ISIL & Iraq.

This is coolbert:

Failures of this sort are going to be debated for a long time to come. Recriminations galore and in abundance.

1. "Obama: US misjudged Iraqi army, militants’ threat"

"President Barack Obama acknowledged that U.S. intelligence agencies underestimated the threat from Islamic State militants and overestimated the ability and will of Iraq’s army to fight."

2. "Obama: Intel officials underestimated ISIS"

"President Obama largely blamed the United States’ intelligence community in an interview broadcast Sunday for giving an incorrect assessment of the capabilities of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)."

“'Our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper, has acknowledged that, I think, they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria,'”

3. "Obama: U.S. underestimated rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria"

"The U.S. had expected the Iraqi army to do more against extremists, president says in acknowledgment of intelligence shortcomings"

"President Obama acknowledged that the U.S. underestimated the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, also called ISIL) and overestimated the ability of the Iraqi military to fend off the militant group"

My perception is that it w2as not only Obama and American intelligence that under-estimated ISIL. It was everyone that under-estimated ISIL. What has occurred came as astonishment and surprise to everyone AND THAT IS TO INCLUDE CALIPH IBRAHIM AND HIS ACOLYTES.

EVEN ISIL IS ASTONISHED AND SURPRISED AT HOW FAST THE IRAQI ARMY FELL APART AND TOOK OFF FOR THE HILLS.

NO ONE COULD HAVE ANTICIPATED THAT.

My guess too is that ISIL is a tough target. Very wary and very security conscious, low-technology users, conventional and ordinary intelligence techniques not so useful against the insurgents.

As has been previously noted, the defeat of a conventional military force [Iraqi army] by a band of irregulars done in such a manner as not been the case in well over a hundred years.

coolbert.