By Yousuf Basil, Jomana Karadsheh and Laura Smith-Spark CNN
ISIS militants have attacked Kirkuk (click here) in northern Iraq, an effort that might be an earnest attempt to capture the key oil-rich city or perhaps to divert Kurdish troops fighting to capture the Islamist extremist group's stronghold of Mosul.
For months, ISIS has been facing off with the Peshmerga -- armed fighters who protect Iraqi Kurdistan -- to the west of Kirkuk. It had gone into areas on Kirkuk's outskirts, but not the central city....
One of the problems in the Iraq War was wack-o-mole. The Kurds need to continue to recruit soldiers that are left behind of the advancing front to hold the land or cities or assets. The Kurds have to hold the land they take while continuing their destruction of IS. It can't be a police officer(s), it has to be a platoon of soldiers.
If the Kurds don't have enough soldiers to hold their land AND move their front forward, then they should not do it. They have to provide security to their sovereign lands while planning for more. Their families are very important and the economy they build. A Homeland for the Kurds has to be valued above simply advancing against the old Ba'athists.
The Ba'athists of IS are well trained soldiers. That is the problem. This is Saddam's old military. Considering the Saddam military fell in a few days during Gulf War I the Kurds should be able to deal with them.
