As Iraq Self-Destructs....

"They are adaptive and they remain well-armed and well-resourced."
"The different lines of operation by the U.S. coalition remain disjointed, poorly resourced and lack an effective operational framework, in my view."
Derek Harvey, retired army colonel, former Defense Intelligence Agency officer

"The president's plan isn't working. It's time for him to come up with [an] overarching strategy to defeat the ongoing terrorist threat."
U.S. House Speaker John Boehner

Government troops have been pushed back by Islamic State fighters

Yesterday Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi swore he would arm Sunni tribesmen to enable them to give assistance in the retaking of Ramadi. This is a plan that has been encouraged by the United States; to equalize the positions of the minority Sunni community in Iraq, to give them confidence that they have equal status in the country of their birth, and give hope for the future.

Pledge he may as Prime Minister of a severely divided country whose future is at risk mostly because of its tribal and sectarian dysfunctionality, but his own government is responsible for alienating the Sunni minority, giving them due cause to side with the jihadi Sunni Islamic State militias. When Mosul was taken by ISIS, a similar pledge was given, to empower the Iraqi Sunni tribes, to turn them away from ISIS.

It simply failed to materialize, so little wonder the Sunni tribes met this pledge with the skepticism it deserved. Since the pledge was immediately met with resistance from Shiites within al-Abadi's own government, yet again. They are adamantly opposed to arming their Sunni citizens tribal members, even for the purpose of demonstrating trust and expectations of equality; perhaps particularly because there is no trust and no expectations and equality will continue to be denied them.

Sending them right back into the tender arms of Islamic State, empowering the jihadists instead. Simultaneously the Iraqi government rallied Iranian-backed Shiite militiamen to the offensive. Adding fuel to the fire of distrust on the part of Iraq's Sunnis and in the process increasing the potential of ongoing sectarian frictions in a country already split asunder from the same source.

The Shiite militiamen have been useful to the government, loyal to the Islamic Republic of Iran which gives them their orders, but their reputation for hostile abuse of the Sunni population has not gone unnoticed anywhere and they're held in detestation. They are mostly deployed on routes from Anbar province leading to Shiite holy sites, prepared to defend those sites, not necessarily Ramadi itself.

Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren has estimated that tanks, artillery pieces, armoured personnel carriers and hundreds of Humvee type wheeled vehicles have fallen into the hands of Islamic State. Most of which will be destroyed in U.S.-led air strikes when the Islamic State jihadists attempt to use them. Similar in pattern to what has occurred over the past year, with Iraqi troops fleeing, leaving American-supplied military equipment for Islamic State.

The inability of Iraqi forces, even after repeated instruction and training led by U.S. special forces, to hold their own against the Islamic State terrorists, even with the help of Iranian-backed militias leads to questioning the Obama administration's blueprint in Iraq; a blend of retraining and rebuilding the Iraqi military, and urging Baghdad to reconcile with the country's Sunnis.

And now, the march by Islamic State on Palmyra, the ancient city of the desert, has resulted in its capture and the anticipated destruction of UNESCO-designated heritage, an immense loss to the world of historical artefacts and treasured historical objects of antiquity.