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Iraq: A Russian Alternative To Washington’s Bumbling Anti-IS Campaign
The U.S. has been pressing Iraq to accept its orders on how to fight the Islamic State. It prohibited the use of quite effective, though mostly Shia, Hashd al-Shabi militia against IS in Ramadi and other places and instead wants to (again) retrain a hopelessly useless Iraqi army and a few tribal Sunni militia. The U.S. also held back long ordered weapons for the Iraqi army and air force and its bombing campaign against IS targets in Iraq is rather lackluster. By accident Hashd al-Shabi militia attacking IS positions have been hit by U.S. air strikes several times.
The public opinion in Iraq is that the U.S. has (again) nefarious aims and is neither committed to a united and sovereign Iraq nor to eradicating the Islamic State.
But now Russia offers an alternative. An intelligence operations room was opened in Baghdad in which Iraq, Iran, Syria, Russia and Hizbullah (the 4+1) develop and exchange intelligence about the Islamic State and possible targets for coming attacks. It looks pretty bad for the U.S. to not be trusted enough to take part in it.
But that is not enough yet. After Russia started its anti-terrorist air campaign in Syria yesterday despite U.S. protests it is now setting the mark even higher. Against a onslaught of dumb U.S. propaganda it is expertly trolling the U.S. over its lack of legitimacy:
Micah Zenko
LOL Lavrov, "We are polite people, as you know. We don't come if not invited." bbc.in/1PQf8IA
Lavrov also trolled the U.S. by making an offer to Iraq and that offer was received rather friendly. From my feed timeline:
Sky News Newsdesk @SkyNewsBreak
Reuters: Russian foreign ministry says it would consider any request from #Iraq to conduct airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq
Elijah J. Magnier @EjmAlrai
#Russia informed #Baghdad inofficially ts readiness 2bomb #ISIS in #Iraq. I am not sure PM Haidar Abadi would dare 2ask for Russian support.
Marc Perelman @mperelman
#Iraq Pm #Abadi @FRANCE24: #Putin told me Russia fighting #ISIS in Syria and I trust him, I'm open to Russian airstrikes vs Daech in Iraq
Loveday Morris @LovedayM
Abadi tells France24 there are no talks with Russia on strikes in #Iraq – yet. "If we get the offer we’ll consider it.. I would welcome it"
Elijah J. Magnier @EjmAlrai
Abadi wouldn't dare now. He is halting Hashd al-Shabi following a #USA request. I can't see U.S & Russia collaborating in Iraq
I for one can see Abadi changing horses. Why rely on the U.S. when all it does, preferring the Kurds and Sunni militia while holding back effective Shia militia, seems to be against a unified Iraq and when the U.S. fight against IS is at maximum halfhearted. But even if Abadi will not kick out the U.S. and invite the Russians he can at least use the Russian offer to pressure the U.S. into a different behavior. It now has to respects the will of the Iraqi government and must wages an effective war against IS. Or it can leave.
It is always good to have an alternative when negotiating with a superior partner. Abadi now has one. And Abadi isn't the only one who is interested to change horses:
The largest pro-Kurdish group fighting in Syria has said it is ready to co-operate with Moscow, after Russian jets began launching airstrikes in the country.
After Russia began a series of 20 strikes in the north of the country on Wednesday night, the leader of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) called the move “an important step”.
Sipan Hemo, general commander of the YPG, told Russian news agency Sputnik that his fighters want to co-operate with Russia against the forces of Islamic State (IS).
…
In his statements to Sputnik [..] Hemo said he would support Russian strikes targeting al-Nusra Front as well as IS.
“Russia should fight not only against IS, but also against al-Nusra. There is no difference between Nusra and IS – they are both al-Qaeda,” Hemo is quoted as saying.
It now seems that every U.S. "ally" on the ground, except the now finally acknowledged CIA trained friends-of-Nusra-and-IS, would prefer to work with Russia instead of working under hapless U.S. policies.
That is some well deserved egg in the face for the Obama administration and its duplicity within its anti-Syria and anti-IS campaign.
From Al Masdar News
Russians Offer to Aid Lebanon in Their Fight Against ISIS: Hezbollah Key Player
A Russian delegation arrived in the Lebanese capital of Beirut this week to discuss the prospects of a Russo-Lebanese agreement (with the Central Command of the Lebanese Army) in order to coordinate military operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) that is currently operating inside the Tripoli and Beqa’a Governorates.
According to a private government source, the Russo-Lebanese military agreement would include coordination with both the Syrian Armed Forces and the Lebanese Resistance group “Hezbollah”.
Hezbollah is currently combatting both ISIS and the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” inside ‘Arsal District of the Beqa’a Governorate; this battle between the Lebanese Resistance and the aforementioned terrorist groups have been taking place for over six months in Lebanon’s eastern countryside.
Recently, a Russian delegation arrived in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad to discuss a similar agreement with the Iraqi Armed Forces; if both of these military initiatives are accepted, the Russians will have effectively coordinated with the three primary countries that have been greatly effected by this terrorist group in the Arab world.
The increased military participation in Syria has infuriated the Obama Regime and their allies, as the Russian Government did not seek out the U.S. approval to conduct their own military operations inside the country.
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From Zero Hedge
Overheard At The Pentagon: “Right Now, We Are Putin’s Prison Bitch”
Those who frequent these pages are well aware of what’s happened to Washington’s strategy in Syria over the past several weeks. Russia’s dramatic move to enter the fray has left the US trapped, as the West attempts to hang on to a narrative that’s no longer convincing even to a largely ignorant public.
Now, the only thing left to do is either stand down and let Moscow do as it pleases in support of the Assad regime, or else get on board and acquiesce to the inevitable.
Or, summed up in simpler terms…
Overheard at the Pentagon:
“Right now, we are Putin’s prison bitch.”
— Nancy Youssef, ????? (@nancyayoussef)
September 30, 2015
https://twitter.com/nancyayoussef/status/649243859025854464
What’s even more funny, is the first comment on “Zero Hedge,”
Temporalist Wed, 09/30/2015 – 16:54 | 6612935
I was hoping that was Hitlery’s next title
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Western ruling elites and their puppets, minions, and goons, are foaming at the mouth, fuming over the Russian bear waking up from hibernation, extending its long paws into territory the Western gangsters consider theirs, blowing up with its claws their assumption and pretension of self-entitlement, and their self-assigned role as “world rulers.”
Mao liked to say, “imperialism is a paper tiger,” and the Russian bear is tearing the paper tiger into pieces. The new Russian role in the ME goes beyond the defeat of the IS/Qaeda low-life cannibals; the Russians are in fact disputing the Western gangsters hegemonic role in the region in the most assertive way possible, with a display of military power and diplomatic finesse. The defeat of Daesh is but one step, minimal, along the way to reconfigure the entire geopolitical structure of the ME and beyond. New alignments will be created, and that’s happening fast, old alliances will crumble, and many statelets, banana “republics,” feudal kingdoms and puppet entities will be swept away by the new historical forces unleashed upon the region.
The Eurasian wind is now blowing with fury upon the usurpers, and it will freeze them to death in their rat-holes. The “New World Order” has been superseded, pushed aside, left behind as a derelict, and it will be replaced by a new global order, where the Western gangsters will understand you cannot bluff a nuclear power, you have to be serious. The US will continue to be a threat for time to come, though it will have to look for new ways to deceive the masses. Color revolutions are over. Regional “springs” are finished.
Eurostan is now getting a massive input of cheap labor, but it will take decades before they can get integrated into the system for meaningful exploitation. In the meantime, internal contradictions will crack the fragile glue that keeps them together. Historically, old bastard Europe has been an opportunistic entity, and they are already sniffing in which direction the Eurasian wind is blowing.
In a nutshell, Russia has now taken the strategic initiative, and the axis of the contradiction empire-periphery has now moved to a new stage, a new phase, and a new defining moment. Sun Tzu (The Art of War) states that timing and momentum are fundamental to the execution and planning of strategy. Russia’s timing, blocking US/UK/NATOstan/Turkey final assault on Syria, getting UN et al backing for his military intervention, all within the framework of international law, has been, to say the least, impeccable; and the force of its momentum, currently unfolding at political, military, diplomatic, and counter-propaganda levels, a solid and powerful punch.
We are now privileged witnesses to the birth of a new historical stage, moving away from a short period of unipolar hegemony, to a different multipolarity still in the making, still undefined, an herculean task not different than cleaning the Augean stables, but much better in any sense than the enslavement planned by the neozionazi beasts for the masses of the planet.
Urrah! Urrah! Urrah!
Posted by: Lone Wolf | Oct 2 2015 4:44 utc | 59
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