Patterico's Pontifications "Back to the drawing board.
"Look for the Obama/Kerry Axis of Stupid to cave in 5. . . 4. . . 3. . . 2. . . .
That’s precisely the rationale the Mullahs have settled on. Especially since the Iranians have seen Obama’s bargaining position slip from obstructing, to containing (remember Hagel’s Freudian slip during his Senate confirmation hearings), to enabling.
The grovelling and begging was never a negotiating position, as some have observed; rather, it was President Jarrett/Obama’s preferred tactic.
Kerry told reporters: “We’re working away. Productively.”
Obama’s Iranian-nuclear strategy brings dividend: Rev Guards lead military assault on Tikrit
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| Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani on Tikrit battlefront |
. . . "For four reasons, this battle is loaded with ramifications for Obama’s Iran policy and the Islamic Republic’s drive for recognition as the leading Middle East power:
1. For Tehran it is a high-stake gamble for prestige, Its top military strategist, Al Qods Brigades chief Gen. Qassem Soleimani, was thrown into the Tikrit operation, to become the first high-ranking general Iran has ever placed publicly up front in direct command of a key battle as a guarantee of its success.
2. However, three days after the offensive was launched on Sunday, March 1, the 25,000 Iranian and Iraqi troops, backed by Iraqi Shiite militias, were still fighting outside its gates, upsetting the high hopes of a swift victory and breakthrough into the city.
Islamist forces slowed their advance by strewing hundreds of mines and roadside bombs on all the roads leading to Tikrit, while teams of suicide bombers jumped out and blew themselves up amidst the invading army – a tactic seen before in the battle for the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani.
ISIS boasted that one of the suicide bombers was an American citizen whom they dubbed “Abu Dawoud al-Amriki.”
3. The United States has no military input in the battle - neither US advisers on the ground nor aerial bombardment. . . .
Islamist forces slowed their advance by strewing hundreds of mines and roadside bombs on all the roads leading to Tikrit, while teams of suicide bombers jumped out and blew themselves up amidst the invading army – a tactic seen before in the battle for the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani.
ISIS boasted that one of the suicide bombers was an American citizen whom they dubbed “Abu Dawoud al-Amriki.”
3. The United States has no military input in the battle - neither US advisers on the ground nor aerial bombardment. . . .
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