The Iraqi Army No Longer Exists

It exaggerates much about the overall strength of the ISF. They still do exist, however they are stretched extremely thin, all over the country. Tikrit likely was a lure for the ISF, exploited by ISIS to attack their rear area.

What is important to mention is that it is hard to know exactly how strong ISIS is without good intel assets there. The article briefly alludes to this as the fog of war, but its really much more than just that. When you draws your intelligence assets down in a region like this at the same time you do your military, then surprises like Ramadi are going to happen.

ISIS has taken over vast swaths of territory and bases, not only in Iraq, but in Syria, and have received weapons from black markets all over the MENA region. It is hard to come up with a viable strategy against something like that, until you first increase your intelligence that you have on them. In my own opinion, that needs to be the first step.

It doesn't sound good.