The Head of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Department of Foreign Relations, Falah Mustafa pointed out that US and international coalition air strikes alone cannot defeat Islamic State (IS) militants.
He believes that Iraq needs foreign ground forces to destroy IS insurgents.
The minute Barack started bombing, the next step was (and remains) even more US boots on the ground.
Anyone who says otherwise is a liar -- and probably a member of CodePink.
The so-called peace movement has failed.
What do you do at this point?
I'm serious.
It's all fallen apart and for what?
To whore for Barack Obama?
Medea Benjamin should rot in hell, the flame burning chunks of her flesh out.
That piece of scum has whored for Barack and excused him and lied and diverted attention.
She needs to be told it's time for her to shut her damn mouth.
In fact, someone needs to pie the big crybaby again.
Remember that?
When she cried like a little baby because someone threw a cream pie at her.
Tried to turn it into a tragedy -- what Soupy Sales endured on his daily TV show was, to Medea, a true tragedy that left her suffering.
It's time for the left to collectively yell, "CodeStink, go to hell!"
Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Wednesday, October 15, 2014. Chaos and violence continue, Nouri works
to undermine the new prime minister, more US troops are sent into Iraq,
CODESTINK's national coordinator reminds us all of how useless that
trashy organization is, Susan Rice spins again, and much more.
Let's start with stupid idiots.
Alli McCracken of CODESTINK, get your ugly ass down here.
You can apply any swear word to Alli, they all fit.
She's another useless attention whore who pretends to be against this or that but really just diverts attention and criticism from Barack's War Crimes and actions of hostility while lying that she's for peace.
She has a poorly written article at Dissident Voice where she congratulates herself for being kicked out of a Congressional hearing. She was disruptive -- I was there -- and she had her moment and was taken out when she was bound and determined to be the junior I Need Attention Medea Benjamin. Sorry, Alli, your little stunts don't amuse anyone.
You and CODESTINK are real good at going after this or that Secretary of but real poor about criticizing Barack Obama -- well married-for-money (for currency, she gave herself like a nun to God) Jodie Evans was a Barack bundler and as co-founder of CODESTINK, she (mis)used the organization in 2008 to whore for Barack while attacking all of his Democratic rivals in the primaries.
Only CODESTINK could think that was ethical.
Only CODESTINK could think they could get away with that.
A real organization would have forced Evans out.
Alli reveals her own whorish nature throughout the column but it's most evident in this passage:
Three years after my first disruption of Panetta, more than ever I stand by my words. I would do it again, and honestly, I probably will do it again. Whether it’s Leon Panetta, or Hillary Clinton. I’m horrified at the prospect of Clinton being the more “liberal” Presidential choice in 2016. If President Obama campaigned for hope and change, but ultimately enshrined some of Bush’s most egregious foreign policies, what are we in store for next from explicitly pro-war candidates?
What did I say? What did I say?
Yes, she will rail against Secretaries of. She will refuse to rail against Barack.
It's there in her own words, whores have to reveal their prices, they have to get the money up front because after the john cums, he (or she) is less willing to pay as much.
So Alli puts it into writing, the CODESTINK way (she is national coordinator of the pig sty), she will probably disrupt Leon or Hillary.
But not Barack.
She's just another whore working the street.
One of many men and women who've spent the last six years ensuring that the US would remain in Iraq by lying for Barack, by refusing to hold him accountable and by constantly inventing 'scandals' to be outraged over.
Meanwhile, Iraq's burned and erupted into multiple crises and the self-attention bitches of CODESTINK, so eager to 'fast' (Medea, want to tell the truth about your 'fast'? didn't think so) for Iraq in 2006 couldn't even call out the slaughter of Sunnis, of Iraq's LGBT community, of religious minorities and so much more. As women's rights were under constant attack in Iraq, CODESTINK was busying propping up Barack (and, never forget, calling for US troops to remain in Afghanistan).
And if you're not getting what a whore Alli is, she actually wrote this:
Three years ago, during the height of the Occupy movement, I was ejected from a Congressional hearing for allegedly “assaulting” Leon Panetta, then Secretary of Defense and former Director of the CIA. He was testifying to the House Armed Services Committee about “lessons learned by the Department of Defense over the preceding decade.” I jumped out of my audience seat to tell him that young people were paying the price of those “lessons,” and we were sick of the government funding war instead of education. The baseless assault charges against me were ultimately dropped.
Yes, Alli, the great injustice being done by, for example, the Iraq War was that people like you were being denied an education. (Alli managed to graduate in 2010 somehow.)
That was the great injustice.
Not the Iraqis killed, not the ones wounded, not the ones born with deformities and defects due to the weapons the US government sent into Iraq.
The great injustice, the all time great tragedy, was that you were denied a big spring break blow out in Daytona.
I'm sure that the Iraqis who grieve over the family members and friends they have lost in this never-ending war are touched by your plight, Alli.
(Again, since we are often translated, let me point out the last sentence was sarcasm. Alli is self-obsessed bitch who lacks both intelligence and perspective. In the face of over a million dead, her whine is about money -- and money that could have been spent on her and a group of people she's wrongly appointed herself the spokesperson of.)
The bordello that is CODESTINK should have been shut down long ago on the grounds of endangering public health.
US President Barack Obama's non-plan finally got a name and this the media could -- and did -- note. But when Susan Rice lied (again) on a Sunday chat and chew did anyone blink?
Chuck Todd? As the latest host of Meet The Press, Todd's coming off stiff and staid on the long running NBC show and has many problems before you even get to his inability to pay attention to the guest speaking before him.
We'll note this exchange from Sunday's Meet The Press:
War Hawk Susie can't stop lying.
"Our air campaign is off to a strong start and we've seen very important successes in places like Mosul Dam, Sinjar Mountain, where we were able to rescue many tens of thousands of civilians at risk."?
Everyone agreed to look the other way as the always trashy Susan Rice lied.
Barack's 'plan'?
You may remember that back in June Barack sent in a number of US troops ('advisors'!) to nose around. They were going to be key to what he would decide to do.
The Sinjar Mountain operation? You can argue it started with Barack's August 7th address where he declares the US will begin bombing Iraq, "Today I authorized two operations in Iraq -- targeted airstrikes to protect our American personnel, and a humanitarian effort to help save thousands of Iraqi civilians who are trapped on a mountain without food and water and facing almost certain death. Let me explain the actions we’re taking and why."
But it involved Australia and British forces dropping aid and, reportedly, Turkish war planes bombing.
And it was really the Kurdish peshmerga doing work. The estimates for the number of Yazidis trapped on the mountain is usually 50,000 (which a number of observers say is too high) with 30,000 said to have been provided safe passage by the peshmerga.
It's funny that the old war whore Susan Rice wants to lecture about "what the American people need to know" while she flat out lies to them but, as for the long haul, her tired ass will be working the streets in two years. And Benghazi will probably prevent future Democrats from bringing her into any administration.
Meanwhile Barack's bombing passed off as a 'plan' finally got a name. Robert Burns (AP) reports it's been christened Operation Inherent Resolve which Burns dubs "inherently bland."
It got a name, it still lacks a purpose.
August 11th, Barack declared:
This advances the limited military objectives we’ve outlined in Iraq: protecting American citizens, providing advice and assistance to Iraqi forces as they battle these terrorists, and joining with international partners to provide humanitarian aid. But as I said when I authorized these operations, there is no American military solution to the larger crisis in Iraq. The only lasting solution is for Iraqis to come together and form an inclusive government -- one that represents the legitimate interests of all Iraqis, and one that can unify the country’s fight against ISIL.
Today, Iraq took a promising step forward in this critical effort. Last month, the Iraqi people named a new President. Today, President Masum named a new Prime Minister designate, Dr. Haider al-Abadi. Under the Iraqi constitution, this is an important step towards forming a new government that can unite Iraq’s different communities.
Earlier today, Vice President Biden and I called Dr. Abadi to congratulate him and to urge him to form a new cabinet as quickly as possible -- one that’s inclusive of all Iraqis, and one that represents all Iraqis. I pledged our support to him, as well as to President Masum and Speaker Jabouri, as they work together to form this government. Meanwhile, I urge all Iraqi political leaders to work peacefully through the political process in the days ahead.
That oft mention fabled political solution which now seems to have been little more than lip service.
Tuesday, All Iraq News reported the Council of Ministers met today and did not -- did not -- address the 2014 budget.
Iraq has still not passed a 2014 budget.
The 2015 calendar year starts January 1st, yes. The 2015 fiscal year?
It started October 1st.
Yet the Council of Ministers, in place for over a month now, just like the previous Council of Ministers they replaced, are unable to pass a budget that should have passed no later than September 30, 2013.
And today National Iraqi News Agency reports that MP Siham al-Moussawi informs them that there is still no "agreement between the political blocs on the choice of candidates for security ministries so far."
This is not minor.
Nor is it surprising.
It is outrageous.
The Iraqi government would rather play helpless and useless and beg others -- including the US -- for weapons and fighters (yes, Americans dropping bombs on Iraq are in combat) than get off their own fat asses in the heavily protected Green Zone and do their damn job.
When you're security situation is as bad as Iraq's is, you do not go weeks, let alone months, refusing to declare a Minister of Defense or a Minister of the Interior (the latter's over the federal police and many of the prisons).
It is outrageous and it is not surprising.
In 2010, the White House installed Nouri al-Maliki for a second term via the US-brokered Erbil Agreement, the press insisted it was okay Nouri refused to nominate people to head the security ministries, it was okay because he would do so in just a few weeks.
And by "press," we're referring to the western press, not the Iraqi press.
Nouri went four years, through his entire second term, and he never had people heading the security ministries because he refused to nominate them.
This contributed to the crises, yes. However, it also underscores that the current absence of people to head the security ministries is not surprising or something that the White House shouldn't have anticipated as a possibility.
But they appear caught off guard yet again.
August 9th, Barack engaged in the Socratic method, "Did we underestimate ISIL? I think that there is no doubt that their advance, their movement over the last several months has been more rapid than the intelligence estimates and I think the expectations of policymakers both in and outside of Iraq. And part of that is I think not a full appreciation of the degree to which the Iraqi security forces, when they’re far away from Baghdad, did not have the incentive or the capacity to hold ground against an aggressive adversary.
Caught off guard then, caught off guard now.
On even the most basic issues, the White House stumbles and falters.
The same day, August 9th, Barack insisted, "So we’re going to be pushing very hard to encourage Iraqis to get their government together. Until we do that, it is going to be hard to get the unity of effort that allows us to not just play defense, but also engage in some offense."
Barack has to reduce it to sports because if it's not game he loses interest so quickly (see his numerous unmet promises that 'now' he would begin focusing on the economy).
In the August speeches, he was praising new Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi.
But he's apparently done little to help al-Abadi and al-Abadi's also harmed himself and his image. Dropping back to the September 27th snapshot:
So is Haider al-Abadi a liar or powerless?
A number of people are saying powerless and noting articles like this one at Kitabat which maintains that Nouri is refusing to leave the palace he's lived in since 2006, the housing of the prime minister. And that even high ranking members of Dawa (Nouri's political party) attempting or persuade Nouri that he must leave and allow al-Abadi to move in have failed.
An image is taking hold. I'm not surprised.
Nouri should have been run out of the country.
He's a War Criminal, among other things. He should have to account for the riches he's accumulated while prime minister of Iraq and how his son now affords pricey London digs and a fleet of sports cars.
Instead, he's been allowed to keep the money he's stolen from the Iraqi people and walk the streets of the heavily fortified Green Zone.
Mainly, he's been able to undermine al-Abadi.
As we noted repeatedly, Nouri's not done doing damage until he's in the ground.
So Kirk Semple, Omar al-Jawoshy and Falih Hassan's report for the New York Times on Nouri's efforts to retake the post of prime minister should not be too shocking -- unless you're a member of the administration.
The White House anticipates nothing. They are so clueless, they are so dumb.
It's not one time, it's over and over.
From Semple, al-Jawoshy and Hassan's report:
Nouri undercuts the new prime minister, throws obstacles in his path (as the Iraqi press has noted, the nominees for the security ministries were stalled by Nouri's State Of Law) and all in the hopes that a no-confidence vote in the not so distant future will oust al-Abadi and allow Nouri to take over.
Maybe when Barack tires of playing with his bombs, maybe then he'll find time to address issues -- the ones, in fact, that are at the root of the crises in Iraq?
And maybe Barack should have been honest and just dubbed what he's doing (the 'plan') Operation George W. Bush?
That is all he's doing.
Repeating the same mistakes.
Pretending he thought them up.
He's 'surge'ing which is Bully Boy Bush.
And he's pinning his hopes on fostering Sunni forces to create a buy-in of the current government which is also Bully Boy Bush -- remember Sahwa aka "Awakenings" aka Sons (and Daughters) Of Iraq?
More US forces have been sent to Iraq. Xinhua reports, "Dozens of U.S. military advisors arrived in Iraq on Wednesday to train the country's security forces as they continue to face obstacles in their fight against the Islamic State (IS) militant group, officials said." Some went to Anbar. National Iraqi News Agency adds:
Chairman of the Provincial Council Sabah Karhut told the National Iraqi News Agency / Nina / that Washington sent today to Anbar province 100 American military to bases of Habbaniyah and al-Assad appointed in the province
He added that the American military personnel will take the task of training security forces and the sons of Anbar tribes in their war with the IS.
CBS News notes:
The U.S. has been training the Iraqi army for a decade and they have been performing abysmally in most areas.
"The Iraqi forces, unfortunately, as a result of actions taken by the previous government, were in many aspects hollowed out," Deputy U.S. National Security Adviser Tony Blinken told CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer in Iraq. "They were deprofessionalized. Competent commanders were moved out. Incompetent ones were moved in based on loyalty to the government."
Violence never ends in Iraq. One incident of violence today garnered much attention. AP notes a suicide car bombing in Baghdad left 21 people dead and sixty injured with MP Ahmed al-Khafaji among the dead. UNAMI issued the following statement:
All Iraq News quotes from a statement by MP Ghazwan al-Shiban, "We strongly condemn assassinating MP Khafaji and call the security forces to hold an investigation to reveal the sides behind this issue. There are some sides aim at assassinating the qualified figures in Iraq."
iraq
all iraq news
national iraqi news agency
xinhua
associated press
robert burns
Let's start with stupid idiots.
Alli McCracken of CODESTINK, get your ugly ass down here.
You can apply any swear word to Alli, they all fit.
She's another useless attention whore who pretends to be against this or that but really just diverts attention and criticism from Barack's War Crimes and actions of hostility while lying that she's for peace.
She has a poorly written article at Dissident Voice where she congratulates herself for being kicked out of a Congressional hearing. She was disruptive -- I was there -- and she had her moment and was taken out when she was bound and determined to be the junior I Need Attention Medea Benjamin. Sorry, Alli, your little stunts don't amuse anyone.
You and CODESTINK are real good at going after this or that Secretary of but real poor about criticizing Barack Obama -- well married-for-money (for currency, she gave herself like a nun to God) Jodie Evans was a Barack bundler and as co-founder of CODESTINK, she (mis)used the organization in 2008 to whore for Barack while attacking all of his Democratic rivals in the primaries.
Only CODESTINK could think that was ethical.
Only CODESTINK could think they could get away with that.
A real organization would have forced Evans out.
Alli reveals her own whorish nature throughout the column but it's most evident in this passage:
Three years after my first disruption of Panetta, more than ever I stand by my words. I would do it again, and honestly, I probably will do it again. Whether it’s Leon Panetta, or Hillary Clinton. I’m horrified at the prospect of Clinton being the more “liberal” Presidential choice in 2016. If President Obama campaigned for hope and change, but ultimately enshrined some of Bush’s most egregious foreign policies, what are we in store for next from explicitly pro-war candidates?
What did I say? What did I say?
Yes, she will rail against Secretaries of. She will refuse to rail against Barack.
It's there in her own words, whores have to reveal their prices, they have to get the money up front because after the john cums, he (or she) is less willing to pay as much.
So Alli puts it into writing, the CODESTINK way (she is national coordinator of the pig sty), she will probably disrupt Leon or Hillary.
But not Barack.
She's just another whore working the street.
One of many men and women who've spent the last six years ensuring that the US would remain in Iraq by lying for Barack, by refusing to hold him accountable and by constantly inventing 'scandals' to be outraged over.
Meanwhile, Iraq's burned and erupted into multiple crises and the self-attention bitches of CODESTINK, so eager to 'fast' (Medea, want to tell the truth about your 'fast'? didn't think so) for Iraq in 2006 couldn't even call out the slaughter of Sunnis, of Iraq's LGBT community, of religious minorities and so much more. As women's rights were under constant attack in Iraq, CODESTINK was busying propping up Barack (and, never forget, calling for US troops to remain in Afghanistan).
And if you're not getting what a whore Alli is, she actually wrote this:
Three years ago, during the height of the Occupy movement, I was ejected from a Congressional hearing for allegedly “assaulting” Leon Panetta, then Secretary of Defense and former Director of the CIA. He was testifying to the House Armed Services Committee about “lessons learned by the Department of Defense over the preceding decade.” I jumped out of my audience seat to tell him that young people were paying the price of those “lessons,” and we were sick of the government funding war instead of education. The baseless assault charges against me were ultimately dropped.
Yes, Alli, the great injustice being done by, for example, the Iraq War was that people like you were being denied an education. (Alli managed to graduate in 2010 somehow.)
That was the great injustice.
Not the Iraqis killed, not the ones wounded, not the ones born with deformities and defects due to the weapons the US government sent into Iraq.
The great injustice, the all time great tragedy, was that you were denied a big spring break blow out in Daytona.
I'm sure that the Iraqis who grieve over the family members and friends they have lost in this never-ending war are touched by your plight, Alli.
(Again, since we are often translated, let me point out the last sentence was sarcasm. Alli is self-obsessed bitch who lacks both intelligence and perspective. In the face of over a million dead, her whine is about money -- and money that could have been spent on her and a group of people she's wrongly appointed herself the spokesperson of.)
The bordello that is CODESTINK should have been shut down long ago on the grounds of endangering public health.
US President Barack Obama's non-plan finally got a name and this the media could -- and did -- note. But when Susan Rice lied (again) on a Sunday chat and chew did anyone blink?
Chuck Todd? As the latest host of Meet The Press, Todd's coming off stiff and staid on the long running NBC show and has many problems before you even get to his inability to pay attention to the guest speaking before him.
We'll note this exchange from Sunday's Meet The Press:
CHUCK TODD:
Considering what's
going on in the Anbar Province, considering what's going on in Kobani, I
know it's still early, barely two months into this operation against
ISIS, but right now, does it feel as if we're degrading and destroying
ISIS?
SUSAN RICE:
Yes, Chuck. We are in
the midst, in the early stages, as you-- acknowledged, of what is going
to be, as President Obama said, a long-term effort. Let's recall what it
is we're trying to do. We're trying over time to degrade and ultimately
destroy ISIL and prevent it from having permanent safe haven, from
which it can conduct terrorist attacks against us or our partners in the
region from the territory of Iraq or Syria.
Now this is going to
take time. Our efforts have various different lines of effort, as we've
called them. On the one hand, we're trying to build up the capacity of
the Iraqis, which means the Iraqi army, the Kurds, the peshmerga inside
of Iraq who have over years, atrophied. They've become more sectarian.
They've become less skilled in their ability to take the fight to ISIL.
So we're building up
that capacity and we have seen some success in that regard. On the
Syrian side, we also have a larger-term challenge of supporting the
moderate opposition and giving them, while they have great will, greater
capacity to fight Assad and to fight ISIL.
So this is going to
take time. Our air campaign is off to a strong start and we've seen very
important successes in places like Mosul Dam, Sinjar Mountain, where we
were able to rescue many tens of thousands of civilians at risk. And
this is going to take time. So it can't be judged by merely what happens
in one particular town or in one particular region. This is going to
take time and the American people need to understand that our aim here
is long-term degradation and building the capacity of our partners.
War Hawk Susie can't stop lying.
"Our air campaign is off to a strong start and we've seen very important successes in places like Mosul Dam, Sinjar Mountain, where we were able to rescue many tens of thousands of civilians at risk."?
Everyone agreed to look the other way as the always trashy Susan Rice lied.
Barack's 'plan'?
You may remember that back in June Barack sent in a number of US troops ('advisors'!) to nose around. They were going to be key to what he would decide to do.
The Sinjar Mountain operation? You can argue it started with Barack's August 7th address where he declares the US will begin bombing Iraq, "Today I authorized two operations in Iraq -- targeted airstrikes to protect our American personnel, and a humanitarian effort to help save thousands of Iraqi civilians who are trapped on a mountain without food and water and facing almost certain death. Let me explain the actions we’re taking and why."
But it involved Australia and British forces dropping aid and, reportedly, Turkish war planes bombing.
And it was really the Kurdish peshmerga doing work. The estimates for the number of Yazidis trapped on the mountain is usually 50,000 (which a number of observers say is too high) with 30,000 said to have been provided safe passage by the peshmerga.
It's funny that the old war whore Susan Rice wants to lecture about "what the American people need to know" while she flat out lies to them but, as for the long haul, her tired ass will be working the streets in two years. And Benghazi will probably prevent future Democrats from bringing her into any administration.
Meanwhile Barack's bombing passed off as a 'plan' finally got a name. Robert Burns (AP) reports it's been christened Operation Inherent Resolve which Burns dubs "inherently bland."
It got a name, it still lacks a purpose.
August 11th, Barack declared:
This advances the limited military objectives we’ve outlined in Iraq: protecting American citizens, providing advice and assistance to Iraqi forces as they battle these terrorists, and joining with international partners to provide humanitarian aid. But as I said when I authorized these operations, there is no American military solution to the larger crisis in Iraq. The only lasting solution is for Iraqis to come together and form an inclusive government -- one that represents the legitimate interests of all Iraqis, and one that can unify the country’s fight against ISIL.
Today, Iraq took a promising step forward in this critical effort. Last month, the Iraqi people named a new President. Today, President Masum named a new Prime Minister designate, Dr. Haider al-Abadi. Under the Iraqi constitution, this is an important step towards forming a new government that can unite Iraq’s different communities.
Earlier today, Vice President Biden and I called Dr. Abadi to congratulate him and to urge him to form a new cabinet as quickly as possible -- one that’s inclusive of all Iraqis, and one that represents all Iraqis. I pledged our support to him, as well as to President Masum and Speaker Jabouri, as they work together to form this government. Meanwhile, I urge all Iraqi political leaders to work peacefully through the political process in the days ahead.
That oft mention fabled political solution which now seems to have been little more than lip service.
Tuesday, All Iraq News reported the Council of Ministers met today and did not -- did not -- address the 2014 budget.
Iraq has still not passed a 2014 budget.
The 2015 calendar year starts January 1st, yes. The 2015 fiscal year?
It started October 1st.
Yet the Council of Ministers, in place for over a month now, just like the previous Council of Ministers they replaced, are unable to pass a budget that should have passed no later than September 30, 2013.
And today National Iraqi News Agency reports that MP Siham al-Moussawi informs them that there is still no "agreement between the political blocs on the choice of candidates for security ministries so far."
This is not minor.
Nor is it surprising.
It is outrageous.
The Iraqi government would rather play helpless and useless and beg others -- including the US -- for weapons and fighters (yes, Americans dropping bombs on Iraq are in combat) than get off their own fat asses in the heavily protected Green Zone and do their damn job.
When you're security situation is as bad as Iraq's is, you do not go weeks, let alone months, refusing to declare a Minister of Defense or a Minister of the Interior (the latter's over the federal police and many of the prisons).
It is outrageous and it is not surprising.
In 2010, the White House installed Nouri al-Maliki for a second term via the US-brokered Erbil Agreement, the press insisted it was okay Nouri refused to nominate people to head the security ministries, it was okay because he would do so in just a few weeks.
And by "press," we're referring to the western press, not the Iraqi press.
Nouri went four years, through his entire second term, and he never had people heading the security ministries because he refused to nominate them.
This contributed to the crises, yes. However, it also underscores that the current absence of people to head the security ministries is not surprising or something that the White House shouldn't have anticipated as a possibility.
But they appear caught off guard yet again.
August 9th, Barack engaged in the Socratic method, "Did we underestimate ISIL? I think that there is no doubt that their advance, their movement over the last several months has been more rapid than the intelligence estimates and I think the expectations of policymakers both in and outside of Iraq. And part of that is I think not a full appreciation of the degree to which the Iraqi security forces, when they’re far away from Baghdad, did not have the incentive or the capacity to hold ground against an aggressive adversary.
Caught off guard then, caught off guard now.
On even the most basic issues, the White House stumbles and falters.
The same day, August 9th, Barack insisted, "So we’re going to be pushing very hard to encourage Iraqis to get their government together. Until we do that, it is going to be hard to get the unity of effort that allows us to not just play defense, but also engage in some offense."
Barack has to reduce it to sports because if it's not game he loses interest so quickly (see his numerous unmet promises that 'now' he would begin focusing on the economy).
In the August speeches, he was praising new Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi.
But he's apparently done little to help al-Abadi and al-Abadi's also harmed himself and his image. Dropping back to the September 27th snapshot:
So is Haider al-Abadi a liar or powerless?
A number of people are saying powerless and noting articles like this one at Kitabat which maintains that Nouri is refusing to leave the palace he's lived in since 2006, the housing of the prime minister. And that even high ranking members of Dawa (Nouri's political party) attempting or persuade Nouri that he must leave and allow al-Abadi to move in have failed.
An image is taking hold. I'm not surprised.
Nouri should have been run out of the country.
He's a War Criminal, among other things. He should have to account for the riches he's accumulated while prime minister of Iraq and how his son now affords pricey London digs and a fleet of sports cars.
Instead, he's been allowed to keep the money he's stolen from the Iraqi people and walk the streets of the heavily fortified Green Zone.
Mainly, he's been able to undermine al-Abadi.
As we noted repeatedly, Nouri's not done doing damage until he's in the ground.
So Kirk Semple, Omar al-Jawoshy and Falih Hassan's report for the New York Times on Nouri's efforts to retake the post of prime minister should not be too shocking -- unless you're a member of the administration.
The White House anticipates nothing. They are so clueless, they are so dumb.
It's not one time, it's over and over.
From Semple, al-Jawoshy and Hassan's report:
During
a closed-door meeting of State of Law last month, Mr. Maliki, its
leader, seemed intent on humiliating Mr. Abadi, several participants
said, granting him only several minutes to address the assembled
politicians and frequently interrupting him.
During
one interruption, Mr. Maliki suggested that Mr. Abadi did not have a
firm grasp on which foreign forces were operating in Iraq and questioned
his protection of the country’s sovereignty, participants recalled. Mr.
Abadi said that the country’s sovereignty was ceded in June, under Mr.
Maliki’s watch, when Mosul fell to Islamic State fighters.
Mr.
Maliki has also refused to give up his prime ministerial offices, in
one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces in the Green Zone, several
politicians said.
Nouri undercuts the new prime minister, throws obstacles in his path (as the Iraqi press has noted, the nominees for the security ministries were stalled by Nouri's State Of Law) and all in the hopes that a no-confidence vote in the not so distant future will oust al-Abadi and allow Nouri to take over.
Maybe when Barack tires of playing with his bombs, maybe then he'll find time to address issues -- the ones, in fact, that are at the root of the crises in Iraq?
And maybe Barack should have been honest and just dubbed what he's doing (the 'plan') Operation George W. Bush?
That is all he's doing.
Repeating the same mistakes.
Pretending he thought them up.
He's 'surge'ing which is Bully Boy Bush.
And he's pinning his hopes on fostering Sunni forces to create a buy-in of the current government which is also Bully Boy Bush -- remember Sahwa aka "Awakenings" aka Sons (and Daughters) Of Iraq?
More US forces have been sent to Iraq. Xinhua reports, "Dozens of U.S. military advisors arrived in Iraq on Wednesday to train the country's security forces as they continue to face obstacles in their fight against the Islamic State (IS) militant group, officials said." Some went to Anbar. National Iraqi News Agency adds:
Chairman of the Provincial Council Sabah Karhut told the National Iraqi News Agency / Nina / that Washington sent today to Anbar province 100 American military to bases of Habbaniyah and al-Assad appointed in the province
He added that the American military personnel will take the task of training security forces and the sons of Anbar tribes in their war with the IS.
CBS News notes:
The U.S. has been training the Iraqi army for a decade and they have been performing abysmally in most areas.
"The Iraqi forces, unfortunately, as a result of actions taken by the previous government, were in many aspects hollowed out," Deputy U.S. National Security Adviser Tony Blinken told CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer in Iraq. "They were deprofessionalized. Competent commanders were moved out. Incompetent ones were moved in based on loyalty to the government."
Violence never ends in Iraq. One incident of violence today garnered much attention. AP notes a suicide car bombing in Baghdad left 21 people dead and sixty injured with MP Ahmed al-Khafaji among the dead. UNAMI issued the following statement:
Baghdad, 15 October 2014 - The Special Representative of the
United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq (SRSG), Mr. Nickolay Mladenov
presents his heartfelt condolences to the Iraqi Council of
Representatives for the loss of Member of Parliament Ahmed Al-Khafaji,
killed yesterday in a suicide car bomb attack in Baghdad, along with
dozens other innocent civilians. He also extends his condolences to the
family of Mr. Khafaji, along with those of the other victims of
terrorism.
“Those who use terror, violence and fear against the people of Iraq
will fail. Today Iraq and the world are united and will defeat those who
seek to destroy the Iraqi state and will restoring security, prosperity
and democracy to this country”, Mr. Mladenov said.
All Iraq News quotes from a statement by MP Ghazwan al-Shiban, "We strongly condemn assassinating MP Khafaji and call the security forces to hold an investigation to reveal the sides behind this issue. There are some sides aim at assassinating the qualified figures in Iraq."
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robert burns
