Quote:
Originally Posted by fulham
Smart Strategic move,
1. They give time for civilians who don't support isis to leave or prepare for the bombardment.
2. They obviously have people on the ground in Mosul, who can see how Isis is preparing for this invasion, and this will allow the US to plan airstrikes, and the eventual invasion with much greater efficiency.
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ISIS won't let those people leave, they're effective hostages. They'll tie them to every strategically significant target or command post.
Air Strikes won't get it done, and a prepared and dug in enemy can withstand a air or artillery strike and then inflict mass casualties in return.
A urban battlefield is a tremendous advantage to the defender, and I don't have a lot of faith for example in Iraqi troops.
Its not like ISIS can't re-enforce, if as its claimed they have 200,000 fighters, (I have my doubts about those numbers), they won't come to the city in long armored convoys, they'll re-enforce on the fly in smaller numbers, and even if they lose the city they'll stay behind and fight as insurrectionists.
Personally, I would fricken find a way to attack in the next 2 to three days and hit the city with everything I had. I wouldn't wait that long.
This gives up the initiative and gives the enemy time to create defenses.