Iraq Pleads for Help!

[tx3653]

It would have been the perfect staging ground to keep that part of the world from.."scumification."

Sure would have beat what we got when Obama turned tail and ran out. What did we get? Oh yeah, nothing! We should have at least taken payment in oil for all the dollars Bush wasted there with his economy ruining wars.

[GRANDPA]

Too bad our "leaders" didn't read Kipling.wq

[planosteve]

They are probably going to cut through Baghdad like a hot knife through butter. Iraq as a country is probably finished. There will be 3 countries, a Kurdish one, an Iranian one, and a Sunni one. The whole Iraq war was a total waste.

[BillB]

They are probably going to cut through Baghdad like a hot knife through butter. Iraq as a country is probably finished. There will be 3 countries, a Kurdish one, an Iranian one, and a Sunni one. The whole Iraq war was a total waste.

It was worse than a waste. It was counterproductive.
Saddam should have been left alone in 2003.
He was contained, no threat to us and was brutal enough to hold Iraq together and keep it away from Iran the the Sunni jihadists.

[planosteve]

A lot of acramony on Mourning Joe today between Mika and McCain. McCain wants to fire the whole national security team. He thinks we had the war won and just had to leave a residual force for stability. Like we did in Germany, Japan, Bosnia, etc. Says the same will happen in Afghanistan if we leave. Want's to bring back the military "geniuses" like Petreas to figure out what to do.

[Bob Of Burleson]

Fareed Zakaria:
Who lost Iraq? The Iraqis did,
with an assist from George W. Bush

Fareed Zakaria
The Washington Post

It is becoming increasingly likely that Iraq has reached a turning point. The forces hostile to the government have grown stronger, better equipped and more organized. And having now secured arms, ammunition and hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from their takeover of Mosul — Iraq’s second-largest city — they will build on these strengths. Inevitably, in Washington, the question has surfaced: Who lost Iraq?

Whenever the United States has asked this question — as it did with China in the 1950s or Vietnam in the 1970s — the most important point to remember is: The local rulers did. The Chinese nationalists and the South Vietnamese government were corrupt, inefficient and weak, unable to be inclusive and unwilling to fight with the dedication of their opponents. The same story is true of Iraq, only much more so. The first answer to the question is: Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki lost Iraq.

The prime minister and his ruling party have behaved like thugs, excluding the Sunnis from power, using the army, police forces and militias to terrorize their opponents. The insurgency the Maliki government faces today was utterly predictable because, in fact, it happened before. From 2003 onward, Iraq faced a Sunni insurgency that was finally tamped down by Gen. David Petraeus, who said explicitly at the time that the core element of his strategy was political, bringing Sunni tribes and militias into the fold. The surge’s success, he often noted, bought time for a real power-sharing deal in Iraq that would bring the Sunnis into the structure of the government.

A senior official closely involved with Iraq in the Bush administration told me, “Not only did Maliki not try to do broad power-sharing, he reneged on all the deals that had been made, stopped paying the Sunni tribes and militias, and started persecuting key Sunni officials.” Among those targeted were the vice president of Iraq and its finance minister.

But how did Maliki come to be prime minister of Iraq? He was the product of a series of momentous decisions made by the Bush administration. Having invaded Iraq with a small force — what the expertTom Ricks called “the worst war plan in American history” — the administration needed to find local allies. It quickly decided to destroy Iraq’s Sunni ruling establishment and empower the hard-line Shiite religious parties that had opposed Saddam Hussein. This meant that a structure of Sunni power that had been in the area for centuries collapsed. These moves — to disband the army, dismantle the bureaucracy and purge Sunnis in general — might have been more consequential than the invasion itself.

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[planosteve]

"Bosnia, etc." like Germany and Japan? I don't think so.

And Korea. That is a completely different situation. I think the biggest danger now is that Obama will switch gears and go back in and start the whole Iraq war over. We should just let it burn itself out. It's horrible what we have put those people through for so many years.

[GFB]

A lot of acramony on Mourning Joe today between Mika and McCain. McCain wants to fire the whole national security team. He thinks we had the war won and just had to leave a residual force for stability. Like we did in Germany, Japan, Bosnia, etc. Says the same will happen in Afghanistan if we leave. Want's to bring back the military "geniuses" like Petreas to figure out what to do.

McCain is right on the money.

[GFB]

"Bosnia, etc." like Germany and Japan? I don't think so.

And Korea. That is a completely different situation. I think the biggest danger now is that Obama will switch gears and go back in and start the whole Iraq war over. We should just let it burn itself out. It's horrible what we have put those people through for so many years.

Yeah..now they get to have their heads sawed off with dull knives.

[planosteve]

Judging by the gruesome propaganda video being released by ISIS, it is no wonder the Iraqi soldiers and police stripped off uniforms and ran... As The Daily Mail reports, blood-thirsty jihadists are carrying out summary executions on civilians, Iraqi soldiers and police officers - including 17 in one street alone - on their warpath to Baghdad, the UN said today. As a shocking picture of the ISIS insurgency continues to develop, the Islamist group are posting barbaric videos online with the intent of showing the world they will stop at nothing to achieve their end game. The aim is to terrorise Sunnis in Iraq's army and police forces and deepen their already low morale. It appears to be working as that fear is one factor behind the stunning collapse of Iraqi security forces.

.

[Bob Of Burleson]

The aim is to terrorise Sunnis in Iraq's army and police forces and deepen their already low morale.

Wouldn't Iraq's army be made up mostly of Shiites? And why the reference to Sunnis as Islamists? Shiites are just as much Islamist as Sunnis.

[planosteve]

The aim is to terrorise Sunnis in Iraq's army and police forces and deepen their already low morale.

Wouldn't Iraq's army be made up mostly of Shiites? And why the reference to Sunnis as Islamists? Shiites are just as much Islamist as Sunnis.

That's UK journalism for you. You can see the whole thing here:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-1 ... op-nothing

[Bob Of Burleson]

U.S. won’t intervene in Iraq
in absence of political reform
by Iraqis, Obama says

By Karen DeYoung
The Washington Post

The Obama administration has decided to hold any military intervention in Iraq in abeyance until it sees clear evidence that the country’s politics and governance are reforming, according to U.S. officials.

After near-nonstop crisis meetings since early this week, President Obama has ordered options prepared for possible airstrikes in Iraq as well as a wide range of direct military assistance short of American boots on the ground.

But after assessing that Baghdad’s fall to advancing forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is not imminent, the administration has opted for a short-term strategy that it sees as offering potential long-term gain.

The United States “is not simply going to involve itself in a military action in the absence of a political plan by the Iraqis that gives us some assurance that they’re prepared to work together,” Obama said Friday in a statement outside the White House.

Obama cautioned that whatever happens, it “is going to take several days. . . . People should not anticipate that this is something that is going to happen overnight.”

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