Article

2014-08-04 Iraq

ISIS inflicts easy defeats on Kurdish forces

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Posted by Fred 2014-08-04 00:00|| || Front Page|| [13 views ] Top
File under: Islamic State

#1 It was not immediately clear why the Kurds, usually known as formidable fighters, pulled back without a fight.

Considering the corrupt Shia bigots in the Maliki government Obama trusted has not allowed weapons or ammunition to be shipped to them in over a month, refuses to fly supplies up there, and refuses to allow supplies sent there...

Considering that the US is not supporting our former best allies in the region, not even covertly...

And considering that other nations will not sell to the Kurds due to Obama and US State Dept policy of a "United Iraq" (at the price of disarming Kurdistan) and US pressuring all other nations to NOT sell arms to the Kurds...

I would say the Peshmerga had no choice but to retreat. Out of Ammo, short on armament, low on supplies, and not a damned bit of support. Not even our CIA is helping -- when they can and should.

This reminds me of the fate of the Hmong after Viet Nam. I am beyond pissed at that motherfucker Obama and the suits at State repeating history, and screwing over good people and our only solid ally in the area formerly known as Iraq.

Posted by OldSpook 2014-08-04 02:39|| 2014-08-04 02:39|| Front Page Top

#2 Times like these, I wish Obama and the entire state department leadership would just drop dead.

Posted by OldSpook 2014-08-04 02:39|| 2014-08-04 02:39|| Front Page Top

#3 OldSpook, I have assumed the Kurds were far too resourceful (and hardly w/out resources, ahemm, black gold, Texas T, bubblin' crude) to be in a logistics jam? $$$$ talks, and it's hard to imagine the Kurds of all outfits not being able to put their $$$ to work. Israel if nobody else (not that Kurdistan has ever seen, say, robust Israeli business activity and certainly not an intelligence presence, ahemm).

Have to regard all reports of Kurdish wimp outs with a grain of salt for now. For now. Man, if the KURDS are unable to man up, then we really are on a different planet than just recently.

Posted by Verlaine 2014-08-04 02:56|| 2014-08-04 02:56|| Front Page Top

#4 Last week there were reports that a tanker loaded with Kurdish oil was forced to make circles in the Atlantic as the US would not let the ship dock in the USA. The State Department has done everything in its power to halt the movement of Kurd oil because it interferes with the process of shipments of Iraqi oil from the south -- whose funds for a decade have been banked at JPMorgan in New York.

Posted by Beldar Sloque3832 2014-08-04 09:56|| 2014-08-04 09:56|| Front Page Top

#5 Vietnam II coming up.

Posted by KBK 2014-08-04 10:32|| 2014-08-04 10:32|| Front Page Top

#6 Verlaine,
I have assumed the Kurds were far too resourceful (and hardly w/out resources, ahemm, black gold, Texas T, bubblin' crude)

Maliki has leaned on the international community to prevent the Kurds from withdrawing money from their accounts. They can still sell the oil, they just can't use the funds. This is in addition to freezing their accounts 6 months before the fall of Mosul.

Posted by Frozen Al 2014-08-04 10:34|| 2014-08-04 10:34|| Front Page Top

#7 Thanks, Frozen Al. My gawd. This passeth the imagination. WTF is Baghdad doing? And after all these years, I'm surprised the Kurds don't have work-arounds and back-up plans at the ready. Further, if Baghdad has ramped up the "war" to this level, time for the Kurds to return the favor (beyond doing the easy things like completing the takeover of key areas in Kirkuk). Time for the pesh to do a little expditionary work, directly disrupt "Iraqi" oil activities not under their control?

Posted by Verlaine 2014-08-04 11:34|| 2014-08-04 11:34|| Front Page Top

#8 How much of a stake do the Kurds have in that dam? I'm wondering if maybe they didn't think it was their fight. The oil fields, yes, the dam maybe not so much.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2014-08-04 11:51|| 2014-08-04 11:51|| Front Page Top

#9 Israel if nobody else (not that Kurdistan has ever seen, say, robust Israeli business activity and certainly not an intelligence presence, ahemm).

Israel is a bit preoccupied at the moment, it seems to me.

Posted by trailing wife 2014-08-04 12:15|| 2014-08-04 12:15|| Front Page Top

#10 The treatment of the Kurds by our country is another dark blot on our type of popular politics.

Feckless and short sighted.

Posted by DarthVader 2014-08-04 12:26|| 2014-08-04 12:26|| Front Page Top

#11 If that dam was to fail under ISIS, lots and lots of Suni and Shia would die. I don't believe there are lots of Kurds downstream.
Stability Analysis of Mosul Dam

Posted by 3dc 2014-08-04 12:43|| 2014-08-04 12:43|| Front Page Top

#12 Fascinating replay. The Goths who occupied Spain upon the end of the Roman Empire engaged in petty fights and squabbles among themselves. Then the Moors invaded with their jihad, the whole place collapsed like a house of cards, only the topography in the north allowed what remain of the Goths to hold out around Bilbao and Santander.

Posted by Procopius2k 2014-08-04 13:40|| 2014-08-04 13:40|| Front Page Top

#13 Kurds ran out of ammo. You can't fight if you don't have ammo.

Curiously, the one thing Champ won't do is arm the Kurds...

Posted by Steve White 2014-08-04 13:46|| 2014-08-04 13:46|| Front Page Top

#14 Maliki orders air force to help Kurds against the Islamic State

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2014-08-04 15:11|| 2014-08-04 15:11|| Front Page Top

#15 Looks like the "ISLAMIC STATE" [ISIS aka ISIL] is now threatening the defeated Kurds wid more attacks into the KAR = Kurdish-held areas in northern Iraq.

To wit,

* HURRIYET NEW > IRAQ JIHADISTS [ISIS/ISIL = "Islamic State"] THREATEN KURDS AFTER BATTLEFIED VICTORIES.

Thereby leading to .. ...

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Rudaw.net] KRG ASKS US [POTUS Obama] FOR [Direct[ MILITARY HELP: ITS "TIME FOR ACTION".

Given the Bammer's kighty defense of his own "red lines, THIS WILL NOT END WELL FOR THE US OR THE ISIS/ISIL-EMBATTLED KURDS.

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PAKISTANI [ + Egyptian] TROOPS TO DEFEND JITTERY SAUDIS | THE TIMES.

--------------

OTOH ADNKRONOS > SYRIA: AL-QAEDA SPLINTER GROUP [ISIS/ISIL] ROUTED FROM EASTERN PROVINCE, of Deir el-Zoir.

Inter-QAEDA fighting between the ISIS/ISIL + AL-NUSRA-ALLIES.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2014-08-04 22:26|| 2014-08-04 22:26|| Front Page Top

#16 Hoping and expecting these are simply tactical moves by the Kurds. They are proven strategic experts, and certainly have the experience needed in their neighborhood. Reports of the cut in their communication routes to Syria are disconcerting, but recall that the Syrians are not disturbing them. They seem to have secured their flanks and perimeters, and barring something colossally stupid from Turkey, this should be tactically sound. They need to let the arabs settle this between themselves before they commit.

Our position is only slightly less incomprehensible than the Iraqi government's. Still, that's no excuse.

Posted by Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division 2014-08-04 22:36|| 2014-08-04 22:36|| Front Page Top

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