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| Iraq |
| We took our eyes off militants |
| 2014-08-11 |
[ARABNEWS] The US decision to bomb targets of the Islamic State (IS) in northern Iraq, announced by a visibly unhappy President Barack ObamaI am the change that you seek... on Thursday night, was the right thing to do. But will it be enough, or is it too little, too late? With the terrible war between Israel and the Paleostinians in the Gazoo Strip over the past four weeks, the world's attention turned away from the civil war in Syria and the alarming advance of the IS turbans in Iraq. With that came the news this week that about 10,000 to 40,000 members of the minority Yazidi sect were trapped on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq, surrounded by IS fighters who want to kill them because they consider them apostates and devil worshippers. Reports say that without food and water, and facing daily summer temperatures of 37 degrees, dozens of adults and children are dying every day on the mountain. The Iraqi government tried to drop bottled water to them from planes, but was unsuccessful. Residents of the town of Sinjar started fleeing there last Sunday when IS took control of the city. The UN estimates that 200,000 people have fled the city, and that 147,000 have managed to reach the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, filling refugee camps. The armed forces of the Kurds, the peshmergas, are trying to open a land route between the mountain and the town of Rabia, which straddles the border with Syria, in order to give safe passage to trapped Yazidis on the mountain, but are facing difficulties as they have to go through six villages with populations sympathetic to IS. The IS is extremely brutal, constantly posting pictures of themselves on social networks proudly displaying the chopped off heads of their victims in Iraq and Syria, which are generally Syrian and Iraqi soldiers. Their level of barbarity is such that there is no possibility of dialogue with them. Since its control of the city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... in June, the IS turbans have plotted their expansion in Iraq. On Aug. 3 they took control of the Mosul dam on the Tigris River, the largest hydroelectric power supplying Iraq Mosul with electricity. It is also battling Iraqi forces 350 km south of Mosul in an attempt to take control of the Haditha Dam on the Euphrates River. Experts warn that the IS could, in an act of terror, open the gates of Mosul dam and release a wall of water about five meters high that would flood the city of Mosul and possibly reach the outskirts of Baghdad. President B.O. said that he had authorized the It is clear that Obama does not want to commit any ground troops to another military foray in Iraq. He ran for office in part on a pledge to get US troops out of Iraq, and that he has managed to do. But after the US invasion in 2003 and subsequent occupation for 10 years, it is unfair and selfish to believe that the US can just leave and allow Iraq to crumble upon itself. The US owes it to the Iraqis to help them stop the advance of the IS. Unfortunately, the Iraqis currently cannot do much themselves to stop the advance of the forces of Evil because of the political disarray in Baghdad due to differences over the successor to Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, which has left the government paralyzed. The US has sent 300 military advisers to help the Iraqi government, but the long delays in deliveries of American fighter jets, now only expected to begin in December, has left the Iraqi air force hamstrung in attacking targets. The effects of the IS advancement is already causing spillovers in Leb, where fighting between the Lebanese Army and rebels in the town of Arsal on the border with Syria, has left 16 soldiers dead, 85 injured and dozens of rebels killed. The former Prime Minister Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. had recently flown to Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and got an additional donation of $1 billion from King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to help Lebanese Army fight bully boys. With chaos of war and instability in Syria and Gazoo, the IS took opportunity to expand its control over Iraq, spreading their reign of terror and bloodshed, and destroying the rule of law in Iraq and Syria. This is danger not only to the Middle East, but to the whole world. Obama would do well to sit down and discuss a ground military strategy with the Iraqi government, the Kurds, Turkey and other regional allies on how to stop IS once and for all. Bombing them won't ever be enough, even if it does keep Obama out of hot water with US voters and Republicans. American leadership is needed now more than ever. Sadly for Obama, isolationism is not really an option. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #6 Unfortunately intelligence wonks don't make policy. They provide information. The information was there and it was on the front page of every newspaper in the ME. The intelligence failure was the failure to act on actionable information in a timely manner. It took him THREE weeks to make a decision on bombing ISIL, hell, even freaking sissy boy Carter would have pulled the trigger sooner...even Bubba would have acted sooner. Dammit, Neville Freakingchamberlain would have bombed them sooner. Geez, I have to say that back bench pissing a puddle is a much better description of what we have than "the empty suit hiding under his desk in the oval office." |
| Posted by: Bill Clinton 2014-08-11 12:55 |
| #5 Who is this "we" they're writing about? |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2014-08-11 12:50 |
| #4 Obama is so insecure that he has surrounded himself with toadies, sycophants, and ciphers who agree with him. If he says it was an intelligence failure, they say it is an intelligence failure. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2014-08-11 09:39 |
| #3 American leadership is needed now more than ever. Hmmmm, “Now More Than Ever” Amazing. (Read the Washington Times Retrospective) Remembering a visionary 40 years after his fall from grace Almost 40 years and Nixon is being channeled into the 21st century. Now more than ever, to the left he might have seemed a b*stard, but you need a tough guy in the office of the president; not what we have now, a back bench, barely a senator, an inexperienced narcissist, who pees a puddle every time a crisis hits and the red phone rings. May he meet the same fate as RMN, but you know it ain't going to happen any time soon. |
| Posted by: Don Vito Bucket1902 2014-08-11 09:35 |
| #2 We elected Obama. Got the thrill up our leg and then we bent over. The American People elected the clown. Eat your Wheaties. |
| Posted by: Big Thromoth3646 2014-08-11 09:01 |
| #1 With Iraq sitting between the two powder kegs of Syria and Iran, the potential consequences of a failed Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki was surely studied and war-gamed extensively. I will not accept the usual default of U.S. Intelligence failure ["eyes off militants"] as a cause for these tragic events. Responsibility resides with those charged with monitoring events and decision making. Iraq and Al-Maliki were written off and fail Al-Maliki's failure has taken place before the current residents of the White House could pack bags and check out. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-08-11 03:52 |