Iraq's "World Of Hurt"
The Jihadists of ISIS in cooperation with former Baathists continue their march onto Baghdad. Their recent surprise seizure of Mosul and further operations seem to have been well prepared for quite a long time:
“These groups were unified by the same goal, which is getting rid of this sectarian government, ending this corrupt army and negotiating to form the Sunni Region,” said Abu Karam, a senior Baathist leader and a former high-ranking army officer, who said planning for the offensive had begun two years ago. “The decisive battle will be in northern Baghdad. These groups will not stop in Tikrit and will keep moving toward Baghdad.”
The alliance between former Baathist and followers of the naqshbandiya Sufi order with the radical takfirirs of ISIS is a dangerous one. The former are professional militaries and as Pat Lang assesses:
The speed and effective direction of this offensive seems to me to show the participation of such officers as Sabr- Abd al-Aziz al-Douri.If that is the case, then Maliki's army is in a real "world of hurt."
It is not clear what "Maliki's army" actually is. The Iraqi army officers of the divisions near Mosul seem to have been bought off and changed sides. Some 90,000 security forces deserted.
But its is unlikely that the Sunni forces, the Baathist and ISIS, can take Baghdad or even hold the ground they have taken so far. "Maliki's army" will be unlike the "Iraqi army". There are loyal divisions in the Iraqi military and there are many Shia now joining voluntary forces. The Shia authority in Iraq, Ayatollah Sistani, has issued a fatwa and called for war against the Sunni takfiris. Hundreds of thousand will follow that call.
Maliki's forces may be in a "world of hurt" for now but my guess it that they, in the end, will also win. They have more and better resources, access to the sea and support from Iran and likely also the United States. The Sunni positions have no defensible geographic features. The fight will be about cities on flat land and those can be starved and bombed into submission. Disunity within the Sunni forces will also evolve. In Syria ISIS did not do well with other anti-government forces, often fighting against them. The Sunni Sufi/Baathist followers of Izzat Ibrahim, a vice president under Saddam Hussein, will soon revolt against the radical life style ISIS will try to impose on the areas both groups hold. The more nasty force of those two will win internally only to be then stomped into ground by superior Shia forces.
As those two main groups struggle against each others the Kurds up north will be, for now, the laughing third. They already took Kirkuk, the oil-rich mixed Arab-Kurd city up north, and will not let it go without violence. They will be the next target when the Sunni Shia fight has been decided for either side.
All sides will bleed and, thanks to the U.S. war of terror, all Iraqis will contine to be in a "world of hurt" for years to come.
Posted by b on June 13, 2014 at 12:21 UTC | Permalink
Posted by: notlurking | Jun 13, 2014 8:33:20 AM | 1
Or they will get bogged down.
But what "interested parties" did not manage with Syria, they will manage now with Iraq. It is the end of Sykes-Picot.
Saudi Arabia will rue the day they started this. Iran possibly, too.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 13 2014 12:39 utc | 2
A quibble and I do recognise that it's a quibble. I wouldn't describe the Ba'athist forces as 'former' Ba'athists I think it's far more accurate to describe them as fully current members of the Ba'ath.
I agree with you about the Kurdish forces - they've got Kirkuk what'll be very interesting is to see how much of a buffer zone they take.
Dubhaltach
Posted by: Dubhaltach | Jun 13 2014 13:03 utc | 3
Colonel Mustard (aka Pat Lang) is full of shit. Always has been. He has the nerve to compare this to Vietnam. There may be some overlap, but it's not significant — it's like comparing eggplant to kiwi — yes, they both have seeds and they're edible, but that's where the similarity ends. He tries to equate the two in order to render himself relevant. His days of relevancy, if he ever was relevant, are long past, yet he still fights his endless battle, a battle he lost long ago, with the phantom neocons who have metaphorically changed stripes and uniforms many times since Mustard's more lucid days.
The Mustard Colonel touts the former Iraqi army as though it's some kind of threat in and of itself. This is the same army that fell in three seconds when The Coalition Of The Willing invaded Iraq in 2003. Not to mention, can anyone forget the cowardice of this army when confronted in the desert in the first Gulf War? The only thing this army was good at was terrorizing its own defenseless population. When confronted with a true foe, they folded like the spineless cowards they are and always will be. And Colonel Mustard heralds this cowardice. What does that tell you? Birds of a feather.
By the way, b, I loved your comeback to him a while ago when he asked you, as he's prone to do, whether you had any skin in the game, meaning did you have military experience, and you told him you were a Judo champion, or something to that effect. Perfect response, and yet it no doubt went right over the head of the egoist wind bag. I gather you're of similar age to Mustard. I would pay top dollar to see you put him flat on his back in a Judo match.
Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Jun 13 2014 13:10 utc | 4
@ somebody: Saudi Arabia, seriously? Care to present us any proof for that rather wild theory?
Posted by: T2015 | Jun 13 2014 13:11 utc | 5
Gimme that old prime directive,gimme that old prime directive,gimme that old prime directive,and we'll all be happier.Sorry,couldn't help it.I wonder if that's why they shut down the Star Trek series(03?),too subversive for the Ziomonsters.
Posted by: dahoit | Jun 13 2014 13:12 utc | 6
Does this not allow NATO to then justify cross-border operations into eastern Syria. Will not NATO establish their long desired “buffer zone” where terrorists can launch attacks deeper and more effectively into Syrian territory? Can someone w/ much more knowledge than me pls. explain how this all fits so neatly.
Posted by: TikTok | Jun 13 2014 13:18 utc | 7
The position of US and western 'powers' about the events in Iraq is becoming clear. They are more than happy and see an opportunity to attack the democratic majority Shiite government in Baghdad. They are not going to intervene to help an Iran backed government.
I don't see much credible information coming out of Iraq at the moment. Rumors and propaganda from Tweeter accounts, rehashed rumors and 'official' Iraqi propaganda in the reduced amount of media reports. I see Guardian and BBC just opening their Live blogs as 'expecting' something big to happen. Though in a normal world I wouldn't expect any significant force or anything to arrive into Baghdad, much less the Green Zone (a fortress, which can be easily defended by Shiite Al Badr, Dawah and Al Sadr Party militias even if there was zero fighting worth army units, and that's impossible Al Badr units were integrated in the army) as the propaganda seems to be suggesting. There used to be a lot of Iraqi blogs? Are some still active with credible information?
Someone has to explain how the Iraq Army is supposed to be disappearing without a fight even from big fortified bases. If I was a plain Shiite soldier I would feel way more secure in my big base with hundred of thousands of other plain soldiers and plenty of weapons than trying to run to the South through Takfiri infected roads. It reminds me too much to other strange events like when Tripoli (Libya) fell in a single day of fighting.
Posted by: ThePaper | Jun 13 2014 13:35 utc | 8
Here's Patrick Cockburn heeding TPTB's call/order to give his bourgeois followers a fuller bio of the new "bin Laden" international man of mystery Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Revel in how this fucking gatekeeper steers entirely clear of ANY mention of US/proxies creating/funding/arming vis a vis the rise of ISIS and its predecessors in the region. Nope, creating the most evil criminal terror group IN THE WORLD!!! - eeek! - is as simple as being a good bookkeeper and issuing itemized annual reports.
See, kids, he's like a banker-jihadist!!!!Super-smart AND super-crazy!!!!Double-entry accounting for me, knife-ass raping for you!!!!Inshallah!
Give us a fucking break, Cockburn. After having lived through the last puketastic decade with nonsense fucking horseshit about OBL and every other Al-CIAda #1 or #2 leader who the US supposedly smoked over and over and over again you really expect thinking people to swallow this putrid nonsensical tripe?
Yeah, after reviewing 10+ long murderous years of the GWOT and how it's been clearly shown that the US was aiding and abetting - or creating whole-cloth - all of the supposed terrorist masterminds, we should probably just throw all that knowledge to the wind, believe Cockburn's account and buy into the narrative of this new man of mystery.
I bet he looks like a cross between Daniel Pearl and Tom Cruise!!! Giggle.
Holy fuck.
Posted by: JSorrentine | Jun 13 2014 13:41 utc | 10
5) not wild. Google Shiites Saudi Arabia - they are where the oil is, have a look at the map and consider this BBC (I know you think it is the British who rule the world, how old are you?) documentary - recent! - on Saudi Arabia's "hidden" uprising, consider the confessional make up of Bahrain.
If sectarianism rules Saudi could split.
By accident, most of the oil is Shiite.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 13 2014 13:47 utc | 11
I guess I'm not the only one thinking that way ...
Raymond Pritchett @Galrahn The bipartisan consensus appears to be, the current Iraqi government is not our friend, and not worth helping.
Posted by: ThePaper | Jun 13 2014 13:58 utc | 12
Well the oil is neither shiite nor sunni I'd say ;) Not that Wahabis are real moslems to begin with, they're more of a satanic sect.
It actually doesn't matter much, since both the Saudis AND the mullahs are imperial puppets, albeit of a different kind (Iran has been playing a "bad cop" for quite a while now). As for the rest regarding ISIS/ISIL, jsorrentine said it all above. The Empire wants to redraw the maps once again.
Posted by: T2015 | Jun 13 2014 13:59 utc | 13
The Islamists (al Qaeda, ISIS, Al Nusrah etc..) is a purely Sunni phenomena, fed by money coming from unsatisfied, fanatical and frustrated Gulf Sunnis and foreign moslems who feel humiliated by the growing position of non-arab moslem neighboring countries: Shia Iran and Sunni Turkey.
The crisis in Iraq will be a turning point: It will certainly bring together Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey ( and discreetly the USA) as they are confronting a common and dangerous enemy. The Gulf Sunnis may end up by becoming isolated and will suffer even more frustration with the failure of their "mercenaries". That frustration will manifest itself by internal disturbances that may shake the emirs and kings.
Libya is in similar situation thus destroying the ridiculous argument that some media are asserting. They explain that the Islamists became strong in Syria because the West did not support the rebels enough. In Libya the West gave a determinant support to the rebels and killed Qaddafi and yet the country is a worst situation then Syria. There the Islamists are in full strength and there are no forces strong enough to confront them.
Political Islamism has being eradicated in Egypt, military Islamism will be eradicated in Iraq and Syria. The Gulf will pay a high price for allowing the funding and support of extremists.
Posted by: Virgile | Jun 13 2014 14:04 utc | 14
Bullshit/gatekeeper Bobbie "Fuck You 9/11 Truth Advocates" Parry also gets in on the act reminding viewers that although those nasty US Republicans are blaming the rise of ISIS on Obama, we should REALLY take the long/broader view and remind ourselves that this really goes all the waaaaaaayyy back to....2003!!!
Yup, fuck thinking about the parallels between the new "bin Laden" Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi with the original OBL - every version of him, fat, skinny, healthy, sick, old etc - and pondering the mysterious rise of this new "Al Ciada" - (whispers) ISIS - with the old "Al CIAda" and how that entire narrative up to and including the events on 9/11 started the entire shitball rolling including the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Nope, let's just talk about how fucking evil Darth Cheney and friends were and how if we could just get rid of the neocons that everything would be right with the world.
Here's Parry ending:
"Going back at least to 2003, this more complete – and more troubling – narrative would better inform the debate that Official Washington should be having about the twin crises in Iraq and Syria, a discussion that should not shy away from the devastating role that the neocons have played in undermining real U.S. interests in the Middle East and around the world."
Oh, those neocons. They so crazy. Funny, how Vicky Nuland still has a job, huh, Bobbie? Fucking stoopid.
Yup, he says "at least" 2003 but we all know how Parry feels about really discussing the events of two years prior so we'll just start in '03 so as to not ruffle anyone's feathers, mkay?
Note: I know that I could spend all day ripping apart these gatekeepers and others but I do think it's valuable for people to witness how bullshit fucking narratives are created and disseminated in the US/West, how slickly talking points, contexts and frames of reference are promulgated into the social "discussion/debate" so as to bolster an official/Establishment view of our modern world and how facts and honest renderings of history - all just an Internet browser away, boys! - are consistently elided or omitted by the revered "lions" of journo integrity.
Pathetic.
Posted by: JSorrentine | Jun 13 2014 14:08 utc | 15
Winning and losing wars in the conventional sense is no longer applicable because war itself has changed. Iraq was and is a resounding success and it will be a success again when the time comes for it to be bombed down to its bare bones.
It's not a coincidence this manifests as soon as Iraq begins to ramp up oil production again. OPEC has a vested interest in rationalizing artificially high oil prices. One such rationalization is to keep Iraq's immense oil reserves off the market indefinitely. Yes, of course, when moths dance too close to the flame — but when have moths ever listened to that sage advice.
Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Jun 13 2014 14:13 utc | 16
@8 I think the main problem with the Iraqi army is these aren't 20 year olds dropped into Europe or Vietnam or even Grenada with a girl who just received a dear John letter. The rank and file joined the occupiers police support force for jobs to support their family, but with mad bombers, Sunni defectors, a refugee crisis, and their families relative proximity, it's understandable why they might leave the base.
Except for Jackson after the peace was signed, the American army in the war of 1812 didn't exactly win awards for bravery, thuggery yes, but the burning of Washington was a retaliatory measure for our brutality in Canada. The Civil War armies were rife with defectors. The behavior of the neoIraqi army is not unexpected.
Posted by: NotTimothyGeithner | Jun 13 2014 14:30 utc | 17
Here's Cartalucci on the US/CIA being caught "off-guard" - kneeslap - and how the rise of ISIS is right out of the CIA/Israel's "let's create/fund/arm/train terror groups" playbook described by Hersh in 2007.
Posted by: JSorrentine | Jun 13 2014 14:35 utc | 18
Once one side's victory gets going, the high morale of the winning side and the low morale of the losing side can lead to an extension of the early victories, even if such an extension is contrary to the balance of forces. Case in point: France in 1940.
Posted by: lysias | Jun 13 2014 14:59 utc | 19
@17
In addition I think I think #8 also took it for granted that, in conventional warfare, the US army is so much BETTER than anyone else. How a third world countries military was expected to fight back against THE global empire of the world in conventional warfare without doing guerilla/asymmetrical warfare is beyond me.
Posted by: Massinissa | Jun 13 2014 15:18 utc | 20
There is nothing surprising about the collapse of the Iraqi
Army. It was trained by NATO and filled with officers who made things easy for the trainers, sycophants and fantasists. (Next to go- the Afghan National Army.)
The entire Iraqi state is corrupt, riven by sectarianism and conceived in surrender. The elections, including those held most recently, are completely unreliable rubber stamping operations, that have no credibility in Iraq or anywhere else-outside of the imperial propaganda mills.
The US started this brutal civil war when it imported Negroponte and chose the El Salvador option. The forces that "ethnically cleansed" Baghdad, driving hundreds of thousands of sunni and other minority group members out of their homes and, sometimes, out of the country into Syria and Jordan, were under the command of Petraeus (he trained the Iraqi army) and his creatures. Iraq was divided that it might be easier to rule, particularly from a distance, and also to prevent it from becoming a regional power.
To argue, therefore, that the US is surprised by recent developments is difficult: what is transpiring is, broadly, what was inevitable.
On the other hand US governmental capacity for self delusion and stupidity is not to be taken lightly: it is entirely possible that enough Washingtonians believed their own publicity that they came to see the Maliki mob as a well established, popularly mandated, democratic government with an army by trained and equipped by the US and therefore exceptionally powerful. Just like the South Vietnamese army, the Ever Victorious Koumintang and other barracks of cards.
The truth about ISIS is very likely to be that, while it does draw on the financial support of the "jihadi' backers, and while it does recruit religious fanatics into its ranks it is actually run by experienced, trained and entirely rational soldiers. That, after all, is generally what happens in war: the poor bloody infantryman may see himself as fighting for King and Country, God and Mother, Democracy and Constitutionalism or whatever. In fact, until he deserts, he is following orders from above.
One possibility is that the current crisis will so thoroughly discredit the Sistani-US-Iran puppet Maliki and his kleptocratic resource surrendering colleagues, that the real shia leadership will emerge from under the ruins of the rotten state. Now that Maliki and Sistani have called on the masses to arm themselves the prospect of a national revolutionary uprising, in the shia heartland and spreading into the rest of the country, is very real. The choice is not between Maliki and ISIS but between the ghosts of Saddam and al Sadr, both ghost and Moqtada. And al Sadr means something very much akin with Hezbollah.
Posted by: bevin | Jun 13 2014 15:30 utc | 21
@Foolfield, 4:
The real Iraqi army was dissolved by your madman Bremer shortly after the occupation.
Posted by: g_h | Jun 13 2014 15:30 utc | 22
And don't anyone forget about old Fightin' Fiskie!!!!
Here's how he BEGINS his contribution to the nonsense:
So after the grotesquerie of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 suicide killers of 9/11, meet Saudi Arabia’s latest monstrous contribution to world history: the Islamist Sunni caliphate of Iraq and the Levant, conquerors of Mosul and Tikrit – and Raqqa in Syria – and possibly Baghdad, and the ultimate humiliators of Bush and Obama.
Support and affirmation of the fantastical nonsense horseshit fairy tale of 9/11? Check.
Making sure those evil Saudis are front and center in the narrative? Check
Yup, Ole Fiskie makes sure that the finger is pointed DIRECTLY at the Saudis and W. and Blair.
Why, it's Flashback Friday!!!!Don't even think about searching for the terms "Israel" or "CIA" in Fiskie's piece.
Nope, just the Saudis and the neocons gone crazy again!!!
Here's more of Fiskie's take on things. Gee, am I seeing a pattern or what in the bourgeois press?!!
No one will care now how many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been slaughtered since 2003 because of the fantasies of Bush and Blair. These two men destroyed Saddam’s regime to make the world safe and declared that Iraq was part of a titanic battle against “Islamofascism.”
Oh, those two dastardly devils! If those two - wait, three, including Darth Cheney, sorry - if those THREE evil men had just never been born why I bet NOTHING like what we're witnessing would EVER have happened, right? Holy fuck.
CHA-CHING, Fiskie!!! It's payday!!!!
Posted by: JSorrentine | Jun 13 2014 15:58 utc | 23
The Shia will be fighting for their principal shrines in Najaf and Karbala. We saw that Shiite militias operating with the SAA proved to be superior to the jihadis in Syria, and there they were defending the Zeinab mosque.
This seems to be a key aspect of the ISIS offensive -- an attempt to draw Iran into an invasion of Iraq. And here we might note a similarity with U.S. strategy in Ukraine and the attempt to draw Russia into invading Donbass.
Posted by: Mike Maloney | Jun 13 2014 15:59 utc | 24
The Syrian army has performed very well, but the Iraq army is a joke. Current trends could well lead to regional conflagration.
Posted by: Andoheb | Jun 13 2014 16:11 utc | 25
Angry Arab - Saudi princes and ISSI's victories
Notice how the coverage of the advances by ISIS in Iraq by the news station of King Fahd's brother-in-law, Al-Arabiyya, is quite triumphalist.
Craig Murray - Deadly Fiasco
...The current US and UK strategy is to persuade Saudi Arabia to get ISIS to reconcentrate their efforts against Assad, on the understanding they will be allowed to keep the Sunni areas of Iraq (the old neo-con plan of dividing Iraq is firmly back on the agenda).
...It is quite possible we will see some token airstrikes to kill civilians in Mosul, in order to appease Obama’s domestic backers who are never happy if Americans aren’t killing enough people, but only after agreement has been reached with the Saudis that no serious harm will be done.
Url: http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/06/deadly-fiasco/
Posted by: Kim Sky | Jun 13 2014 16:16 utc | 26
Why do I have to remember the "Project for the New Middle East" as presented by Condolez Rice in June 206 in Tel Aviv? This was a map from the presentation:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articlePictures/The%20Project%20for%20the%20New%20Middle%20East.jpg
Posted by: T2015 | Jun 13 2014 16:33 utc | 27
Posted by: T2015 | Jun 13, 2014 12:33:17 PM | 27
As that map has a "Greater Jordan" and an "Israel pre 1967 borders" I suppose it did not really go down well.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 13 2014 16:42 utc | 29
@20 The other issue is our air power and the utter contempt that we hold foreign civilians has bailed us out. The Iraqis don't have the infrastructure for such close air/land operations. The Iraqis don't have the freedom of moment we had. The current ability to e vacate the wounded to emergency care in Germany is incredible. If we couldn't do that, the 4500 kia would be considered good news.
Posted by: NotTimothyGeithner | Jun 13 2014 17:05 utc | 30
bevin, remember the chants when they hung Saddam?
Moqtada! Moqtada! Moqtada!
Posted by: okie farmer | Jun 13 2014 18:16 utc | 31
@ somebody, who said the job is already finished?
What I'm thinking, the main show in this thing might be about the creation of Kurdistan, with Iraq being the side-gamein order to 1) split it and 2) get the "freshly discovered friend" Iran in and all that while splitting the piece of Syria away and punishin Erdogan for his disobedience.
The war strategists never think linearly and in 2D, it's always a kind of creative chaos.
Posted by: T2015 | Jun 13 2014 18:17 utc | 32
And yes, I implied that Iran is not really an adversary, nor was it ever really when you see that the Mullahs were installed by MI-6 and co. back then. Useful idiots. "Our" players are doing their best to pull them over to the "west" and away from Russia and China.
Posted by: T2015 | Jun 13 2014 18:20 utc | 33
- I consider Maliki to be "toast".
- Iraq is now the battleground for the fight between Saudi Arabia & Iran, between Sunnis & Shias.
- ISIS taking over the oilfields of Kirkuk is NOT a good sign, but it will strenghten the position of Saudi Arabia against Iran.
- Erdogan days will be numbered as well. The jihadis victory in N.-Iraq could give the Fetulah Gulen movement more leverage in Turkey.
Posted by: Willy2 | Jun 13 2014 18:31 utc | 34
http://radioyaran.com/2014/06/13/the-distortive-and-misleading-western-narrative-of-the-isis-crisis/
"...5. Much is said about Maliki and his devastating political mistakes, mainly his marginalization but the violence of the more radical militant elements of Iraqs Sunni community is not merely a reaction to Malikis policies. Deadly large scale attacks on Shia mosques, pilgrims, funeral processions, markets, Cafes…started as early as 2003 short after Saddams loss of power..."
Posted by: KerKaraje | Jun 13 2014 18:46 utc | 35
Hahahaa, gotta love the coincidence. This one is with a cheers to "somebody" here, now straight from the horse's mouth as of today, via a mainstream german bankster-owned media mouthpiece:
"7 countries in 5 years"
Posted by: T2015 | Jun 13 2014 19:02 utc | 36
Hahahaa, now what a coincidence. This one goes with a special cheers to "somebody", released today in one of the major mainstream imperial mouthpieces:
Titled "7 coutries in 5 years".
English natives, run it through your favourite translator, it's fun.
Posted by: T2015 | Jun 13 2014 19:06 utc | 37
The growing hysteria and paralysis outside of Iraq combined with the almost miraculous imploding of the Iraqi Army when confronted by a small lightly equipped force of insurgents makes me wonder if the myth of the Mahdi is somehow affecting events. If Shia and Sunni set aside their differences and join forces to follow the Caliph in the march on Jerusalem the Plain Of Megiddo may yet play its promised role in history.
Posted by: Wayoutwest | Jun 13 2014 19:19 utc | 39
via Dissident Voice
The Jewish Plan for the Middle East and Beyond
by Gilad Atzmon / June 13th, 2014
Surely, what’s happening now in Iraq and Syria must serve as a final wakeup call that we have been led into a horrific situation in the Middle East by a powerful Lobby driven by the interests of one tribe and one tribe alone.
Back in 1982, Oded Yinon an Israeli journalist formerly attached to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, published a document titled ‘A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties.’ This Israeli commentator suggested that for Israel to maintain its regional superiority, it must fragment its surrounding Arab states into smaller units. The document, later labelled as ‘Yinon Plan’, implied that Arabs and Muslims killing each other in endless sectarian wars was, in effect, Israel’s insurance policy.
Jewish warsOf course, regardless of the Yinon Plan’s prophesies, one might still argue that this has nothing to do with Jewish lobbying, politics or institutions but is just one more Israeli strategic proposal except that it is impossible to ignore that the Neocon school of thought that pushed the English-speaking Empire into Iraq was largely a Jewish Diaspora, Zionist clan. It’s also no secret that the 2nd Gulf War was fought to serve Israeli interests – breaking into sectarian units what then seemed to be the last pocket of Arab resistance to Israel.
Similarly, it is well established that when Tony Blair decided to launch that criminal war, Lord Levy was the chief fundraiser for his Government while, in the British media, Jewish Chronicle writers David Aaronovitch and Nick Cohen were busy beating the drums for war. And again, it was the exact same Jewish Lobby that was pushing for intervention in Syria, calling for the USA and NATO to fight alongside those same Jihadi forces that today threaten the last decade’s American ‘achievements’ in Iraq.
Unfortunately, Yinon’s disciples are more common than you might expect. In France, it was the infamous Jewish ‘philosopher’ Bernard Henri Levy who boasted on TV that ‘as a Jew’ campaigning for NATO intervention, he liberated Libya.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/06/the-jewish-plan-for-the-middle-east-and-beyond/#more-54593
Gilad Atzmon, now living in London, was born in Israel and served in the Israeli military. He is the author of The Wandering Who and one of the most accomplished jazz saxophonists in Europe.
Posted by: crone | Jun 13 2014 20:00 utc | 40
@37
Thats old news though. Thats been around for 10 years. Pretty sure most of the people know about that by now.
Posted by: Massinissa | Jun 13 2014 20:07 utc | 41
Why should ISIS concentrate on attacking Assad when overrunning cities and bases in Iraq has proved to be such a splendid source of weapons and money?
Posted by: lysias | Jun 13 2014 20:09 utc | 42
Patrick Cockburn: Why the New Iraq War Could be More Savage Than the Last
there is a strong sense that Isis did not expect such a swift victory, recalling that only recently they had been subjected to “imprisonment, torture, military raids”. Their houses had been occupied and they had had to take refuge “in the mountains, in underground bunkers, in valleys, and in the expanse of the desert.” The flight of 30,000 Iraqi army troops and police from Mosul in the face of 1,300 or so of their fighters seems to have caught the Isis leadership by surprise much as it did the rest of the world.
Reportedly, this operation had been in preparation for two years. So two questions come to mind. (1) Why was Iraqi and/or US intelligence not aware that it was imminent? (For all we know, the Israelis knew about it but kept mum.) (2) Why is the US-trained Iraqi army apparently incapable of battle?
My impression is that Americans are so culturally different from and untrusted by Arabs and Muslims that it is impossible for them to effectively train Arabs and Muslims to become soldiers or policemen.
On a side note, ISIS considers Shiites to be polytheists:
Again and again the speaker spits out sectarian hatred of the Shia and it is this which is most alarming for the future. “The Shia are a disgraced people,” he says, accusing them of being polytheists “who worship the dead and stone.”
Muslims calling Christians "polytheists" is bad enough. But Muslims calling other Muslims "polytheists" is just sad, and to me, bizarre.
The hatred that Ukrainian nationalists have for Russians seems to be the product of indoctrination first by the German Reich, then by the Nazis, and finally, by the USG. Where does this Sunni hatred of Shiites come from? Is it something that was spread solely by the Wahhabi Saudis, or did the CIA have a hand in it as well? I think that there's no question that it did when it comes to the Afghan Mujahedin aka the Taliban. So this looks like a genie that the US let out of the bottle and now can't get back in, largely because the Saudis won't let them.
Demian@43
Sunnis and Shiites have been at each other’s throats since Mohamed died. Humans evolved in tribal units. Us versus them is baked into our genes. Western Ukrainians have their own version of the Orthodox Church verses the Moscow version. Ukraine means Borderland in Russian. Western Ukraine was part of Austria Hungary Empire. Eastern Ukraine was ruled by the Czars. This is more than enough of to start a blood feud. The USA is stoking racial hatreds overseas. The British did divide and rule, plus colonial enforcement by an ethnic minority, much better than the USA.
America generally did genocide till President Wilson. Since then there has been a concerted effort to hide history and portray Americans as the best of all peoples. This is mainly an effort by the Elite to keep the lid on the bitter racial and economic divide in the USA. The difficulty in the 21st century is that the transnational Elite, who now rule the West, believe their own propaganda, don’t know history, and compulsively fill their needs for power, wealth and all their other addictions.
If a negotiated peace isn’t made soon in the Levant and the Balkans, we shall view the prophesied End of Days.
Posted by: VietnamVet | Jun 13 2014 21:43 utc | 44
Interesting that the dire consequences of letting genies out of bottles is a staple of middle eastern myth. They've obviously been around this track many times before. I can think of one 'culture' that's not been around for long enough to learn this sort of wisdom, and treat it with the respect it deserves...clue.. it just disneyfies it...
Posted by: bridger | Jun 13 2014 21:45 utc | 45
"Recipe for creating inextinguishable, persistently mutating & rabid disaster, also known as ‘bringing democracy’ to the Arab world"
http://ronaldthomaswest.com/2014/06/12/hydras-hydrophobia/
^ It's a case of 'stupid is as stupid does'
Posted by: Ronald Thomas West | Jun 13 2014 21:58 utc | 46
Posted by: Demian | Jun 13, 2014 5:01:08 PM | 43
This is not designed by ISIL - this from Turkey
If we rewind the events to almost two years back, when Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu told NTV in August 2012 that Bashar al-Assad in Syria could be brought down “within weeks,” it would be possible to see a totally different picture than today.At that time Turkey was working very closely with U.S. and French intelligence on how to help the Syrian opposition. In response to Turkey’s demands for more equipment to help the newly established Free Syrian Army (FSA), the West was hesitant. It was telling the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) that not all the boys in the FSA, with its main body from the supporters of Muslim Brotherhood, were good boys and it was possible that some of the weapons could go to the bad boys without knowing.
But then the Muslim Brotherhood was on rise in the whole Muslim region in the Middle East. The Arab Spring had carried it to power in Tunisia and Egypt. Gaza was under its influence. Some in Ankara started to fantasize about a rise of moderate Sunni Islam, led by Turks, assuming that Arabs were missing being ruled by Turks again, missing Ottoman rule.
At the same time, some other developments were taking place. Militants of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), the Iraq branch of al-Qaeda, which had been established in 2004 against the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, went to Syria to set up a twin organization called al-Nusra. But when al-Qaeda asked them to concentrate all forces on Syria, some of ISI decided to split from al-Qaeda to form their own Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and started fighting against Shiite Nouri al-Maliki in Iraq and Alawite Bashar al-Assad, as well as against al-Nusra and Kurds in Syria.
Again, simultaneously, al-Maliki had accused his Sunni deputy Tariq al-Hashimi of trying to topple him and sentenced him to life. Al-Hashimi found refuge in Turkey and, according to the Turkish opposition, started to get organized against al-Maliki while being under the protection of Turkish intelligence.
So there appeared the possibility of another Sunni state (if the Shiite al-Maliki could be toppled) for those seeking the rise of another golden age in the region.
However, the toppling of Mohamed Morsi in Egypt in July 2013 with a Saudi Arabia-supported coup ruined those fantasies. The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria disintegrated within weeks, leaving the FSA merely an empty shell, especially in the northern sectors. Most of the FSA fighters joined more radical Islamist groups like al-Nusra or ISIL.
So in a way, Turkey’s fears, telling the West, “If we do not help those people, radicals will gain ground” have been proved right.
Today, guess who is praising the capture of Mosul (as the “Iraqi Spring”) where Turks are being held hostage by ISIL? It is no one but Tariq al-Hashimi.
You can bet that Assad and Iran saw this coming. And you can bet there are deals. No one seems to be concerned that Baghdad may fall.
Have a look at the map. What would Iran be interested in. A contiguous Shiite area or getting bogged down fighting Sunnis in their areas.
The Iraqi soldiers fled because they were told to. The Shiites will now defend themselves (and the oil wells).
This has been in the making the very second the US left Iraq. And they are doing it now because they are sure the US will not intervene.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 14 2014 5:49 utc | 47
@somebody #47:
Interesting.
@VietnamVet #44:
Western Ukrainians have their own version of the Orthodox Church verses the Moscow version.
The worst/westernmost Ukrainians aren't even Orthodox: they are Uniates. (Note: I was baptized Russian Orthodox.) Uniates are basically people from the "borderland" of Russia who were forcibly converted to Catholicism from Orthodoxy by the Poles, and were allowed to keep the Orthodox liturgy.
As if splitting the people of Russia's borderland between Orthodox and Catholic were not bad enough, in 1995, Uki nationalists set up their own bogus patriarchate, which is recognized by no other patriarchate. According to a recent article in Russian about Poroshenko, the plan is to destroy the Russian Orthodox Church in the Borderland.
1.5 million Iraqis join fight against ISIL militants
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/366830.html
Posted by: Paty Kerry | Jun 14 2014 10:03 utc | 49
Iraqi Sunnis had no choice but to fight - Hashimi
Al-Hashimi, the man who was elected by the people as vice president, now lives in exile in Turkey and Qatar, but is still considered the embodiment of the Iraqi people's disbelief in democracy.
AKP’s Ally al-Hashimi Called Mosul’s Invasion a Revolution
Iraqi politicians Usama al-Nujayfi and Tariq al-Hashimi, also known for being close to the USA and AKP government, have allegedly opened the Mosul border gate to the militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The governor of Ninewa state where Mosul province located, Atheel al-Nujayfi, is the brother of Usama al-Nujayfi who had a meeting with the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. The al-Nujayfi family, being close to the AKP government, has condoned the invasion of Mosul by ISIS, while Tariq al-Hashami, Iraq’s fugitive vice-president currently living in a villa provided by the AKP in Turkey, commented on the Mosul invasion by Islamist fundamentalists as a revolution.Governor Atheel al-Nujayfi sent a memorandum to all state departments on the 6 June ordering the destruction of all the documents bearing his signature, telling them to also not resist ISIS militants, and prohibiting mobile phones in offices.
The editor-in-chief of the Turkish branch of the Moroccan Biladi TV, Cevat Gök, claimed that ISIS was not alone in the gradual invasion of Iraq. “Major Sunni tribes, in particular Naksibendi, support ISIS. They paved the way for ISIS so that they can invade Mosul easily. ISIS is just the tip of the iceberg.” stated Gök.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 14 2014 10:40 utc | 50
More from the Turkish opposition
The US AKP Schemes Reach Mosul
Posted by: somebody | Jun 14 2014 10:54 utc | 51
@Demian 43
"it is impossible for them to effectively train Arabs and Muslims to become soldiers or policemen."
Yeah! known problem...
Posted by: Anonymous | Jun 14 2014 11:30 utc | 52
I'm curious: is the US actually behind this 'al Queda' takeover? After all, I read now that the US are talking about bombing the insurgents inside Iraq AND Syria. It does give them some kind perverted 'justification'.
Posted by: William Bowles | Jun 14 2014 11:43 utc | 53
So the US has tried to form a militia/political coalition against Assad out of a Northern Syrian and Southern Iraqi Sunni tribal alliance, basically promising them their own state, pitted not only against Syria but also against the Iraqi alliance with Iran and Damascus, and now sanctimoniously accuse Maliki of sectarian politics.
From the link in #50
“There are tribes in Al-Anbar province with whom the Turkish Intelligence Organization (MİT) is in touch. They set up a transition course from northern Iraq to Syria with the instructions of MİT and Tariq al-Hashimi. MİT was sending armed groups to Syria through the Tel Afer-Sincar route to fight against Syrian army.”Both the USA and Turkey used every means available to get the al-Iraqiya Coalition to establish a government, however despite this, the Nouri al-Maliki administration was established nine months later. The coalition fell apart and some joined al-Maliki.
After the US troops had left Iraq in 2011, the Iraqi Supreme Court sentenced Tariq al-Hashimi and banned him from leaving the country with the charges of being linked to terrorist groups.
The reason behind all these was that Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the AKP wanted to organize the Free Iraqi Army according to some documents of the Iraqi government. Aydınlık Newspaper reported on the 23 February 2013 that the Free Iraqi Army was trained in Gölbaşı, Turkey. An anonymous source mentioned a group of militants being trained in Gölbaşı, which he called “the men of Hashimi.”
This will be a funny dance now, the US explaining why they don't support the Iraqi government against Al Qeida. US media already claimed they are not that bad really, though the UN (and British media) are not on script.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 14 2014 11:57 utc | 54
Some posts are disappearing...
Even the Russians managed to buy Kurdish oil,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/11/us-kurdistan-oil-idUSKBN0EM1OK20140611
As for the Naqshbandi/Takfiri mix, it has been seen in Chechenia before. The new element are the Iraqi Baathists!
Posted by: Mina | Jun 14 2014 12:01 utc | 55
Posted by: JSorrentine | Jun 13, 2014 10:35:36 AM | 18
Thank you for the link to Cartalucci's article. It provided an "aha!" moment for me. This excerpt is an eye-opener:
"It is a defacto re-invasion of Iraq by Western interests - but this time without Western forces directly participating - rather a proxy force the West is desperately attempting to disavow any knowledge of or any connection to. However, no other explanation can account for the size and prowess of ISIS beyond state sponsorship. And since ISIS is the clear benefactor of state sponsorship, the question is, which states are sponsoring it? With Iraq, Syria, and Iran along with Lebanese-based Hezbollah locked in armed struggle with ISIS and other Al Qaeda franchises across the region, the only blocs left are NATO and the GCC (Saudi Arabia and Qatar in particular)."
Cartalucci cut right through the nonsense presented in Cockburn's and Parry's (ugh!) columns.
Posted by: madisolation | Jun 14 2014 12:13 utc | 56
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/6/kurdlocal1638.htm
ISIS plans to launch a TV channel. That's what you get after being US-trained.
Posted by: Mina | Jun 14 2014 12:27 utc | 57
Occasionally, wikipedia can be useful
The purpose of a system is what it does
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The purpose of a system is what it does (POSIWID) is a systems thinking heuristic coined by Stafford Beer.
Origins of term
Stafford Beer coined the term POSIWID and used it many times in public addresses. Perhaps most forcefully in his address to the University of Valladolid, Spain, in October 2001, he said "According to the cybernetician, the purpose of a system is what it does. This is a basic dictum. It stands for bald fact, which makes a better starting point in seeking understanding than the familiar attributions of good intention, prejudices about expectations, moral judgment, or sheer ignorance of circumstances."[1]
W. L. Livingston, P.E. made extensive use of the term POSIWID in his book Have Fun at Work published in 1988. ISBN 0937063053.
Uses of term
The term is now widely used by systems theorists. It is generally invoked to counter the notion that the purpose of a system can be read from the intentions of those who design, operate, or promote it. From a cybernetic perspective complex systems are not controllable by simple notions of management, and interventions in a system can best be understood by looking at how they affect observed system behavior. When "side effects" or "unintended consequences" reveal that system behavior is poorly understood then taking the POSIWID perspective allows the more political understandings of system behavior to be balanced by a more straightforwardly descriptive view.
The term is used in many fields including biology[2] and business management.[3]
Only "occasionally", mind
Posted by: OMFG | Jun 14 2014 14:05 utc | 58
Posted by: Mina | Jun 14, 2014 8:01:36 AM | 55
actually, what the Reuters article claims is not true - Russia/Lukoil has huge investment in Iraq - near Basra
So, presumably Reuters is trying to give them a bad name. Maybe trying to take the steam of BP which is the real trader.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 14 2014 14:06 utc | 59
Oh don't you tell me... haven't I said this above? Call me prophetic if you wish ;)
Posted by: T2015 | Jun 14 2014 14:47 utc | 60
Maliki's forces may be in a "world of hurt" for now but my guess it that they, in the end, will also win. They have more and better resources, access to the sea and support from Iran and likely also the United States.
Yes. The rapprochement between Iran <> US..etc. is moving forward, the opposition has been thawing like lemon ice in the sun, Natural Allies in some sense, all that..
According to Swiss Press the meet day before yest between Iran and the US, Russia, China, France, GB, Germany in Geneva, went extremely well. The Iran Rep. subsequently went to Rome for bi-lateral discussions with Russia (?..) The language used in what I read went well beyond the ‘fruitful talks’ etc. and was genuinely very optimistic.
One brief descriptive article in F.
A ‘people’ picture:
The lady in burnt orange is Catherine Ashton. The baldy head on the right is Laurent Fabius. Man at left is Pascal Lamy. The hand imho is an Iranian one, but who knows ;) The glee and congrats are because finally many steps forward were made in journo speak.
Iran’s press (in Eng) has also been very positive. Yet. Looking at goog right now, the titles are all “6 months more needed for negotiations according to Iran”, implying that Iran is obstructing, and leaving out positive aspects.
Posted by: Noirette | Jun 14 2014 15:56 utc | 61
Posted by: Noirette | Jun 14, 2014 11:56:08 AM | 61
Nice photographs, I don't see any friendship on the ground though.
Strange stuff google finds sometimes ...
The ISIL leader spent some time in Camp Bucca - a US detention facility in Iraq. Turns out he was not the only one.
Camp Bucca, a detention facility built and maintained by the U.S. Army in Iraq between 2003 and 2009, was a major recruiting ground for al-Qaeda, a senior Iraqi anti-terror official told Al Arabiya in an interview aired on Friday.Brigadier General Maher Najm Abdul Hussein, head of the anti-terror and organized crime in Iraq, said more than 90 percent of al-Qaeda members now operating in the country were once inmates at Camp Bucca.
General Abdul Hussein said the detention facility was a “mistake” committed by the U.S. Amy in Iraq, describing the prison as an “incubator” that allowed the terror network to recruit more members.
Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 14 2014 17:17 utc | 62
Al Akhbar with hope the Mosul coup gives a chance to end the sectarian system
lots of information how it was done, and on those Baathists ...
Posted by: somebody | Jun 14 2014 18:17 utc | 63
ISIS fighter in Humvee etc arriving, allegedly, in Baghdad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4oBj99gfYo
No checkpoints to hold them for a while?
Sufis supporting Sunni radicals who demolish Sufi shrines?! Strange!
Posted by: Brian | Jun 14 2014 22:28 utc | 65
The plot explained - from Israel via Turkey
Last week I was in Israel to attend the Herzliya Conference, a high level international security conference taking place annually in Tel Aviv. On the sidelines of the conference I had a conversation with Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister and Defence Minister of Israel. Since we met right after the Mosul assault, Iraq has been the center of gravity of our conversation.“Countries cannot choose their geography, just as children cannot choose their parents”, says Barak. He is almost certain that the longstanding frightening scenario which is the disintegration of Iraq, is now taking place. Yet, according to that scenario, it would be the Sunni politicians who would take control of central Iraq, not the ISIL (the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant). Hence the ongoing scenario is so frightening that it could not even be imagined. Barak says that the ISIL is now in the process of building an Islamic state in central Iraq.
The former Israeli Prime Minister thinks that the U.S. could now take action in order to change the situation on the ground and also to show to the world that it is not passive and weak.That Russia is busy on Ukraine could also make this slightly less complicated. Accordingly, this could be through limited air attacks, targeting some ISIL spots. And also forming no fly zones over refugee concentrations in Syria close to Turkish and Jordanian borders. This would be on the basis of Turkey-U.S. cooperation.
Barak states that Turkey cannot afford not to take action when its direct interests are at stake since it is a major regional power. He adds that the recent regional developments might make Israel and Turkey ready to come closer since they need each other now even more.
Obama conditioned US help on Maliki accepting "Sunni politicians". So in the next round see Baathists switching uniforms from ISIL to "awakening" tribal self defense and Sufis fighting Islamic fundamentalists.
Remain those oil wells in Shiite territory. Which will be another miscalculation.
Israel seems to be freaked out enough to accept an Iranian/Assad win. I do wonder what the relationship between Syrian and Iraqi Baath is nowadays. Reading interests and politics by sectarian politics sometimes blinds analysis.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 15 2014 5:55 utc | 66
For some reason this guy is not in the Western press, though "Sunni politician"
Fugitive veep 'Tariq al-Hashemi ' calls ISIL advance ‘Iraqi Spring’Iraqi fugitive Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi has called Takfiri militants’ advance in the country an “Iraqi Spring.”
Hashemi made the remarks in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Friday, claiming that mainly Arab Sunni tribes in Mosul and Anbar are “behind this Iraqi Spring,” rather than the militants of the al-Qaeda splinter Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
"They are not involved in the decision-making," Hashemi said.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 15 2014 6:01 utc | 67
ahh found it - Petraeus from 2009
Petraeus also revealed that officials from Iraq's former regime are currently in Syria, including Izzat al-Douri, Saddam Hussein's former vice president.The officials, he said, are living in Syria with complete freedom and some even own satellite channels. The general emphasized that this has created tension between Iraq and Syria. He said Iraqis hope that Damascus will limit the activities of Saddam Hussein's remaining supporters who are now calling for a change in Iraq's new regime.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 15 2014 6:30 utc | 68
from wsws
The debacle in Iraq
14 June 2014
The events that have unfolded in Iraq over the past several days represent the greatest debacle for US imperialism since the fall of Saigon in 1975 sent the last Americans scurrying onto helicopters atop the embassy roof.
The collapse of the Iraqi army, a force the Pentagon spent some $22 billion and a decade to arm and train, and the overrunning of much of the country by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), an offshoot of Al Qaeda, represent more than the failure of a single foreign intervention. What is involved is the implosion of an entire set of policies that have been pursued over the course of the more than two decades since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/06/14/pers-j14.html
Posted by: okie farmer | Jun 15 2014 7:08 utc | 69
Webster G. Tarpley, Ph.D.
TARPLEY.net – World Crisis Radio
June 14, 2014
Posted by: Paty Kerry | Jun 15 2014 7:40 utc | 70
Oh the opportunity of fighting ISIL
Al-Nujaifi said Baghdad was unlikely to defeat ISIL without the backing of Sunnis in Iraq.“In my opinion, we need to find a different way to fight against ISIL. It should not be solved [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s way, but within a Sunni project. This is not the fight of Shiites or al-Maliki, but of Sunnis. Al-Maliki cannot fight against ISIL. Only Sunnis can do that, because then ISIL would not be able to use sectarian issues,” he said, also warning against the interventions of Shiite groups either inside or outside the country.
“This would render the situation much more complicated, adding a sectarian dimension to it. I’m afraid that if such a thing happens, all Sunnis will join ISIL,” al-Nujaifi said, adding that the people had “suffered” from the central government, which he accused of having a “sectarian approach.”
“Society was under heavy pressure from the army and the regime. They did not like the army and needed someone to protect them against the military. Both the army and the police have shown a sectarian approach on the issues,” he said.
Close coordination with Kurds
While questioning Baghdad’s ability to deal with the ongoing crisis, al-Nujaifi also said that the most important support they were getting was from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq’s north.
“We are in coordination with the Kurdistan regional administration rather than Baghdad. Baghdad is not close to bringing any solution. We are relying on our own means and the KRG,” he said.
He also dismissed claims that Saddam Hussein’s former right-hand man, İzzat İbrahim al-Douri, was giving support to ISIL, along with other members of the Baath regime. He said groups linked to the Baathists had also captured their own areas within Mosul.“When the army retreated, these groups took control in their own areas. But this doesn’t mean that they fight alongside ISIL. This is what İzzat al-Douri and the Baathists did. But ISIL and the Baathists are on different roads. They are not the same and cannot be,” al-Nujaifi said.
So it was not a fight. It was a retreat of the Iraqi army.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 15 2014 8:50 utc | 71
A good compilation of US Iraq policies
SIEGEL: Are you satisfied by the degree to which the incoming Obama administration - what has been the Obama campaign - sees as the reality of Iraqi politics? Is it close enough to what you see as the reality of Iraqi politics?Mr. GALBRAITH: Yes. Of course, it's very encouraging to me that Joe Biden is the incoming vice president. He has been the prime proponent of a decentralized Iraq. And although in the campaign Senator McCain described his plan as, I think, a cockamamie idea, it is in fact what the Bush administration has done in part. The Bush administration, in 2007, decided to finance a Sunni army, which is the Awakening. And that's why we've had success. Biden would only take this a next step and encourage the Sunnis to form their own region, which would control that army just as the Kurdistan region controls the Peshmerga, which is the Kurdistan army.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 15 2014 9:23 utc | 72
With the football on TV, no one will notice
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-12/how-us-arming-both-sides-iraqi-conflict
I start to think that Syria is used as a filter. The young recruits (djihadists from Europe, like the guy who killed people in Brussels 3 weeks ago after coming back from one year in Syria) stay in Syria, while the more serious guys were sent to Iraq. The current plan seems to be seriously executed, and not just chaotic actions by kids on amphetamine.
For the Kurds, it is not yet clear what is going on
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/103722/World/Region/Iraq-air-strike-on-Kurdish-forces-kills-six-Office.aspx
Developments will happen in Libya and Ukraine, with such a smoke screen
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/103750/World/Region/Libyas-second-city-Benghazi-hit-by-new-fighting,-f.aspx
The Germans warn Turkey and KSA
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/103735/World/Region/Germany-warns-of-regional-proxy-war-in-Iraq.aspx
Posted by: Mina | Jun 15 2014 12:00 utc | 73
The coverage by the MSM of the Iraqi disaster is ten fold of the Ukraine disaster.I wonder why?I guess they feel their Israel is more threatened there,despite the absolute paucity of jihadi Israeli assaults.
And Tony Blair says;The current situation in Iraq has nothing to do with the invasion by the West.phew.(Graun)
Posted by: dahoit | Jun 15 2014 13:38 utc | 74
52;Those who win wars of equal forces are the most motivated.Do you actually think Arab armies have ever been motivated,except possibly the Arab Israeli conflicts in 67 and 73,enough to win?The Arabs of the 7th century were certainly motivated and able to conquer vast swathes of territory,conquering Spain,and later those Arabs and Muslims under Saladin didn't do a bad job against those crazed Crusaders.And the Mameluks weren't too shabby either.
All humans are capable of all human things.Simple.
Posted by: dahoit | Jun 15 2014 13:55 utc | 75
Turkey ...not asking NATO for help with ISIS
On top of that, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said June 13, “I talked to our consul general.” This is quite a puzzling statement, as it indicates that the prime minister of the Turkish Republic has directly talked to a member of ISIS. When Davutoglu was asked about it, he said, "I don't want to elaborate on this. It should be kept within the sanctity of these [negotiations].” Even though Turkey could be trying to do its utmost to safely rescue its diplomatic corps and truck drivers, the prime minister’s engagement in such negotiation is quite an unusual one, indicating that Turkey has accepted the ISIS authority at its highest level. Yet ISIS continues to hold 80 Turkish citizens hostage even after Erdogan directly engaged with them.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 15 2014 14:12 utc | 76
Again, a list of links have disappeared
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/6/syriakurd1239.htm
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/6/kirkuk821.htm
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/6/kurdlocal1639.htm
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/6/govt2309.htm
http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/150620141
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/chairs-of-akp-in-van-province-resign.htm
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/103772/World/Region/Syria-pounds-ISIL-bases-in-coordination-with-Iraq-.aspx
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/103568/World/Region/What%E2%80%99s-happening-in-Iraq-is-a-regional-axis-of-con.aspx
Posted by: Mina | Jun 15 2014 18:59 utc | 77
“Greater Israel”: The Zionist Plan for the Middle East By Israel Shahak
"Global Research Editor’s NoteThe following document pertaining to the formation of “Greater Israel” constitutes the cornerstone of powerful Zionist factions within the current Netanyahu government, the Likud party, as well as within the Israeli military and intelligence establishment.
According to the founding father of Zionism Theodore Herzl, “the area of the Jewish State stretches: “From the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates.” According to Rabbi Fischmann, “The Promised Land extends from the River of Egypt up to the Euphrates, it includes parts of Syria and Lebanon.”
When viewed in the current context, the war on Iraq, the 2006 war on Lebanon, the 2011 war on Libya, the ongoing war on Syria, not to mention the process of regime change in Egypt, must be understood in relation to the Zionist Plan for the Middle East. The latter consists in weakening and eventually fracturing neighboring Arab states as part of an Israeli expansionist project."
Posted by: scalawag | Jun 15 2014 21:37 utc | 78
Unrepentant monster:
2003 invasion not to blame for current Iraq crisis, Blair says
LONDON — Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says the West’s failure to intervene in Syria is to blame for the violent insurgency in neighboring Iraq — not the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Blair is a religious nut, like his wife. I wonder if he thinks that his conversion to Catholicism (!) is going to save him from eternal damnation.
Posted by: Demian | Jun 15, 2014 8:42:40 PM | 79
As a Catholic, he will have to repent shortly before death for salvation. Presumably he thinks there still is time.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 16 2014 2:35 utc | 80
Oh yes, please tell me that ISIS is now a product of Assad and the former Saddam people and not the pet-terrorist bunch we have been raising the last few decades... and then we will have AlQaida on the Moon next.
Actually it's very easy: it depends on the border. On the Syrian side, these guys are "freedom fighters" abd when they cross the border, they become evil mozzlem tewwowists. See, it's location-based recognition.
Posted by: T2015 | Jun 16 2014 5:47 utc | 81
soon us will commit an other warcrime?
US warship with 550 Marines enters Persian Gulf - media
http://rt.com/usa/166244-uss-marines-gulf-iraq/
Posted by: Anonymous | Jun 16 2014 11:53 utc | 82
Interview of Mosul's governor (escaped to Irbil)
http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2014/06/16/refugie-au-kurdistan-le-gouverneur-de-mossoul-raconte-la-chute-de-sa-ville_4438914_3218.html
Posted by: Mina | Jun 16 2014 13:53 utc | 83
Details are unfolding:
http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/20199
Is it bad reporting or simply that the West cannot accept to see printed that the old guard of Saddam has managed to achieve the plot?
http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/20197
Posted by: Mina | Jun 16 2014 14:42 utc | 84
KSA rejects any foreign intervention in Iraq except its own
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/103874/World/Region/Saudi-rejects-foreign-interference-in-Iraq,-blames.aspx
Posted by: Mina | Jun 16 2014 15:15 utc | 85
http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2014/6/turkey5045.htm
"All experts Rudaw spoke to agree that Turkey has tolerated jihadists crossing the border, to support the fight against Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria, which is considered a offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been at war with Turkey for 30 years. Now, one of these groups, The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has moved into Iraq and captured the Turkish consulate in Mosul, releasing them one day after."
The MSM were obviously reluctant to mention the attack against the Turkish consulate and kidnapping of the people there, but now they are even more silent on their possible liberation?
Posted by: Mina | Jun 16 2014 17:22 utc | 86
The MSM are also reluctant to say that "ISIS" had over $900 Mio. in funds even before they attacked Mosul. And a buttload of fine weapons, ammo, brand new Toyota jeeps, hordes of fighters and on and on. Maybe you can explain how "Saddam's guard" (now that's the stuff movies are made of!) made all that?
Gimme a break. It's not like we don't all know that the british are running the whole thing with the help from the usual suspects.
Posted by: T2015 | Jun 17 2014 5:50 utc | 87
Oh yeah and MSM were also reluctant to mention one of the wounded ISIS chiefs who is right now residing in a turkish hospital. Paid by the turkish taxpayer, while his gang kidnaps turkish people with the support of the turkish government. Cry me a river.
Posted by: T2015 | Jun 17 2014 5:53 utc | 88
US to send up to 275 troops to Iraq to help repel Sunni Muslim insurgency
The US is urgently deploying several hundred armed troops in and around Iraq and considering sending an additional contingent of special forces soldiers as Baghdad struggles to repel a rampant insurgency, even as the White House insists anew that America will not be dragged into another war.President Barack Obama notified Congress on Monday that up to 275 troops could be sent to Iraq to provide support and security for US personnel and the American Embassy in Baghdad. About 170 of those forces have already arrived and another 100 soldiers will be on standby in a nearby country until they are needed, a US official said.
While Obama has vowed to keep US forces out of combat in Iraq, he said in his notification to Congress that the personnel moving into the region are equipped for direct fighting.
And separately, three US officials said the White House was considering sending a contingent of special forces soldiers to Iraq. Their limited mission - which has not yet been approved - would focus on training and advising beleaguered Iraqi troops, many of whom have fled their posts across the nation's north and west as the al-Qaeda-inspired insurgency has advanced in the worst threat to the country since American troops left in 2011."
I've seen speculation (at Russian sites) that this western fascist run ISIS/ISIL terrorist "army", expanding from their original job for the western nazis of taking down Syria for "greater" Israel, into Iraq is the beginning of a wider western nazi scheme of sending their cannibal terrorists to the central Asian republics, where they will raise havoc in concert with the western bandera nazi proxy army doing the same in the Ukraine and their various phony Muslim terrorists assaulting China and their drug mafia fascists attacking Venezuela. Basically, the western nazi assault on the Ukraine was the escalation trigger of a multi-faceted terror campaign by the western nazis to impose chaos in the border regions of their major rivals in order to isolate them.
Posted by: scalawag | Jun 17 2014 6:01 utc | 89
Ahh, now MSM is waking up a bit - must be all the noise we've been raising about the funding, equipment etc. Now the cash source is supposedly Syrian gas from the occupied areas... whoever believes that.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/15/iraq-isis-arrest-jihadists-wealth-power
Posted by: T2015 | Jun 17 2014 9:41 utc | 90
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Iran is in this game too and may make a difference just like it did in the Syrian theater. Mainstream media is not talking about this.
http://www.vox.com/2014/6/12/5804184/iran-deployed-troops-iran-isis/in/5568955
Posted by: notlurking | Jun 13 2014 12:33 utc | 1