It’s a good story, tough old bird, ex-PJ, fighting the good fight. But then I get to this:
The line they oversee straddles the ISIS corridor to Syria, and is a key supply route to reinforce Mosul with both men and equipment. Yet even as the long-awaited move to retake Mosul is underway, the western front has been largely unguarded by the coalition of Iraqi army, Kurdish forces, Shia militia and U.S. advisersworking together against ISIS.
“Conventional military wisdom says you encircle your enemy and defeat him,” Shumock said. “For some reason, they’ve left the western side of Mosul all the way to Syria open, and, as the general told you, we see 500 vehicles moving every day, resupplying Mosul and Tal Afar. And there’s nothing we can do.”
As Trump pointed out repeatedly in the debates, it is bad enough that we are giving ISIS notice. It is much worse that we are simply allowing them to come and go at their pleasure. We are not only letting the leaders out, if there are any left, we are allowing resupply. Why?