In the fight against ISIS in Iraq, Anbar province is decisive and to turn things around there:
The United States needs to expand a limited advise-and-assist mission in Iraq into embattled Anbar province, where some Iraqi forces are isolated and in defensive positions against Islamic State, the top U.S. military officer said on Thursday.
As Reuters reports, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made it clear that:
“… the precondition for that is that the government of Iraq is willing to arm the tribes. We have positive indications that they are, but we haven’t begun to do it yet.”
The general’s way with pronouns makes that statement a bit confusing. But the arming will be done by the U.S.
It, that is, it is done at all. We armed the Sunni tribes of Anbar once, back when it was Bush’s war. And this led to the success – one might even call it a victory – of the Anbar Awakening.
The prospects this time are not so promising. Especially as Dempsey made it:
… unclear if the advisers would be Americans or come from other participating nations in the U.S.-led coalition.
When it comes to U.S. strategy for dealing with ISIS, nothing clear.
