The United States said on Monday the declaration by militants of an "Islamic caliphate" on territory they have seized in Iraq and Syria has "no meaning."| Too bad no one in that part of the world listens to Champ... |
Ummm... No, we haven't.
"This declaration has no meaning for the people in Iraq and Syria," she said, adding that it just "exposed the true nature of this organization and its desire to control people by fear."
The meaning to the people of Iraq and Syria is that the turbans now control enough territory to declare their state, and they're confident they're strong enough to keep it. They've got lots of people who've been pushing the caliphate idea for years, people like all of Hezb ut-Tahrir and al-Muhajiroun (now whatever Anjem Chaudry's calling it), and Omar Bakri Mohammad, whom the Lebs jugged a week or so ago for his involvement with jihad. They've got a world-wide recruiting organization and lots of financial backing from the Devout™. If they can keep Baiji they're probably self-supporting.
"This is a critical moment for the international community, for countries in the region, for all of the Iraqi people to unite against the threats that they face," Psaki said, while stressing she did not want to "overemphasise" the declaration's impact.
It's a critical moment, but she doesn't want to over-emphasize it. That makes sense. Not a lot of sense, but sense. Of a sort.
The White House said the militants spearheading the offensive in Iraq had waged "a campaign of terror of gross acts of violence and repressive ideology that pose a grave threat to Iraq's future."
They aren't any different from Zarqawi, or from the bunch that was active in Saudi Arabia until the princes cracked down. Remember the guy who kept the murdered contractor's head in his refrigerator? The Taliban did the same sort of thing. Remember the Bamian Buddhas?All that stuff's far away and it has nothing to do with the U.S.A., does it? It's not like they attacked New York or something.
Oh. Wait. They did.
But that was a long time ago. We were all so much younger then.
"Isil is not fighting for a stronger Iraq. Isil is fighting to destroy Iraq. And that's why you've seen this administration work closely with Iraq's political leaders to encourage them to unite the country as they confront this existential threat," spokesman Josh Earnest said.
So where's the "Shock and Awe" part, Josh, if it's all that important?
With Iraq's parliament scheduled to hold its opening session on Tuesday following April elections, Psaki said Washington was "continuing to urge Iraqi leaders to come to an agreement on the three critical posts that are key to forming Iraq's next government."
That means they want to dump Maliki, whom Iran and Russia don't want to dump even though Sistani does.