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[/audioplayer]War is a contest of wills. Although determination alone does not guarantee final victory, its absence makes defeat all but inevitable.
Way back in the 1770s, Britain lost most of its north American colonies because rebellious Americans cared more about gaining their independence than George III and his ministers cared about preserving their empire. Today, if Isis fighters care more about creating their caliphate than Iraqis do about preserving their country, then Iraq may be doomed.
At Saratoga in 1777, a scratch force of American Continentals and militiamen defeated 7,000 regulars under the command of Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne. It marked a major turning point in the American Revolutionary War. We may eventually see Isis’s recent seizure of Ramadi as an event of comparable significance.
As with the British at Saratoga, so with the Iraqi security forces in Ramadi: overall performance was abysmal.
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