The battle for Mosul

Dear New Yorker:
It is sad, inexcusable really, that in all his long article, one of the longest I’ve read in the New Yorker, Luke Mogelson makes no mention of the vibrant and vital Mosul that existed not very long ago, before the US invasion of Iraq.  By focusing on one small heroic band of battered, dispossessed Iraqis, “The Avengers of Mosul” (Feb. 6, 2017) misses the big picture of the tragic consequences of our invasion.  No mention is made of the (even at that time) readily available satellite pictures showing the before and after, the ruined, bombed out, devastated city that Mosul had become. That is the context in which we need to view the battle for Mosul. The loss of Mosul is the direct result of the inept and misguided wartime administration of Paul Bremer.  If there had been no US invasion, there would have been no ISIS.