaningful difference” there has yet to be borne out.

It is worth recalling that David Cameron argued for Britain to join the Syria air strikes.

Before the parliamentary vote, David Cameron admitted the situation on the ground in Syria was “complex”.

But his assertion that there were about 70,000 Syrian opposition fighters, who did not belong to extremists groups, still seems fanciful.

Britain’s very limited involvement in Syria, along with its limited number of aircraft, still raises questions and doubts.

Is the UK really making a “meaningful difference”? Or was the vote on 2 December as much to do with politics as military effect?

Note the sneering tone and negative language.  The reporter asks if the Syria vote had a political element….he asks as if this was some sort of secret…and yet we always knew that the US was the main provider of airstrikes and that we would be providing very few but it was important to have that option and to stand alongside our allies especially as the Russians were getting more and more involved…..

David Cameron set out the “moral” and “security” case for bombing Isis in Syria in the Commons last week, saying it was morally unacceptable to leave the US, France and other allies to carry the burden. “If not now, when?” he asked MPs.

Cameron also stated that…

I’m not saying that we will solve this problem simply by crossing a line from Iraq into Syria.

“We’ll solve this problem if we have a political strategy, a diplomatic strategy, a humanitarian strategy.”

It is an irony that the BBC, which complains so bitterly about airstrikes happening, is now complaining that there aren’t enough of them.  It seems that the BBC is solely intent on creating negative news about the war and about the government.  Also an irony that it is the BBC et al who always say that bombing alone cannot defeat the likes of ISIS…..and now complain impatiently as Cameron pieces together a political, diplomatic and humanitarian strategy as well as the necessary intelligence to complement and guide the military action…after all getting all those ‘moderate’ rebels to unite won’t be a quick  nor easy task.

And let’s not forget...the UN sanctioned action against ISIS….

The resolution unanimously agreed at the UN security council on Friday gives us a compelling mandate to act – legally and morally.

 

I’m guessing the BBC must be desperately casting around for as much negativity as possible in light of the UN approval pulling the rug from under their usual anti-war rhetoric.