Aaron MacLean

May 26, 2015 12:53 PM

On the fall of Ramadi, Ash Carter, the U.S. secretary of defense, had this to say on CNN: "What apparently happened was that the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight. They were not outnumbered. In fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force, and yet they failed to fight." A few days earlier, Martin Dempsey, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made a similar point to a group of reporters in Brussels: "The ISF was not driven out of Ramadi. They drove out of Ramadi." These remarks constitute the latest evolution of administration talking points on our failing campaign against the Islamic State.