The Ramadi illusion - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/01/iraq-ramadi-illusion-capture-islamic-state-army.html#ixzz3wPKayMIn
Ultimately, what has been missing in the debate on Ramadi is the larger picture of what IS is doing and what its enemies are displaying in terms of performance and outlook. And here too, three key factual dimensions tell the tale: Over the past years, the Iraqi military has been consistently divided and unable to hold ground or remain a steady administrative force; IS has stayed ahead of the game for the past two years since it started its two-pronged Levantine campaign in early 2014 and has not suffered a significant setback since — Ramadi December 2015 included; and, time and again, battles for secondary cities (yesterday Kobani, today Ramadi, tomorrow Fallujah) are presented as game-changers when the second biggest city in Iraq (Mosul) has been in the hands of IS since June 2014, as has, for that matter, one of the biggest cities in Syria (Raqqa). At best, the second battle of Ramadi is a further illustration of the hybrid new wars where attrition, siege, drones, air cover, disinformation, infantry, car bombings and counterterrorism blend to generate temporary advances in the face of fluid situations. What Iraq and Afghanistan taught us is that this game of hybridity and flux is best played by the mutating actors, which second-generation transnational armed groups are becoming.
Read more: ▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/01/iraq-ramadi-illusion-capture-islamic-state-army.html#ixzz3wStN6V6F