{"id":152341,"date":"2015-05-19T19:58:54","date_gmt":"2015-05-19T19:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=152341"},"modified":"2015-05-19T19:58:54","modified_gmt":"2015-05-19T19:58:54","slug":"pentagon-spin-isis-victory-iraqi-city-ramadi-called-delusional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/war-terrorism\/pentagon-spin-isis-victory-iraqi-city-ramadi-called-delusional\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon Spin on ISIS Victory in Iraqi City of Ramadi Called ‘Delusional’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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‘It\u2019s unbelievable, frankly. I now know what it\u2019s like to have lived through Vietnam, I guess.’<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

(Common Dreams<\/a>) –\u00a0Statements from the Pentagon and the Obama administration attempting to downplay the significance of the defeat of Iraqi forces by Islamic State fighters in the city of Ramadi in recent days is being called “ludicrous” and “delusional” by military experts, according to reporting by McClatchy.<\/p>\n

\n

The newspaper reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Obama administration Monday called the fall of the capital of Iraq\u2019s Anbar province to the Islamic State a temporary setback that Iraqi forces would reverse with U.S. support. Experts dismissed that assessment as ludicrous.<\/p>\n

“Delusional, really, is the better word,” Ali Khedery, a former U.S. official who served as an adviser to five U.S. ambassadors to Iraq and three heads of U.S. Central Command, said of the administration\u2019s statement. \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable, frankly. I now know what it\u2019s like to have lived through Vietnam, I guess.”<\/p>\n

Experts called the loss a stunning blow to the Iraqi government and U.S. strategy.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t clear why the administration clung to an upbeat message three days after the Islamic State overran most of Ramadi<\/a> and a day after Iraq\u2019s best special forces unit fled the city<\/a> with other troops, local police and tribal fighters. The message was delivered in nearly identical verbiage by White House, State Department and Pentagon spokesmen and was reinforced by a statement from Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘It\u2019s unbelievable, frankly. I now know what it\u2019s like to have lived through Vietnam, I guess.’ (Common Dreams) –\u00a0Statements from the Pentagon and the Obama administration attempting to downplay the significance of the defeat of Iraqi forces by Islamic State fighters in the city of Ramadi in recent days is being called “ludicrous” and “delusional” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":152603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-152341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-latest-news","9":"category-war-terrorism"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}