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<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nAW1Ed sends us a link to the news that the sounds of shot fired in anger has stalled the Iraqi as hey prepare to take back Mosul from ISIS. According to Fox News<\/a>;<\/p>\n The Iraqi army, which was heavily criticized for abandoning posts \u2013 and weapons \u2013 as ISIS moved in on Mosul in June of 2014, had begun taking small villages on the outskirts after Baghdad announced the campaign March 24. But the liberation effort, which was to include Shia and Sunni militias, Kurds, Christians and Yazidis with U.S.-led coalition support, was quickly paused when the opposition struck back.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Iraqi Army commenced an assault on ISIS strongholds around Mosul, but when ISIS fired back, the Iraqi Army ran away and the assaults ended,\u201d a western, Iraq-based security and defense specialist told FoxNews.com of last week\u2019s failed offensive. \u201cSo now they are regrouping and rethinking their next options.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Let’s go back a year to when Marty Dempsey was still the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. When he was asked by journalists<\/a> if they had a plan to defend Mosul from an ISIS onslaught;<\/p>\n \u201cWell, no, there were not,\u201d Dempsey replies in the interview with Frontline\u2019s Martin Smith when asked if there were any contingency plans inside the Pentagon for how to respond if Mosul were to fall to terrorists from the Islamic State (or ISIL, as the group is sometimes called.)<\/p>\n \u201cSo, look, there were several things that surprised us about ISIL,\u201d Dempsey adds. \u201cThe degree to which they were able to form their own coalition, both inside of Syria \u2014 and inside of northwestern Iraq; the military capability that they exhibited \u2014 the collapse of the Iraq Security Forces. Yeah, in those initial days, there were a few surprises.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, that was a year ago, and they’re still getting the same level of proficiency from the Iraqi Army. In September, CENTCOM’s analysts<\/a> were complaining that they were being forced to present a rosier picture of the war against ISIS for the public’s consumption. I wonder how they’ll spin this one. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"