Could Baghdad be the next city to fall to ISIS?

Common sense knows no rank. You are right on the money.

I agree it was not stabilized.

I disagree that we should stayed. No amt of money, equipment or American lives would/will help Iraq until Iraq wants to help itself.

Neither Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki or his govt had the courage to see a real future for Iraq and instead chose to focus on centuries-old customs and cultural differences. Heck, they could have kept us there just by agreeing to extend the Status of Forces agreement previously signed by President Bush's govt. They didn't, and in fact they were already pissed about the dates in that agreement, let alone extending it ... and in my opinion, it would have been criminal for President Obama's administration to keep us there without that agreement in place.

They got what they wanted, and until IRAQIs show the fortitude to invest in real change, aka Germany, Japan, etc, we should not be there in any significant size on the ground.

I'm just looking at the overall chess game that ISIS seems to be playing pretty well w/ the Iraqis. They attack one major point in order to draw forces there, then take over the place that those forces were pulled from.

Our problem is, as was so eloquently stated yesterday by POTUS, that we don't have a defined strategy to fight ISIS. If we get involved to a great extent again, will be have better ROEs, or will we still be forced to triple confirm that no one but the bad guys will get hurt before we return fire? (I know, that was a gross over-exaggeration, but the point remains the same)

ISIS works off of the "Dread Pirate Roberts" factor against the Iraqis. Their reputation is so nasty that everyone is scared to fight them. Not saying that they don't know how to fight....but when units who have the will to stand against them, they have had success.

The ISIS strategy seems to be working well in their favor. The U.S. seems poor at developing any time of long term strategy for dealing with these issues in Iraq and as of now it looks like we just fly around, find some targets, kill them, and fly home. There is not much direction to this thing at all.

LTC Paul Labrador
Very true, sir. The Kurds have shown this and when properly supplied, have performed well in the field. Another issue happening seems to be Baghdad's reluctance to send support to besieged soldiers, such as in Ramadi. From what I have read, the IA (specifically IA special operations units) fought until they ran out of ammo trying to hold the city but their calls for aid went unanswered. Fresh supplies and soldiers from Baghdad could have changed the outcome. It seems like there are not many in Iraq that have the stomach to fight.
I helped train the IA in the north and my experience was terrible. Those guys were not interested in being soldiers, they just wanted a paycheck, cool guy gear, and pictures with Americans to put on their Facebook. They were lazy and in poor shape. I cannot speak for all of the Iraqi Army, but those guys were poor excuses for soldiers. I am not surprised many have ran.