JWing/David---this is a really interesting article as I tend to agree that the Sunni insurgency and tribes will in the end turn on ISIS---the Sunni as a whole are secular and have been since Saddam days ---we just never got it when in Iraq. Even the IAI which was religious to a degree had their secular and Baathist officers in the group with no clashes.
http://www.newsweek.com/iraqs-sunnis...fficial-256270
What many fail to remember is that the Kurds are as well conservative Sunni thus have a certain affinity towards the more "moderate" Sunni insurgent groups and tribes-especially if you notice how the two have worked for the last several years.
The number of Sunni insurgents/tribe fighters that he quoted is something I have myself often estimated and feel is accurate- if one fully understood who was fighting us and the reasons for their fighting us in the 2006/2007 period-- the national IC could never get the estimates right especially in the 2006/2007 timeframes.
The numbers could actually be higher due to the younger Sunni juveniles coming of age in the last several years who were cheering when ISIS arrived in Mosul and Tikrit.
I also do not think the foreign fighter numbers in Iraqi are as high as many think they are---some indications that really only around 350 have come out of Europe over the last few years at least based on Facebook and Twitter analysis. So the reported numbers stopped as reported by the Turks of 5300 seems to be way to high.
The ISIS/Sunni coalition has been able to raise the overall fighter numbers by the various prison breakouts that have contributed almost 5500 instant fighters especially since they were all Sunni's in those prisons and a number have been tortured by the prison guards so they have a major beef with the Shia.
What is interesting is that the numbers quoted were able to in fact checkmate the entire US Army strength at the height of the surge---granted the Shia fought us as well but the Sunni was the main US enemy.
What is also interesting in the article is the reported lack of Iraqi Shia motivation to take the fight to ISIS.
Ramadan is coming up on Saturday/Sunday---will be interesting to see if the Shia continue fighting and if ISIS/Sunni coalition also fights during Ramadan.
The Sunni have fought historically at times during Ramadan ie Mohammad fought during Ramadan to take Mekka.
This is going to be brutal over the coming days and weeks,
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