[AnNahar] U.S. President Barack Obama
I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money ...
vowed Saturday to help rescue thousands of civilians besieged by jihadists on an Iraqi mountain, as an MP warned they would not survive much longer.
He gave no timetable for the first U.S. operation in Iraq since the last American troops withdrew three years ago and put the onus on Iraqi politicians to form an inclusive government and turn the tide on jihadist expansion.
| Trying to set up a new government in the middle of a war is about the quickest way to lose a war that I can think of. They don''t know anything useful, and don''t have time to learn before decisions must be made. |
"The United States can''t just look away. That''s not who we are. We''re Americans. We act. We lead. And that''s what we''re going to do on that mountain," Obama said. U.S. and Iraqi aircraft have air dropped food and water to the thousands of people,
| ...something like 30,000 has been mentioned elsewhere, but go on... |
many of them members of the Yazidi minority, who have been stranded on Mount Sinjar since they fled Islamic State attacks on their homes a week ago. Obama said he had received "strong support" from British Prime Minister  David Cameron
... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ...
, who had both agreed to provide humanitarian assistance.
| French troops are busy in Mali and such, being effective against the local jihadis, last I heard, and Britain needs to clean out the taqfiri infestation committing soft jihad in their schools. |
Amid reports that the children and elderly among them were already dying, Obama justified the decision to intervene Thursday with the risk of an impending genocide against the Yazidis. Yazidi MP Vian Dakhil, whose poignant appeal in parliament this week made her the public voice of her community, said time was running out. "We have one or two days left to help these people. After that they will start dying en masse," she told Agence La Belle France Presse Saturday .
| Food and water are raining down upon that mountain, dear lady, with more ton come. It won''t be enough, but it will help until the Kurds arrive. |
The Yazidis, who worship a figure associated with the devil by many Mohammedans, are a small and closed community, one of Iraq''s most vulnerable minorities. After a first day of U.S. air raids on fighters who had moved within striking distance of Kurdistan, a top official in the autonomous region said the time had come for a fightback. "Following the U.S. strikes, the peshmerga will first regroup, second redeploy in areas they retreated from and third help the displaced return to their homes," Fuad Hussein told news hounds Friday in the Kurdish capital Arbil.
| That third item strikes me as a bit ambitious for both the defense-minded Kurds and the situation vis-a-vis the current ISIS wave of conquest. But I''m not any kind of top official, let alone a military strategist. |
The first U.S. bombings struck IS positions and at least one convoy of vehicles carrying forces of Evil west of Arbil. Obama said he had authorized the strikes in Iraq to protect U.S. personnel serving there. "And, if necessary, that''s what we will continue to do," he said Saturday. Federal and Kurdish officials, who had been at loggerheads since IS fighters launched their offensive exactly two months ago that has brought Iraq to the brink of partition, have said they were now working together and with U.S. advisers. But it remained unclear how much longer and deeper inside Iraq U.S. warplanes would intervene and Obama stressed the real game-changer would be the much-delayed formation of an inclusive government.
| There he goes, showing off his intelligence again. |
"The most important timetable I''m focused (on) now is the Iraqi government getting formed and finalized, because in the absence of an Iraqi government, it is very hard to get a unified effort by Iraqis against" IS, he said. Many Iraqis see Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as partly responsible to entrenching sectarianism and providing IS with a fertile ground in Sunni areas. He won April elections comfortably but the holy warrior onslaught launched in June ahs been his position untenable. Washington, Tehran, the Shiite religious leadership and much of his own party have pulled their support but has dug his heels in and apparently not yet given up on seeking a third term. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq''s most revered Shiite holy man, on Saturday alluded to Maliki when he complained "there were some people who do not want the good of the country." He was being quoted, after a meeting in the city of Najaf, by Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako, whose community was displaced on an unprecedented scale this week. Up to 100,000 Christians were forced to flee from their homes in a matter of hours on Thursday, completely emptying the country''s largest Christian city Qaraqosh of its population. Among the hundreds of thousands of people who fled their homes in northern Iraq were several other minorities such as the Shabak and Turkmen Shiites. UNESCO chief Irina Bokova called it an "emerging cultural cleansing".
"The U.S. should strike Sinjar, even if there are civilian casualties. It''s better than letting everyone die," the Yazidi MP, Vian Dakhil, said. Obama said he was confident the U.S. could prevent IS fighters "from going up the mountain and slaughtering the people who are there" but added the next step of creating a safe passage was "logistically complicated". The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is providing emergency care to around 4,000 people who crossed safely into neighboring Syria.
| Pretty bad when Syria is viewed as a safe haven. |
"They suffer from dehydration, sunstroke and some of them are seriously traumatized," the IRC''s Suzanna Tkalec told AFP, adding that many had walked all day for several days. |