[Tolo News] An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier and policeman were killed in a suicide kaboom on southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... 's police headquarter early Saturday morning, local officials said.
Another policeman and civilian were maimed in the attack.
The attack took place in Lashkargah City, the capital of the province, at about 8 a.m. local time after a jacket wallah detonated his explosives near the gate of the police headquarters, Provincial Police Chief front man Farid Ahmad said.
"The suicide bomber was disguised as a police who wanted to enter the building," he said. "While security guards were searching him, the bomber detonated his explosives."
Ahmad added that the target was a security meeting that took place at the provincial police headquarters.
No group including the Taliban has grabbed credit for the attack yet.
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[Tolo News] Pakistain's military forces have bombarded eastern Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... for the past 16 hours, local officials said on Saturday, adding that there are no casualties.
Kunar Police Chief, Abdul Habib Sayedkhili, said the Pak forces have fired 33 missiles into the district of Dangam since Friday night.
Sayedkhili claims that the missiles were fired from a district in Pakistain known as Mohmand Agency ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... "Pakistain always cheats," he said. "The Pakistain government does not want peace for the Afghan people. Since the Kabul-Washington Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) was signed, the Pak military have fired 157 missiles only on Dangam district injuring a civilian."
When the BSA was signed, which will allow the legal presence of the U.S. troops in Afghanistan post-2014, it was expected that the Pak missiles will stop, but instead the Pak military have increased their attack.
Kunar police have asked the new unity government to stop the attacks on Kunar province.
Previously, the Pak officials rejected the missile attacks on Afghan soil, but Sayedkhili said that Pakistain wants to progress onto Afghan soil by targeting the border areas of the country.
In the past four years, the Pak military have targeted eastern parts of Afghanistan forcing thousands of families to evacuate their native areas in search for safety.
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[Tolo News] At least six non-combatants were killed and seven others were maimed in separate blasts in southern Uruzgan province, local officials said on Saturday.
The first blast took place on Friday night in Chora district of the province when a civilian vehicle struck a roadside mine killing four civilians and injuring four others, Provincial Governor front man Dost Mohammad Shah said.
Shah said second blast took place in the district of Dihrawood on Saturday afternoon when two cycle of violences struck roadside mines that killed two civilians and injured three others.
The victims have been taken to a nearby hospital for treatments.
No group including the Taliban has grabbed credit for the blasts.
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An al-Qaeda convoy carrying a shipment of weapons from North Africa to Mali has been destroyed by French forces, according to officials in Paris.
The convoy was transporting its cargo from Libya but was destroyed as it passed through neighboring Niger.
"The intervention enabled a large quantity of weapons to be seized and to neutralize a number of those in the convoy, including some who were captured," a statement from the office of French President Francois Hollande said.
The statement added that the convoy belonged to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a North African affiliate of the group founded by Osama Bin Laden.
[Libya Herald] Heavy losses are believed to have been sustained by both sides in festivities at Benina Airport as renewed fighting erupted between Benghazi Revolutionaries' Shura Council (BRSC) and pro-government forces this morning.
Mohammed Al-Hejazi, the front man for Operation Dignity, told the Libya Herald that Islamist forces began their assault on Benina in the early hours of the morning and fighting had continued into the afternoon.
Reports on the ground have indicated that casualties were particularly high on either side with some saying that scores died in the festivities.
However Hejazi explained that it was almost impossible to know how many had been killed while the battle was still going on. He added that he believed the claims to be exaggerated.
"This is not a football game and people are dying every day in these festivities," he said.
No other Operation Dignity officials have been available to comment on the corpse count. Medical officials in Abiar and Marj where the majority of pro-government casualties is taken have not responded to calls from the Libya Herald.
Hejazi also refuted speculation that the Revolutionaries' Shura Council had taken control of the airport, which has been their objective for more than two months.
Sporadic festivities have been ongoing at Benina since Ramadan. Often the fighting is long-range as both forces rain down mortars and grad rockets. Operation Dignity has also been using Arclight airstrikes.
More recently the conflict has been at close quarters as BRSC fighter encroach to within ten kilometres of Benina. A week ago a double suicide kaboom was deployed as the opening salvo to a fresh bout of combat near the airport.
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[ARABNEWS] An Egyptian court Saturday incarcerated Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! eight men, including two Moslem Brüderbund leaders, for up to 15 years over the torture of a lawyer during the 2011 uprising against ex-president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , judicial sources said.
Thousands of Moslem Brüderbund members and supporters have been incarcerated Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! , with hundreds receiving lengthy prison terms, in a brutal government crackdown since the army ousted elected President Muhammad Mursi last July.
The court in Cairo on Saturday sentenced Brotherhood leaders Mohammed Al-Beltagy and Safwat Hegazy as well as an Al-Jazeera ... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula, as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS... journalist and one other defendant for 15 years, the sources said.
Four other defendants, including Osama Yassin, youth minister during Mursi's turbulent one-year rule, were incarcerated Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! for three years.
The defendants were convicted of "torturing, electrocuting and sexually assaulting" a lawyer after locking him up for three days inside the office of a travel agency near Cairo's Tahrir Square on Feb. 3, when the roundabout was packed with protesters calling for Mubarak's ouster.
Beltagy and Hegazy are being tried in several other cases along with other senior Brotherhood leaders, including Mursi himself.
A government crackdown on Mursi supporters has left at least 1,400 people dead and more than 15,000 incarcerated Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! . Hundreds have also been sentenced to death after often speedy trials.
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#1
Thousands of Moslem Brüderbund members and supporters have been incarcerated, with hundreds receiving lengthy prison terms...
Hopefully, our own effort against the Bruderbund will begin after the mid-term election.
[ARABNEWS] Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... 's government announced Saturday that 27 hostages presumed to have been kidnapped by Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... , including 10 Chinese construction workers and the wife of a vice prime minister, had been freed. The hostages were returned early Saturday morning and "are safe and sound," according to a statement from President Paul Biya's office read on state radio.
The Chinese road construction workers were kidnapped in May from their base in Waza, in Cameroon's Far North region. Francoise Agnes, wife of Vice Prime MInister Amadou Ali, was among a group of 17 people kidnapped in a July attack targeting their residence in the border town of Kolofata. Officials said at the time that 200 fighters stormed the residence, though Ali himself was away. As the fighters retreated with their hostages, they set fire to the residence, stole safes and vehicles and killed at least five people, a military front man said at the time. A local religious leader was also kidnapped in the July attack and released Saturday, according to the Cameroon government statement.
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[IsraelTimes] The British government is monitoring thousands of terror suspects in London, Mayor Boris Johnson told the Telegraph newspaper on Friday night, as the official terror threat in the UK remained at "severe" level.
"In London we're very, very vigilant and very, very concerned," Johnson said. "Every day -- as you saw recently, we had to raise the threat level -- every day the security services are involved in thousands of operations...there are probably in the low thousands of people that we are monitoring in London."
In late August the UK's terror threat risk level was raised to "severe," meaning an attack was "highly likely". It was the second highest level out of five possible categories and the highest since July 2011.
The increase has been tied to developments in Syria and Iraq, and Britannia's involvement in the fight against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group there, which could encourage retaliatory attacks by British Death Eaters.
It has been estimated that approximately 500 UK nationals have traveled to fight in the region, with the Telegraph reporting that about half have returned home for various reasons.
"London has a particular concern," Johnson said, "because probably of the five or six hundred that are out there, we think a third, maybe more -- maybe half -- come from the London area. If and when they come back, we have a real job to deal with them."
MCALLEN, Texas -- Francisco Javier "El Tampico" Maya, a member of a drug smuggling group with ties to the Gulf Cartel that operated along the Texas Border will spend close to 16 years in prison for his role in the drug trafficking saga that included Santeria rituals, drug rip-offs and bombs.
On Tuesday afternoon, Maya went before U.S. District Judge Hilda Tagle in Brownsville who sentenced him to 189 months in prison. Maya had previously been convicted in January after a two day trial of the charges of conspiracy to possess more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana and possession of more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana, court records show.
MCALLEN, Texas -- Mexican Federal Police confirmed the arrest of the leader of one of Mexico's oldest narco mobs.
Vicente "El Viceroy" Carrillo Fuentes was captured Wednesday night in the northern Mexican city of Torreón, Coahuila state, in an intelligence-driven operation that was carried out without a single shot being fired, according to information released to Breitbart Texas by Mexico's Federal Police.
Carrillo Fuentes was the head of the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization (VCFO), also known as the Juárez cartel. The criminal organization was made famous by Carrillo's older brother Amado, known as the "Lord of the Skies" for his fleet of Boeing 707s that he used to smuggle large loads of cocaine into the US.
Breitbart Texas Contributing Editor and border security expert, Sylvia Longmire commented regarding the arrest, "There is no question the once-dominant power of the Juárez cartel has been in steep decline for the past few years, and many attribute the decrease in the Ciudad Juárez murder rate since 2011 to that decline. However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... the Carrillo Fuentes Organization still wields considerable influence in the city and parts of Chihuahua state, most notably through their enforcers 'La Linea' and 'Los Linces.'"
Longmire noted the cartel also has strong relationships with local gangs, particularly with Los Aztecas (known as Barrio Azteca on the US side of the border) who were responsible for the bombing of the US Consulate in Ciudad Juárez in 2010.
The government of Mexico is paying to help its citizens who are living illegally in the United States avoid deportation.
According to a report from National Public Radio, the Mexican government through its 50 consulates around the United States has been helping to fund low-income undocumented Democrats to apply for President B.O.'s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA -- which shields undocumented Democrats from deportation and allows them to work in the U.S.
EDINBURG, TexasâThe unofficial boss of the Gulf Cartel has been tossed in the slammer Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! in Texas following a large raid.
Juan Francisco Tamez Saens was arrested Thursday night in the city of Edinburg which is just 12 miles north of the border with Mexico, law enforcement sources told Breitbart Texas.
Tamez Saez, who went by the name "Comandante 103 or Comandante Panochitas," had inherited the leadership of the Gulf Cartel following the arrests of leaders Mario "Pelon" or X-20" Ramirez and Juan Manuel "Perros" Rodriguez. Both Ramiez and Rodriguez were arrested in Mexico in recent months.
TUCSON, Arizona -- Drug lords in Mexico have officially been put on notice: President Enrique Peña Nieto is coming for you -- even though he said he would not two years ago. Despite the fact Mexico's leader harshly criticized predecessor Felipe Calderón's militarized "kingpin strategy" of going after the country's top narcos, many of the drug war's most notorious, violent, and wealthy cartel leaders are either sitting behind bars or buried six feet under via Peña Nieto's orders -- three in the past two weeks alone.
Since his inauguration in December 2012, Mexican police or military authorities have killed or apprehended a "who's who" list of drug lords: Miguel "Z-40" Treviño Morales, Los Zetas (July 2013); Mario "X-20/El Pelon" Ramirez, Gulf cartel (August 2013); Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, Sinaloa Federation (February 2014); Nazario "El Mas Loco" Moreno Gonzalez, Knights Templar (March 2014); Hector "El H" Beltrán Leyva, Beltrán Leyva Organization (October 2014); Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, Juárez cartel (October 2014); and Juan "El Metro 103" Saenz, Gulf cartel (October 2014).
All of these individuals were either the in-control leader of one of the larger and more powerful narco mobs or served in a "Chairman of the Board"-type capacity. The sheer number of these arrests and the importance of these men to their organizations are significant as drug war history goes.
However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... the ultimate value of this strategy is questionable. Even after all these victories, Peña Nieto has not realized one of his top goals from when he entered office: to reduce crime and violence at the local level.
#1
Ah, news from "No Border" region of the country. A little of everything going on there: Santeria rituals, explosions, drugs and rip-offs--the usual. Not exactly a Norman Rockwell picture of American life.
[DAWN] India and Pakistain exchanged gunfire across the disputed Kashmire border and working boundary on Saturday, military officials from both countries said, ending a pause in fighting that has already killed 17 civilians in the worst skirmishes in a decade.
Both sides blamed each other for starting the fresh outbreak of fighting.
The Pakistain army confirmed that a 70-year-old village resident Wali Muhammad was injured due to unprovoked firing and shelling by Indian forces in Poonch sector near Rawalkot.
"Pak troops effectively responded to Indian shelling," a front man for the ISPR, the public relations wing, said in a short statement.
The front man warned that every Indian violation on the Line of Control (LoC) and working boundary would meet "a befitting response".
Later in the evening, Chenab Rangers said Indian forces also opened unprovoked gunfire and shelling across the border in Charwa sector near the working boundary in Sialkot. Army sources said Pak forces responded effectively to the firing.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shattered spaceship, Fffflirgoll the Arcturan slithered stealthily toward the control room, where the humans had barricaded themselves... the Indian army blamed the Pak military of launching unprovoked fire.
An Indian army official claimed Pakistain border guards targeted 10 Indian border posts in the Poonch sector.
"Our troops retaliated. Heavy firing is going on," he told news agency Rooters.
There was no immediate report of casualties from the Indian side.
The fresh gunfire exchange resumes fighting after the two armies abruptly stopped Thursday night following nine days of attacking each other with mortars and heavy machine guns.
Both sides have blamed the other for triggering a crisis on the border, with Pakistain suggesting that India's new government led by nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi was flexing its muscles on the dispute over Kashmire, the cause of two wars.
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[DAWN] Unidentified armed holy warriors attacked a medical team of Frontier Corps (FC) in Mand area of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... 's troubled Turbat area, an official said on Saturday evening.
Khan Wasey, the front man for FC said that armed holy warriors shot up the medical team in Mand area of Turbat, adding that the paramilitary force quickly retaliated and killed one of the attackers.
"FC recovered weapons from the possession of attacker," Wasey said. He said the dead krazed killer was identified as Abdul Baqi.
However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... FC front man's claim could not be verified by independent sources.
In a separate incident, unknown gunniesbumped off District President of Muttahida Mahaz Balochistan, Qadir Raisani.
Police said krazed killers, riding a cycle of violence, shot up Raisani's vehicle and killed him on the spot.
The dead body was shifted to Civil Hospital Kalat for postmortem.
Police and other law enforcers reached the spot and started investigation into the incident. There was no immediate claim of the attack.
Balochistan in recent past has seen sharp rise in incidents of assassinations and bomb kabooms.
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[DAWN] At least four suspected murderous Moslems including a local Taliban capo were killed in yet another US drone strike in Shawal tehsil of North Wazoo Agency on Saturday night raising the toll from a series of attacks this week to 29.
Intelligence sources said that a US drone fired two missiles at a vehicle in Maraga area of Shawal tehsil of the troubled North Waziristan Agency bordering Afghanistan. Four suspected murderous Moslems including a commander have died in the strike, they added.
Sources also said that the Taliban capo has been identified as Mustafa, who they claimed belonged to Hafiz Gul Bahadur ...a member of the Madda Khel clan of the Uthmanzai Waziris. Educated in a Deobandi madrassa located in Multan, he is affiliated with the Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) political party. Upon the formation of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in December 2007, he was announced as the group's overall naib amir under Baitullah Mehsud, who was based in South Wazoo, but has largely distanced himself from the TTP due to rivalries with the Mehsuds and disagreements about the TTP's attacks against the Pak state.. group.
The incident, however, could not be independently verified as access of journalists is restricted in the area.
Earlier in the day, a US drone strike had killed four suspected murderous Moslems and left several others injured on the Pak-Afghan border area near Khyber Agency's Tirah valley.
Official sources said that the drone targeted Death Eater hideouts in the Cancharo Kandoa area on the Afghan side.
The village is right on the zero-line but the area which was targeted falls under the Afghan jurisdiction.
The identity of the dead murderous Moslems is yet to be ascertained.
Khyber and North Waziristan are among Pakistain's seven semi-autonomous regions governed by tribal laws and lies near the Afghan border. The Taliban and other al Qaeda-linked groups, who stage attacks in both Pakistain and Afghanistan, are known to have strongholds in the zone.
The Pak military launched a major anti-militant offensive, Zarb-e-Azb ..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)... in North Waziristan in June and say they have killed more than 1,000 so far, with 86 soldiers losing their lives in the operation.
Drone attacks are widely unpopular across Pakistain and according to survey conducted in June this year, 66 per cent of the country's citizens oppose these strikes.
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[An Nahar] The United States showered vital supplies on besieged Iraqi troops, who face mounting pressure from Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... krazed killers, the Pentagon said on Saturday.
U.S. military planes on Friday and Saturday carried out airdrops of ammunition, food and water to troops in northern Iraq following requests from Baghdad, the U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement.
"At the request of the Iraqi government, U.S. military forces conducted multiple airdrops in Iraq in the vicinity of Bayji... to resupply Iraqi security forces operating in the area," Centcom said in a statement.
In total, 36 bundles containing 7,328 halal meals, 2,065 gallons of water, and 16,000 pounds of ammunition were dropped.
The airdrops were for Iraqi troops in Bayji town, which remains under Baghdad's control, Centcom said.
"Areas external to Bayji, however, are contested as ISIL continues to conduct operations in the area," the statement said, referring to another name for the Islamic State group.
Previously, U.S. military planes have conducted humanitarian airdrops for refugees and civilians in Iraq.
The United States is supporting Iraqi troops fighting Islamic State jihadists, though the embattled army is facing increasing pressure from a relentless assault from the forces of Evil in several hotspots.
The airdrops come after U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel described the campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq as "difficult," particularly in the western Anbar province where Iraqi troops are battling the krazed killers.
"Anbar province is in trouble. We know that," he said.
"This is a difficult effort. It is going to take time. It won't be easy. So, yes, there is a lot of uncertainty in Anbar right now," he said in remarks delivered Friday in Colombia.
The U.S.-led coalition also continued its air assault in Iraq and Syria Friday and Saturday with fresh strikes, the Pentagon said.
Bomber and fighter jets conducted six Arclight airstrikes in Syria, including four in the battleground town of Kobane near the Turkish border.
In Iraq, three Arclight airstrikes were carried out by attack and fighter jets -- one in Tall Afar in the north and two in Hit in Anbar province -- with the help of Dutch aircraft.
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#1
"Anbar province is in trouble. We know that," he said. "This is a difficult effort. It is going to take time. It won't be easy. So, yes, there is a lot of uncertainty in Anbar right now," he [Hagel] said in remarks delivered Friday in Colombia.
Maybe things would be different if a war were fought with unshackled ROEs.
#3
The ISIS/ISIL will likely have to contend wid both the US-ALLIES + IRAN iff they get too close to Baghdad + the Shia-led Govt.
Both US SecStates Kerry + Colin Powell have made similar remarks about Iraqis-n-only-the-Iraqis, the Iraqi-Army-n-only-the-Iraqi-Army [Armed Forces], ultimately being the one to take back their lost territories = country.
Ordinary Iraqis have to know that their Armed Forces can effec protect + defend them from any + all enemies, while the ISIS/ISIL per se has to know + feel that they are, or will be, de facto defeated by same.
[IsraelTimes] On the western edge of Iraq's capital, Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group turbans battle government forces and exchange mortar fire, only adding to the sense of siege in Baghdad despite Arclight airstrikes by a U.S.-led coalition.
Yet military experts say the Sunni turbans of the Islamic State group, who now control a large territory along the border that Iraq and Syria share, won't be able to fight through both government forces and Shiite militias now massed around the capital.
It does, however, put them in a position to wreak havoc in Iraq's biggest city, with its suicide kabooms and other assaults further eroding confidence in Iraq's nascent federal government and its troops, whose soldiers already fled the Islamic State group's initial lightning advance in June.
"It's not plausible at this point to envision ISIL taking control of Baghdad, but they can make Baghdad so miserable that it would threaten the legitimacy of the central government," said Richard Brennan, an Iraq expert with RAND Corporation and former Department of Defense policymaker, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.
The siege fears in Baghdad stem from recent gains made by the Islamic State group in the so-called Baghdad Belt -- the final stretch between Anbar province, where the group gained ground in Janaury, and Baghdad. The group has had a presence in the Baghdad Belt since spring, Iraqi officials say, but recent advances have sparked new worries.
Last week, Islamic State group fighters seized the towns of Hit and neighboring Kubaisa, sending Iraqi soldiers fleeing and leaving a nearby military base with its stockpile of weapons at risk of capture. The U.S.-led coalition recently launched two Arclight airstrikes northwest of Hit, U.S. Central Command said Saturday.
Government forces still control most of the Anbar placid provincial capital of Ramadi, but the city is vulnerable.
Perhaps most worrying, Islamic State group fighters now battle Iraqi forces in Abu Ghraib, the town home to the infamous prison of the same name that's only 18 miles (29 kilometers) from the Green Zone, the fortified international zone protecting Baghdad-based embassies and government office.
A senior military official in Anbar told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Saturday that government helicopters fire on targets daily in Abu Ghraib, though the town remains in the hands of security forces.
To the south of Baghdad, security forces fight to hold onto the town of Jurf al-Sukr, and to the north, one Sunni tribe has held onto the town of Duluiyah despite an Islamic State group's onslaught. However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... Islamic State group fighters have taken over a number of towns in Diyala province, east of Baghdad.
Yet authorities believe an assault to take Baghdad remains unlikely. An Iraqi military and intelligence official each told the AP that as many as 60,000 government security personnel, including soldiers and coppers, are currently in position outside the city along the Baghdad Belt. A plot by the Islamic State group to enter Baghdad in September through the Shiite al-Kazimiyah neighborhood was foiled, the officials added.
Iraqi officials say that at least 1 million men make up the military and police forces in the country, though U.S. officials say that figure is grossly exaggerated. According to one senior U.S. military official, who spoke anonymously as he's not authorized to brief the media, the Iraqi military had strength of about 205,000 soldiers in January. Today, that number is under 125,000 men, he said.
Both the U.S. and Iraqi officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to journalists.
Since that initial September assault, Baghdad largely has been spared and remained relatively calm, considering the intense sectarian bloodshed residents saw in 2006 and 2007 after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein. Still, many remain worried.
"It's scary," said Maha Ismail, who recently visited one of Baghdad's new shopping malls. "But we have seen a lot worse than this so we are gathering despite all the warnings."
A U.S. counterterrorism official who spoke to the AP said Baghdad would remain a target for Islamic State group attacks, though seizing it outright would be nearly impossible.
"Attacking Baghdad is probably still in (its) playbook but its leaders must know they would face overwhelming odds in striking the city," the U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... as he was not authorized to talk to journalists.
Islamic State group says it has a foothold inside Baghdad, having grabbed credit for a number of attacks in the city, particularly in the Sadr City neighborhood -- a Shiite stronghold. In August, the group grabbed credit for an attack on a Shiite mosque in New Baghdad, and another in the Shiite-majority district of Utaifiya in Baghdad, which together killed 26 people.
Yet analysts, like Brennan from the RAND Corporation, say capturing Baghdad remains beyond the Islamic State group's ability. At its worst, the group might "start pressing into the western areas of Baghdad, going into the Sunni areas of Baghdad and pressing up against the Tigris (River) -- if not controlling it, then at least testing the control of the central government," he said.
At a recent news conference, Pentagon front man Rear Adm. John Kirby also said Baghdad is protected.
"Airstrikes around the city, particularly to the south and to the southeast of the city, we believe, have been effective in blunting" the Islamic State group, he said.
Beyond the U.S.-coordinated Arclight airstrikes and the massing of Iraqi troops, the country's religious and ethnic lines likely will staunch any advance by the Sunni turbans of the Islamic State group. From Baghdad further south, Iraq's population is overwhelmingly Shiite and the lands there are home to some of its most important shrines.
Already, Shiite militias back up government forces in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq -- their flags and symbols provocatively displayed across the capital. Such militias, like Iran-supported Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Moqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... 's Mahdi Army, "are battle tested," said David L. Phillips, the director of the Peace-building and Rights Program at Columbia University. Challenging them likely would become a bloody slog for the Islamic State group, he said.
"The militias are not bound by rules of war," he added. "They and (the Islamic State group) share one thing in common: Neither is bound by the Geneva Conventions."
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#1
Man, Iraq as safe and stable, another Obola success story. He sure cleaned up the mess Bush left didn't he?
#4
battle Iraqi forces in Abu Ghraib, the town home to the infamous prison of the same name
Yeah, good thing those nasty Americans are gone and their camera photo ways. By allan, our women may be sold into sex slavery, our boys executed en-masse, and adults singularly shot in the head and dumped into the river, but at least the kuffirs are gone.
[IsraelTimes] A series of car kabooms in Iraq's capital killed 38 people in Shiite areas Saturday, authorities said, after Islamic murderous Moslems killed a journalist working for a local television network in a Sunni province.
The attacks come as Iraq faces its greatest challenge since the 2011 withdraw of U.S. troops, as murderous Moslems from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group now hold vast swaths of the country and neighboring Syria.
Police officials said the first bombing happened Saturday night when a jacket wallah rammed his car bomb into a security checkpoint in Baghdad's northern district of Khazimiyah, killing 13 people, including three coppers, and wounding 28.
The second boom-mobileing, targeting a commercial street in Shula district in northwestern Baghdad, killed seven people and maimed 18, police said. The blast damaged several shops and cars.
Also in Shula, police said a suicide car kaboom on a security checkpoint killed 18 people and maimed dozens others.
Hospital officials confirmed the casualty figures for the attacks.
Nobody grabbed credit for the attacks, yet Sunni murderous Moslems frequently target Shiite population they deem as being heretics. That includes the Islamic State group, which now holds a third of the country in its sway. After a lightening offensive earlier this year.
On the western edge of Iraq's capital, Islamic State murderous Moslems were battling government forces and exchanging mortar fire, only adding to the sense of siege in Baghdad.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, Agent 49 felt gingerly for his head. It was still there. He had been hoping differently... the U.S. military said Saturday it launched an Arclight airstrike north of the town of Tal Afar, hitting a small Islamic State fighting unit and destroying an armed vehicle. It said two other Arclight airstrikes northwest of Hit in Anbar province targeted two small krazed killer units.
The U.S. military also said it conducted multiple airdrops Friday near the northern town of Beiji to resupply Iraqi security forces operating there. The airdrops delivered food and water, as well as 16,000 pounds of ammunition, the military said.
Also Saturday, the governor of Iraq's Salahuddin province said Islamic State group murderous Moslems killed Raad al-Azzawi, who was a cameraman for Iraq's Salahuddin Television. Governor Raed Ibrahim said murderous Moslems killed al-Azzawi on Friday in the city of Tikrit. Ibrahim said he wasn't able to provide any further details.
The Islamic State group has beheaded a number of journalists in Syria, saying the killings are in retaliation to U.S.-led coalition Arclight airstrikes in Iraq and Syria.
Reporters Without Borders said last month that the murderous Moslems had threatened to kill al-Azzawi, a father of three, for refusing to join the Sunni krazed killer group. The media watchdog said al-Azzawi was kidnapped on Sept. 7.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/12/2014 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group has executed at least four women, including two doctors and a politician, in their northern Iraq strongholds this month, relatives and rights activists said on Saturday.
In the IS hub of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , the murderous Moslems executed three women on Wednesday including two doctors, Hanaa Edwar, a human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... activist who heads the Al-Amal organization, said.
A medical source in Mosul confirmed their deaths and named the two doctors as Maha Sabhan and Lamia Ismail. The third woman was a law graduate.
On Oct. 5, Iman Mohammed Yunus, a former Sunni parliamentarian from the Iraq Turkmen Front in the city of Tal Afar, farther west toward the Syrian border, was also executed.
"They took her from her home last month and called her family this week to say that she had been executed," said Ali Al-Bayati, who runs a foundation supporting the rights of Iraq's Turkmen minority.
"Then they dumped her body in a water well outside Tal Afar," he said.
According to Edwar, who confirmed Yunus' execution, at least four other women were executed by IS murderous Moslems in the Mosul area in recent weeks.
Among them were a former candidate for the local council and an academic. "Women are easy targets for them. Many of the rights activists from Mosul bravely ran away but some of the women among them had to stay with their children," Edwar said.
They have used the city, Iraq's second largest, as a de facto capital for the Iraqi half of the "caliphate" which their leadership proclaimed in June and also includes large parts of Syria.
"After going after the ethnic and religious minorities, they are now hunting down Sunni members of civil society groups and anyone remotely connected with the government," Edwar said.
She said IS was probably trying to sow maximum fear among the population by openly targeting women.
"When you abduct and kill women, you are really spreading horror," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
ISIS looks more and more like it's run by Saddam's old crew.
#2
Saddam's old crew are involved. The interesting part will be when the jihadis and the Baathists come to that proverbial crossroads as to who has control.
Late Saturday, police disrupted a thermos abandoned at a public square in Zamboanga City in southern Philippines.
Police Chief Angelito Casimiro said they received reports about the abandoned thermos at Plaza Pershing near the City Hall building, and immediately deployed the bomb squad and destroyed the suspicious item. Casimiro did not say whether the thermos contained an explosive or not, but other reports said it contained an improvised explosive device and iron nails.
The plaza - named after U.S. military commander Gen. John "Black Jack" Pershing who defeated Muslim insurrection in the region almost a century ago - was also bombed by the Abu Sayyaf in August 2007.
Police and military authorities have tightened security in Zamboanga City which is celebrating the month-long Fiesta Hermosa Festival in honor of the Virgin Mary. Hundreds of soldiers and policemen were deployed turning the city into a virtual garrison in an effort to protect the public from terror attacks.
#1
Pershing square is in the center of town and across the street from the municipal buildings. It is a very congested center with school kids, street people, and markets. around the square the streets have the usual garbage and people living on the street. The park is clean, no trash. There is some irony there and a lesson to the world in that park. Pershing was a butcher in the Philippines. He believed in total war and killed regardless of sex or age. The point of all of this is that over 100 years later the people still respect him and the park that bears his name. People respect strength. We have forgotten that.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/12/2014 23:44 Comments ||
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[WashingtonPost] The U.S.-led air war in Syria has gotten off to a rocky start, with even the Syrian rebel groups closest to the United States turning against it, U.S. ally Turkey refusing to contribute and the plight of a beleaguered Kurdish town exposing the limitations of the strategy.
Not to sound cynical, but it's a limitation to the Beltway crowd, which expects everything to go well because Their People are in charge, "those are our jets," and there's elections in less than a month.
U.S. officials caution that the strikes are just the beginning of a broader strategy that could take years to carry out. But the anger that the attacks have stirred risks undermining the effort, analysts and rebels say.
The main beneficiary of the strikes so far appears to be President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces have taken advantage of the shift in the military balance to step up attacks against the moderate rebels designated by President Obama as partners of the United States in the war against extremists. The rebels say they have been put in a difficult position in which they are being asked to support a strategy that has so far brought them no benefits and is regarded with suspicion by ordinary Syrians. They are now insisting they will not support the strikes unless the strategy is extended to include toppling the Assad regime — a position shared by Turkey, which hosts the rebel leadership.
A situation any experienced politician in the world is familiar with. Somehow that escapes both this journalist and the Washington Post...
Seriously, anyone with knowledge of human behavior, a sense of history, or even being a regular reader of this rag shouldn't be surprised. Attacking the IS in one area means that other actors will benefit and thus displease other interests. It doesn't take much to think the Ergodan government, with its overall objective of toppling the Syrian Baathist government, has an understanding with the IS while still supporting some of the other rebel groups. The Sauds also want to see the Syrian regime toppled and support their own brand of rebels, but not at the expense of a powerful IS who'll kill both them and their Mecca franchise. The Qatari also want Damascus toppled, but don't care who as long at Qatar is left alone or better yet, comes out with a sweet deal.
Since the outcry about the choice of targeting in the first days of the air campaign, the majority of coalition attacks have been concentrated in the three northern and eastern provinces governed by the Islamic State as part of its self-proclaimed caliphate, which stretches across the Syrian border into Iraq. U.S. officials say the strikes are working to achieve the core American objective — to degrade and ultimately defeat the militants.
Residents of Islamic State-controlled areas say the attacks have had a noticeable impact on the jihadist group’s tactics and behavior, forcing it to adopt a lower profile to avoid detection from the air.
In their self-styled capital of Raqqah, the foreign jihadists who until recently swept through the streets in armored convoys, showing off American Humvees and other booty captured from the Iraqi army, now drive around in regular vehicles, according to residents. Elsewhere, the militants have vacated headquarters, checkpoints, command posts, courts and other facilities, many of which had been conspicuously painted with the Islamic State’s distinctive black-and-white logo.
So they're not stupid. What's the next step?
The strikes are not unpopular among ordinary people in Raqqah, who yearn for an end to the militants’ harsh rule, said another resident interviewed on a visit to Turkey. He also spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is afraid. Since the U.S.-led attacks began, Syrian government airstrikes have stopped, he said.
But the attacks have not loosened the militants’ grip on power, he and other residents said, or had any significant impact on the militants’ capacity to launch offensives and capture territory, as the assault on the Kurdish border town of Kobane has demonstrated. Over a two-week period, fighters swept unimpeded through a string of villages around the town. Only when they reached the town itself did the U.S. military weigh in with intensified strikes. U.S. officials have defended the response to the Kobane battle by pointing to the broader strategy, which is primarily aimed at rolling back the Islamic State’s gains in Iraq.
It's not the "broader strategy". It's the only strategy.
In Syria, the strikes have highlighted the absence of U.S. partners on the ground. Moderate rebels grouped in the Free Syrian Army were pushed out of the Islamic State’s northeastern strongholds during fierce fighting over the summer and now have no presence in the areas that are the chief target of the coalition attacks. The one front on which the rebels are battling the Islamic State, in the northern province of Aleppo, has not seen any coalition airstrikes, even though rebels say they have asked for them. My take: The "big idea" is to use US and allied air power and have indigenous boots on the ground to "degrade and defeat" the IS. The overall strategy, for various reasons, will take years. The strategy will also have lots of setbacks thanks to many competing national interests and a reasonably competent, strong-horse enemy that really isn't being designated as one.
The problems appear to be that the strategy is coming in about a rhetorical day late and several thousand dollars short. Thanks to a focus on US domestic political considerations and a decided lack of US leadership, there's no one driving this strategy. There's no one calling in the targets anywhere in the area of operations. What passes for allied air support is fragmented by those participating nations' objectives and what operations the allies will participate in. The Sauds would like to concentrate on Syria. The British and Australians have forces but not in any number to have a significant effect. Qatar is providing facilities and some command support, but they're playing a be-friends-with-all game that undermines the strategy.
There's also no coordination with indigenous troops as to objectives and targeting. Arms supply and training of indigenous forces is scattered and piecemeal, likely due to national domestic considerations and, again, the obvious lack of a single point of leadership.
And - attacking the IS at this point is essentially like a partially-deflated balloon; pressing on one area in Iraq means the IS is free to concentrate on another, like Kobane in Syria.
Kobane's fall will mean that the IS would have a clear pipeline from the Turkish border to Aleppo. It's no small secret that the IS is using Turkey as a staging and rest area. That it also removes an annoying 'ethnic problem' for the Turks is a side benefit.
On the other hand, the primary, perhaps the only, objective of the US strategy is currently to stabilize Iraq and degrade IS capability in that 'country'. Syria might come later. The IS presence and operations in Syria are no doubt being viewed by the planners as an inconvenience and a distraction.
It's not necessarily a bad strategy. A credible effort involving a centralized and effective command and control system, an effective US foreign policy team, judicious use of special forces, counter-intelligence, operational counter terrorism, diplomatic efforts, domestic intelligence and law enforcement efforts, and above all, leadership and the will to use all of these for likely a decade, might be effective.
But I'm not optimistic.
Posted by: Pappy ||
10/12/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Members of the Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... -linked Resistance Brigades on Saturday "encricled" the cop shoppe in the southern border town of Shebaa in protest at the arrest of two residents, media reports said.
"Members of political parties and others belonging to the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... Brigades have encircled the Shebaa cop shoppe in protest at the interrogation of Mustafa and Thaer Ghayyad," MTV reported.
LBCI television said the two men were detained for "assaulting a member of the Internal Security Forces."
Meanwhile, ...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment... Voice of Leb radio (100.5) said the duo had "attacked security personnel" as al-Jadeed TV said they assaulted "an ISF Intelligence Bureau agent."
The decision to create the Resistance Brigades was taken in 1997 by Hizbullah's leadership. The group comprised Lebanese young men who wanted to fight the Israeli occupation of southern Leb without having to officially join Hizbullah.
However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... the Brigades were not dissolved after the Israeli army withdrew from southern Leb in 2000 and they reportedly took part in the fighting against Islamist holy manAhmed al-Asir ...Leb Salafist holy man with the usual grouch against Shiites. Currently on the run, he seems intent on reigniting the Leb civil war... 's group in the Sidon suburb of Abra in 2013.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Kurdish fighters halted a thrust by Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group jihadists towards the heart of the battleground Syrian town of Kobane Saturday, after the U.N. warned thousands of civilians risked massacre.
The pre-dawn attack came after the IS snuffies overran the Kurdish headquarters in the border town on Friday, sparking fears they would cut off the last escape route to neighboring Turkey.
But U.S. officials warned that while world attention is focused on Kobane, the jihadists have been piling pressure on government troops in neighboring Iraq, leaving the army in a "fragile" position in Anbar province between Baghdad and the Syrian border.
The renewed IS drive on central Kobane sparked 90 minutes of heavy fighting with the town's Kurdish defenders before the jihadists fell back, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
U.S.-led coalition warplanes also launched two air strikes against IS targets south and east of the town early Saturday, according to the Britannia-based monitoring group, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria.
It said a sandstorm later Saturday prevented more coalition raids, and reported fighting in southern Kobane and near the headquarters IS captured on Friday.
U.S.-led warplanes have intensified air strikes against IS, which has been attacking Kobane for three weeks, but the Pentagon has said that there are limits to what can be done without ground troops.
Small groups of Kurdish fighters were trying to harry the encircling jihadists with operations across the front line, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France-Presse.
U.N. envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura warned Friday that 12,000 or so civilians still in or near Kobane, including about 700 mainly elderly people in the town center, "will most likely be massacred" if the town falls.
Kobane was "literally surrounded" except for one narrow entry and exit point to the Turkish border, de Mistura said.
"We would like to appeal to the Turkish authorities in order to allow the flow of volunteers at least, and their equipment to be able to enter the city to contribute to a self-defense operation," he said.
The Observatory said at least 554 people have been killed in and around Kobane since the IS advance on the town began on September 16 -- 298 IS krazed killers, 236 Kurdish fighters and 20 civilians.
Twenty-one jihadists and eight Kurdish fighters were killed on Friday, it said.
Another 16 IS snuffies died in coalition air raids across the provinces of Aleppo -- which includes Kobane -- and Raqa, where IS has its main Syrian stronghold.
Turkey has tightened security of its porous Syrian border after the escalating fighting in Kobane sparked the exodus of 200,000 refugees over the frontier.
Watching the events unfold from across the border, Ahmed Abu-Ammar told AFP that his son was killed when IS attacked Kobane -- three years after he lost his wife in a regime air strike in Aleppo.
"My eight-year-old son was martyred, God bless him. When the shelling became heavier we fled to Turkey and we suffered a lot to reach this place."
Turkey has been deeply reluctant to allow weapons or Kurdish fighters to cross the border despite repeated nights of protests among its own large Kurdish minority that have left 31 people dead.
The situation is complicated by the close ties between the town's Kurdish defenders and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency for self-rule in southeastern Turkey that Ankara is determined not to embolden.
Washington has been frustrated over Ankara's reluctance to commit its well-equipped and well-trained forces to the coalition against IS, but reported "progress" after two days of talks in Ankara by the coalition's coordinator, retired U.S. general John Allen.
Military chiefs from the 21 countries already committed to the U.S.-led coalition are to meet in Washington next week to discuss strategy, Pentagon officials said.
U.S. defense officials insist the primary focus of the coalition's campaign remains Iraq, where there are capable local forces on the ground to work with, particularly Kurdish forces in the north.
But officials voiced concern about the "tenuous" position of Iraqi troops in Anbar province, where the few remaining government-controlled areas have come under repeated attack.
Some of Anbar province fell to IS at the start of the year and most of the rest was seized by the Sunni holy warriors in a lightning sweep through Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland in June.
"I think it's fragile there now," one senior U.S. defense official told AFP.
"They are being resupplied and they're holding their own, but it's tough and challenging."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
its possible ISIS will capture Kobane in Syria and Ramadi in Iraq within a day of each other
the civilian death toll would be immense and it would shake up every capital city in the mideast
it might even result in a postponement of one of Obama's golf outings
Posted by: lord garth ||
10/12/2014 0:37 Comments ||
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#2
Lord Garth, meybe. But only for a few minutes.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/12/2014 6:50 Comments ||
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#4
I'm sure we can count on the Lancet publishing an article arguing that the civilian casualties will be less than what the evil Americans had done in taking cities (probably throw in some comment about looting and raping as well).
#5
U.N. envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura warned Friday that 12,000 or so civilians still in or near Kobane, including about 700 mainly elderly people in the town center,
Some 90% of the civilians have fled across the border. The 10-12,000 that are nearby are north of Kobane next to the Turkish border. Cut a deal with the Turks to get them across the border, Have the Kurds exfil with the old folks across the border too and bomb the hell out of ISIS. Protect the border. Otherwise this is painful to watch at a lot of different levels.
#10
Turkey does not have to help ISIS actively. They are helping ISIS tacitly by standing by and watching ISIS destroy the Kurds at Kobane, like watching a crocodile attacking your perceived enemy.
This is the ultimate in cynicism and heartlessness; it is anathema to everything the U.S. stands for.
O & Co did the attacks on ISIS forces in a reaction to political pressure. He did not go in to win, but went in with an effort to look like we are doing something. The restrictions on our forces and the Byzantine procedures for targeting and attacking the enemy show that this effort is purely political.
Not putting pressure on Turkey shows O is a MoBro or at least a MoBro sympathizer. Every time he faces a crisis he sides with the despot. And Congress, most of the time, just sits there.
O is a symptom but Congress is the problem, or rather a symptom of a greater malaise in this country.
Sorry for the rambling rant, but our actions as a government point to our problems as a country. The left can grandstand on how evil this country is, but when they get into the driver's seat, they show how bankrupt their own values are.
This ISIS thing is just the beginning of the global metastasis of evil again. And civilization is not strong enough to effectively defend itself against the disease of Islam, at this time. I hope that this changes soon. We are rapidly burning up our safety factor.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/12/2014 13:08 Comments ||
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#11
heh, MoBro
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/12/2014 13:16 Comments ||
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#12
Commodore Frank: I like that term, too, heh heh. All in good fun. A source of innocent merriment in a world of fear and loathing, murder, and emotional mindlessness. :[
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/12/2014 13:23 Comments ||
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#13
well, Ima stealerin' itn
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/12/2014 13:24 Comments ||
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#14
It be in the public domain. Spread the word, and help make it a household word for the masses. Ridicule is a very powerful weapon, when it is carefully thought out, vetted for truth, and fired for effect.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/12/2014 13:29 Comments ||
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#15
Let us first admit that when Obama abandoned the Iraqis to their own devices in 2011, it was a fundamental and irreversible strategic error on his own, his advisers' and his supporters' ports.
Everyone who visited Rantburg.com between 2011 and last fall saw the burgeoning power of ISIS as they attacked their enemies and gathered their forces for their current campaign. And our feckless political class, from both sides of the aisle, did nothing to stop it.
Let us also admit that even if Barky borrowed his cajones from the wife or Jarrett, it would take much more military effort to restore the situation, than is currently in use. The airstrike strategy, AKA War from 10,000 feet, while the optics are great, and the hosannas from the press are terrific, are essentially a waste of military resources.
IOW, what Bush has done to to secure Iraq in 2009 was frittered away in favor of Barky's US electoral politics; all that blood and treasure gone, just so Barky can live Peace love and three Days of Music in the White House.
The Kurds may be able to take a chunk out of ISIS, but they won't hold out for long, not without outside assistance in the form of American troops, and for better or worse, only the US has the capability to effectively intervene in the issue and change the course of history. The Euros don't, nor do the Rooshuns or the Chinese.
At the moment the Kurds' only hope is that the ISIS offensive fizzles out when the Gawd of War meets the Gawd of Logistics.
#16
Not to defend Obama, but Let us first admit that whenObama abandoned the Iraqis to their own devices in 2011, Bush decided that Iraq can be a democracy it was a fundamental and irreversible strategic error
#17
Bush decided that Iraq can be a democracy it was a fundamental and irreversible strategic error
It was worth a shot for a lot of strategic reasons. A counter to Iran. A model for other ME Islamic countries. A possible ally in the ME somewhat like Egypt was for the past 30 years. Stability. It did not work. It especially did not work when Obama pulled out the troops. Might have prevented ISIS had we stayed.
What Alaska Paul and badanov said. Adding to that, we have a feckless, empty suit in charge of the WH and he is incompetent. Those around him are incompetent. The mistake of 2008 may be again be repeated in 2016.
#18
Invading Iraq and replacing Saddam Hussein with another Sunni general was worth a shot for a lot of strategic reasons. What Bush Jr actually did was something else
#23
our feckless political class, from both sides of the aisle, did nothing to stop it
Those running for re-election have said virtually nothing about IS during this fall campaign season, nothing about protecting the USA from Ebola either.
#24
The voting in Iraq stood the Middle East on its' ear and led to the Arab Spring. In 50 years, it'll all turn out fine, and the purple-fingered lady will be identified as the turning point.
But 40 of the next 50 years are not going to be pretty. If we're not Ebola'd first.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/12/2014 16:19 Comments ||
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#25
"it might even result in a postponement of one of Obama's golf outings"
Naaaaahhhhhhhh.
Posted by: Barbara ||
10/12/2014 17:37 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Mohmand Agency
... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means 
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Wazoo
Moqtada 
