{"id":8422,"date":"2015-03-02T21:48:13","date_gmt":"2015-03-02T21:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=8422"},"modified":"2015-03-02T21:48:13","modified_gmt":"2015-03-02T21:48:13","slug":"isil-making-a-stand-in-saddams-hometown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=8422","title":{"rendered":"ISIL making a stand in Saddam's hometown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Iraqi forces are launching a major offensive to take Tikrit away from the Islamic State.<\/p>\n

Do we see the symbolism here?<\/p>\n

http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/major-offensive-under-way-retake-iraqs-tikrit-army-081036649.html<\/p>\n

Tikrit is the hometown of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.<\/p>\n

ISIL is a Sunni Muslim cult that seeks to take Iraq away from the Shiites who now govern the country.<\/p>\n

Hussein was a Sunni Muslim.<\/p>\n

I would like to think of the battle for Tikrit to be some sort of ISIL’s Last Stand, if you’ll pardon the reference to a 19th-century\u00a0American military officer.<\/p>\n

Sadly, it won’t be a last stand. There will be other stands, other battles to fight, other cities to liberate from these monstrous terrorists.<\/p>\n

But the Tikrit battle that is unfolding with a reported 30,000 Iraqi army troops taking part could give us a good indication of just how battle-ready the Iraqi armed forces are for the fight that lies ahead.<\/p>\n

If the Iraqis succeed in recapturing Tikrit, they can turn their forces\u00a0toward where it really and truly matters.<\/p>\n

As the news agency AFP reports: “Commanders voiced hope the operation would be a step towards the recapture of Mosul, the jihadists’ main hub in Iraq.”<\/p>\n

This is the Iraqis’ fight to win or lose. Their benefactors — the United States of America — need to know they’re up to the task.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iraqi forces are launching a major offensive to take Tikrit away from the Islamic State. Do we see the symbolism here? http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/major-offensive-under-way-retake-iraqs-tikrit-army-081036649.html Tikrit is the hometown of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. ISIL is a Sunni Muslim cult that seeks to take Iraq away from the Shiites who now govern the country. Hussein was … Continue reading ISIL making a stand in Saddam's hometown<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2335,2347,2362,3136,4069,4256,4464,4805],"class_list":["post-8422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-news","tag-iraqi-armed-forces","tag-isil","tag-islamic-state","tag-mosul","tag-saddam-hussein","tag-shiite-muslims","tag-sunni-muslims","tag-tikrit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}