This segment originally aired Oct. 19, 2016, on VICE News Tonight on HBO
“The battle that really matters is the one that follows the defeat of the Islamic State, and this is the battle over governance,” former four-star general and CIA Director David Petraeus told VICE News correspondent Josh Hersh. Petraeus resigned from the top CIA post in 2012 after it was revealed that he shared classified information with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, with whom he was having an extramarital affair.
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“It could take weeks,” he said. “The question is how long can they resist in Mosul? These guys know they are dead men walking. The Islamic State knows they are going to lose.”
More than a week after coalition forces launched the offensive against the IS stronghold, Iraqis have fled Mosul by the thousands. The Debaga refugee camp in northern Iraq is already home to 30,000 displaced Iraqis, with hundreds more arriving each day as the offensive continues.
