Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills)

Monday, July 10, 2017

Turn it back on him

And that is Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "She's Got A Deal For You" from Saturday.

Here's a good question:

Rania Khalek Retweeted

‏ @aaronjmate

Hey @RichardEngel - how can you say Putin is "winning every round of the long game against the US" if you don’t know what the long game is?

8 replies25 retweets47 likes

The only way you could know the long game is if you were working for Putin.

What say ye, Richard Engel?

Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Monday, July 10, 2017. Chaos and violence continue, Little Fancy joins the premature cheer as The Mosul Slog actually continues, and 'liberation' doesn't look like liberation at all.

Oh, look, it's our favorite idiot again.

‏ @USMC_DD

Breaking
Iraq deafeats ISIS in Mosul. Only small pockets remain.
All without any plan from Trump. Only using Obama's plan.

83 replies824 retweets1,680 likes

Last time, we went to great lengths to explain how wrong he was. We don't have to this time. Iraq defeats ISIS in Mosul?

"Only small pockets remain."?

If small pockets remain, then they aren't defeated -- excuse me, "deafeated"? -- are they?

So that's the first factual problem.

Second, you can't whine -- as USMCSS has -- about more deaths from bombs and insisting that this is due to Donald Trump relaxing this or that and still claim it was "Obama's plan."

I saw the ridiculous AFP article yesterday -- the one USMCSS doesn't link to -- that had a flunkie from Barack's White House days insisting this was Obama's victory.

It's not.

A) It's still not a victory.

B) Barack's long gone.

Nearly seven months after Donald Trump was sworn in as US president, the slog continues.

Barack also had no plan which USMCSS can't tell you because he's so stupid.

June 19, 2014, Barack outlined what was necessary to defeat ISIS.

And then he never implemented it.

One change Donald did make was allowing the US military to respond more quickly.

That's a rather large change.

But USMCSS shouldn't get his panties in a wad, there's plenty of blame to go around for both Barack and Donald.

First, ISIS has not lost control -- "pockets," remember -- of Mosul.

Second, it's day 266 and still this attempt to 'liberate' continues.

Day 266.

That's 99 days short of a year.

Saturday, we included the following in "The Mosul Slog day 264:"

266 days.

And still the slog continues.

266 days and it's still not over.

And Little Fancy at USMCSS wants to claim this is success?

Little Fancy, the operation's still not over.

Little Fancy, did you see what Amnesty International noted on Sunday?

Amnesty International documented a pattern of attacks in which US-led coalition and Iraqi forces appear not to have struck their intended military targets, instead killing and injuring civilians and destroying or damaging civilian objects. In some cases, civilian deaths and injuries appear to have resulted from a choice of weapons that was inappropriate for the circumstances or failure to take necessary precautions to verify the target was a military objective.

Even in attacks that seem to have struck their intended military target, the use of what seem to be unnecessarily powerful weapons or failure to take necessary precautions resulted in needless loss of civilian lives. For example, on 17 March 2017 a US airstrike on the Mosul al-Jadida neighbourhood killed at least 105 civilians in order to neutralize two IS snipers.Regardless of whether – as the US Department of Defense has maintained — secondary explosions occurred, it should have been clear to those responsible that the risk posed to civilians by using a 500lb bomb was clearly excessive in relation to anticipated military advantage.

Mohamed from al-Tenak neighbourhood, west Mosul told Amnesty International: “The strikes targeted the IS snipers. A strike would destroy an entire house of two storeys. They shelled during night and day. They hit so many houses. They’d hit one house and also destroy the two houses on either side. They killed a huge number of people.”

“Iraqi forces and members of the US-led coalition must ensure that the fight against IS – not only in the fight for Mosul, but in other battles in Iraq and in Syria – is fought in a way that is consistent with international law and standards. States engaged in this fight must not only focus on the military aspect of this fight, but also deploy in conjunction the resources needed to alleviate the incredible suffering of civilians trapped by conflict and abused by IS,” said Lynn Maalouf.

What was done to the Iraqi people in Mosul is appalling.

But Little Fancy is frothing in his diaper as he dances around screaming "Victory!"

Your faith is not faithful
Your grace shows no grace
Your mercy shows no mercy
Is there no way out of this place

There's a baby crying
Softly
In a dark and
Dangerous place
She's imprisoned by no
Language
Fear grips her tiny face
In God's house she
Held a hostage
By a cruel and
Heartless mob
There's some rule they
Think God's
Written
And it justifies their job

Sisters of mercy
Daughters of hell
They always weave
Their web of lies
And wrap you in their
Wicked spell
Sisters of mercy
Masters of pain
They try to crucify your
Innocence
And do it in God's name
-- "Sisters of Mercy," written by Cher, Pat MacDonald and Bruce Roberts (first appears on Cher's album not.com.ercial).

Poor Little Fancy. He needs his poster boy to worship because he never managed to actually grow up. That's why he applauds an incomplete military mission as a 'success.'

Here's what 'success' in Mosul looks like.

‏ @RamiAILoIah

Mosul:
R The 'liberated' / 2017
L #ISIS / 2014
#Iraq 

24 replies284 retweets156 likes

That's what Little Fancy is trickling on about.

Here's the 'success' that has him beating off:

‏ @JPY_Kurdish

Video shows ISIS' snipers are shooting for fun the innocent civilians who are fleeing the war, in its last pockets in Mosul old city, Iraq. 

8 replies76 retweets31 likes

Did Little Fancy miss the cautiously worded statement from the United Nations mission in Iraq:

However, an end to the battle for Mosul does not signal an end to conflict in Iraq. Areas of the country, such as Hawija, in Kirkuk Governorate, and western districts of Anbar, such as Al Q’aim are still controlled by extremist groups. People continue to be displaced from areas in which fighting is ongoing.

While there may be an end to military conflict in Mosul, there is still no end in sight to the humanitarian crisis. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, will continue to play a key role in assisting displaced Iraqis for as long as it is necessary.

Little Fancy missed a lot, including this report from Australia's ABC:

Is the fighting over?

Not quite.
State television showed Prime Minister Abadi touring Mosul on foot alongside residents of Iraq's second-largest city.
But air strikes and exchanges of gunfire could still be heard in the narrow streets of Mosul's Old City, where the Islamic State has staged its last stand.
Prime Minister Abadi is yet to issue a formal declaration that the entire city has been retaken.

Little Fancy also missed the observations of the editorial board of THE DAILY STAR:

Yet Abadi’s declaration is premature, and not only because [the Islamic State] still holds much territory in Iraq.
Enormous challenges remain. Sectarian fault lines that allowed the extremist group to grow and then take control have not gone away, but instead become worse. Some 3 million people are displaced around Iraq, and many will not be eager to return home if places such as Mosul are not quickly rebuilt.
And the state must now deal with the militias it has relied upon, which will not be eager to disarm.

Little Fancy's so eager to cry "D-Day!" and jizz all over himself.

Well no one has to explain sexual fantasies -- provided you keep them private and don't confuse them with reality.

Little Fancy fails to grasp that Barack fought a group in Iraq while arming it in Syria.

Little Fancy also fails to grasp what led to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq. Simon Tisdall (GUARDIAN) notes:

Iraq’s prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, was quick to claim credit for the city’s liberation, making a visit in person on Sunday. But Abadi and his predecessor, Nouri al-Maliki, also bear some responsibility for losing control in the first place.
Few people outside of Iraq and Syria predicted Isis’s rise or its victorious advance in 2014. With hindsight, it became clear the group fed on fierce resentment among Iraq’s Sunni Muslim minority at the failure of the Shia-led Baghdad government to provide equal treatment. Some in Mosul initially welcomed its arrival.

Last week, Emma Sky observed:

Shia militias mobilized in 2014 in response to the collapse of the Iraqi army in the face of ISIS, and they can boast of more than 100,000 members. The Iraqi parliament passed a law last November recognizing them as part of the Iraqi Security Forces, under the control of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. Unsurprisingly, Sunni politicians have condemned the vote. They had been lobbying for the establishment of provincial-based national guard units in order to ensure that locally-recruited Sunni forces can defeat insurgent groups and withstand ISIS. They have regularly complained of the extrajudicial killings and theft carried out by Shia militia members. Now they fear the law will pave the way for the local equivalent of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps or Lebanese Hezbollah within Iraq. In their eyes, this will ultimately weaken the legitimacy and authority of the Iraqi state.

The heads of Shia militias are likely to look to capitalize on their military successes to gain more political power. Prime Minister Abadi remains weak, with his efforts to push through reforms stymied in particular by the maneuverings of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who does not wish to see him succeed — and is working to ensure he is replaced in the 2018 national elections, if not before. Indeed, the deputy commander of the largest pro-Iran Shia militia has openly vowed that his forces would never be dismantled, even if Baghdad attempted to do so.

As for Sunni politicians, they remain internally divided, distracted by constant infighting. Little progress has been made in rebuilding cities in Anbar, Salah al-Din, and Diyala, as much due to lack of leadership as lack of resources.

What's changed, Little Fancy?

Not a darn thing.

Nor is ISIS gone from Iraq.

Even when they are cleared out of Mosul -- which will happen if Hayder al-Abadi can ever stop his 'victory' tour -- ISIS will remain in Iraq and the war will go on.

One more shot of Cher:

New content went up at THIRD last night:

Friday, July 07, 2017

Cher and hidden classic?

"Love On The Rooftop."

Cher.

In response to my post on Carly Simon's hidden classic, Brandon e-mailed asking, "Well doesn't Cher have a hidden classic?"

Well doesn't she?

No, Brandon, she doesn't.

She has many hidden classics.

"Too Far Gone" would be the immediate one for me but there are so many others.

Of the sixties?

Pretty much everything off 3614 JACKSON STREET qualifies.

70s? See "Too Far Gone" for starters. "Stars" as well.

This decade?

"My Favorite Scars.

The '00s?

"Real Love."

The 90s?

Anything off IT'S A MAN'S WORLD.

The 80s? "Main Man" or "Love On The Rooftop."

I saw Ronnie Spector perform that song live.

It was a great concert and she did a great job.

I think she recorded it (UNFINISHED BUSINESS?).

A year or so later, I heard Cher performing it on her massive selling album HEART OF STONE.

Cher does a great job with it.

To go from Ronie to Cher that song had to make some adjustments.

Ronnie went a little higher while Cher's arrangement shows off some gorgeous chest notes.

But the other big thing was that Cher showed comfort with it.

That's what the 80s music was for Cher.

She relaxed into it.

I don't mean she half-assed it.

I do mean that she was finally getting to record what she wanted and so she was comfortable with the material in a way that she often wasn't at other times.

Now here's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Pointing Podesta."

Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Friday, July 7, 2017.

The Iraq War was built and based on lies.

And yet so many idiots step forward today convinced they can re-write history.

Take this hysterical opponent of Donald Trump's:

‏ @USMC_DD

#FACT The CIA NEVER said there were WMD in Iraq, that was the Whitehouse who LIED, Bush lied. So Trumps lying 2 times. We know its Russia!!!

23 replies199 retweets395 likes

Never?

Wow.

Bush turned to Tenet. “I’ve been told all this intelligence about having WMD and this is the best we’ve got?”

From the end of one of the couches in the Oval Office, Tenet rose up, threw his arms in the air. “It’s a slam dunk case!” the DCI said.

Bush pressed, “George, how confident are you?”

Tenet, a basketball fan who attended as many home games of his alma mater Georgetown as possible, leaned forward and threw his arms up again. “Don’t worry, it’s a slam dunk!”

That's from Bob Woodward's PLAN OF ATTACK.

Who was Tenet?

Al Kamen (WASHINGTON POST):

Former CIA director George Tenet will likely never live down having called the intelligence on Saddam Hussein’s WMD a “slam dunk.”
But former CIA deputy director Mike Morell, in his book, “The Great War of Our Time,” defends Tenet.
“When we wrote pieces for the president, the analysts wrote with authority on the [weapons of mass destruction] issue,” Morell writes. “This is why I personally never found fault with George Tenet’s alleged “slam dunk” comment.”

“The way the [intelligence] analysts talked and wrote about their judgments,” Morell adds, “would have led anyone to think it was a slam dunk— that is, that Saddam definitely had active WMD programs. No one ever said to me, [agency analyst Jami] Miscik, [ex-director John] McLaughlin, Tenet, [Condoleezza] Rice, or the president, ‘You know, there is a chance he might not have them.’ Such a statement would have gotten everyone’s attention,” Morell writes.

From 60 MINUTES:

Still, at CIA headquarters, Tenet's team was about to make a historic blunder of its own. The CIA produced its evaluation of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in a secret report called a "National Intelligence Estimate."
"The first key judgment in the national intelligence estimate says, quote, 'Baghdad has chemical and biological weapons.' Period," Pelley says.
"High confidence judgment," Tenet replies.
How could he make such a bold statement? Says Tenet, "We believed he had chemical and biological weapons."
"But there was no hard evidence," Pelley remarks.
"No, no. There was lots of data. There's lots of technical data," Tenet says. "So you put all of this together, it's not evidence in the court of law. Remember, when you write an estimate, when you estimate, you're writing what you don't know. You might win a civil case. Huh? You're not gonna win a criminal case, in terms of evidence."
"We are going to war. Tens of thousands of people are going to be killed. And you're telling me you had evidence to prove a civil case, not a criminal case?" Pelley asks,
"Well, as you know, hindsight is perfect. The public face on this what we wrote on weapons of mass destruction and for professionals, who pride themselves on being right, this is a very painful experience for us," Tenet acknowledges.

Now what did the Tweet say again? "FACT, The CIA NEVER said there were WMD in Iraq, that was thee Whitehouse who LIED, Bush lied."

Bully Boy Bush is a liar -- and a War Criminal. That does not change the fact that Tenet and Morell -- top two at the CIA -- in their own words say and said that Iraq had WMD.

I'm sorry that you're so shrill and hysterical but that does not give you the right to re-write history.

I also have to wonder about his followers.

No one gave him a heads up?

I got a heads up.

Community member Lewis e-mailed July 5th asking if the numbers of The Mosul Slog were correct?

I hadn't checked in forever and as I always note "Check my math!"

So yesterday I counted them one by one: 262.

This was updated in the snapshot to read: "**262**" and the plan was to scan the calendar sheets last night.

That didn't happen.

When we got done speaking, I honestly fell asleep. I didn't get undressed, I didn't wash my face, I lay down on the bed for what I thought was a second and then was out cold until this morning. I'll try to scan them and post them tonight but it will be up by Saturday at the latest.

Thank you to Lewis for raising the issue. I was off six days (yesterday's snapshot originally had 256). My apologies for my error.

So today is day 263 of The Mosul Slog.

‏Verified account @AFP

Civilians trapped as Iraq forces battle IS group in Mosul http://u.afp.com/48ft 

27 retweets10 likes

REUTERS notes, "Air strikes and artillery salvoes continued to pound Islamic State's last Mosul bastion on Friday, a Reuters TV crew said."

Yes, the slog slogs on.

In a new paper (for RADDINGTON REPORT), Emma Skye observes:

The Islamic State (ISIS), which had in its grasp a full third of Iraq as recently as 2014, is likely to lose hold of all its territory in the country by the end of this year. Fighting block by block, Iraqi special forces have made steady progress in cutting through ISIS-held territory, including liberating nearly all of ISIS’ final bastion in Mosul. The troops have suffered significant casualties since their assault to retake Mosul last October, as ISIS mounted a fierce defense using suicide attacks, snipers, roadside bombs, mortars and machine guns. However, Iraqi forces have all but won the immediate battle in the country’s second city. Several thousand ISIS fighters in Mosul have been removed from the battlefield through death or injury, which is only one small part of the more than 60,000 militants that are estimated to have been killed since the war against the Islamist group began. But a couple hundred ISIS fighters are still believed to be in Mosul, using a network of tunnels to escape detection. In addition, they are living among thousands of civilians, who face shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel as the city’s siege tightens.
Celebrations at the demise of the caliphate in Iraq may well be short-lived. A loose coalition of forces found a common objective in working together to fight ISIS, but there is no agreement on what comes next — nor on how Iraq should be governed. And the signs are worrying: there seems to be little willingness to address the conditions that gave rise to ISIS in the first place.

And despite then-President Barack Obama's speech on July 19, 2014 insisting Iraq needed a political solution to address its crises, the US government has instead focused all efforts on military actions.

And the conditions that gave rise to ISIS cotninue to thrive in Iraq.

‏Verified account @StateDept

The U.S. announced its intent to provide additional $150 million to @UNDP to help stabilize #Iraq after liberation of areas held by ISIS. 

U.S. Announces Intent to Provide $150 Million for Iraq Stabilization

Spokesperson Heather Nauert addresses reporters at the Department Press Briefing on July 6, 2017. - U.S. Department of State

29 replies227 retweets307 likes

That was from yesterday's press briefing. Nauert noted Iraq early on:

The second thing that we have going on is Brett McGurk, our special presidential envoy for the global coalition to defeat ISIS, will host members of the coalition for a series of meetings in Washington, D.C. next week. This will be an opportunity for members to discuss the efforts to defeat ISIS, including maximizing pressure on its branches, on its affiliates, and on its networks. The coalition will discuss all aspects of our campaign, including stabilization support, counter-finance, foreign terror fighters, counter-messaging, among other things. The meetings are taking place at a key moment in the fight against ISIS. Just as ISIS is trying to stay alive, we remain dedicated in committing to defeating them. There is still a lot of work to be done, but the coalition has a strong and proven strategy committed to the total destruction of ISIS while in parallel preparing for the day after.

Another thing – and this is related to Iraq – and we are pleased to announce this: On July the 5th, Ambassador Silliman, our U.S. ambassador to Iraq, announced the U.S. Government’s intent to provide $150 million to the United Nations Development Program to support the Government of Iraq-identified stabilization priorities in the areas of Iraq that have been liberated from ISIS. The funds will support efforts to establish basic security, re-establish essential services, restore local economies, stabilize communities, and allow Iraqis to finally return home. This brings the United States commitment to stabilization programming in Iraq to more than $265 million over the past two years. The funds will be provided through USAID.

Meanwhile, XINHUA reports:

Two Iraqi journalists were killed and a third wounded in Friday while covering fierce clashes between the Islamic State (IS) militants and Iraqi forces at a village in Iraq's northern central province of Salahudin, a provincial security source told Xinhua.
The reporter Su'dad Faris and the photographer Harb Hazza', who work for Huna Salahudin satellite channel, were killed in the village of Imam Gharbi near the town of Shirqat, some 280 km north of Iraqi capital Baghdad, the source said on condition of anonymity.

And we'll close with this from the KRG:

‏Verified account @AJEnglish

The owner of this all-women car garage has some advice for fellow Iraqi women. 

Video: Iraqi mechanics