The present problems of Iraq are 100% down to our murderous invasion and occupation. The idea that further western bombing will make things better is so deluded as to beggar belief.
I was surprised to find during my Burnes research that the imperialist powers of Britain and Russia were explicitly exploiting Sunni and Shia divisions to further their conquests of Islamic lands as early as the 1830’s. This has been the major tool of the neo-con Middle Eastern gameplan for some time, spreading disunity and crippling war throughout the Middle East, with the hope that this will benefit the interests of Israel.
The peculiar result has been that in general the West is very actively supporting Sunni armies and miscellaneous forces, but in Iraq is supporting the Shia. ISIS – which is heavily backed by the Saudis, who hate al-Maliki – brings this paradox into sharp relief. 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).
The BBC News this morning said that ISIS would not be capable of using the billions of dollars of sophisticated western armaments they have captured. I think you will find the Saudis remedy that one quite quickly. 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 – except to the ordinary people neither Obama, the Saudis or al-Maliki care in the least about.
@Mary
You have to know…it’s a game they play. And sometimes it becomes “unstuck”.
So the “special relationship” between the UK and US has ended.
The “Dave” and “Blue Lips” thing never got off the ground.
The U.K. has Iran now.
And the U.S. is sailing alone. They like that.
Meanwhile …in the real world, China starts (or continues) buying (or providing the cash for) everything.
And to be honest…that’s cool.
But you are all missing the “blind side”.
And it’s the “blind side” that’ll get ya in the end.
R is greater than G ?
Now I earn a lot of money in my profession.
However I am far from the “super rich”.
I merely fly an aircraft for a foreign person.
BUT I can see….like Iraq R is greater than G. And that’s ya problem.
As a “working class lad” that “made good”…. the fight will come.
It will. There is just a spark needed.
Maybe that spark of “Iraq! will fire back to the UK ? Maybe not.
Maybe the “pissed on” will get really…pissed off.
Our “Dave” is proving himself to be a “bloody idiot”. That’s okay.
But “two bloody idiots” just makes people go…. “No….”
How do I “think this”.
Today Spain’s new King got a “disillusioned” hooray.
And it won’t take long before the British people “get” that the comments of “Boris” about “Tony” were already their thoughts. They didn’t need a dickhead to “spell it out for them”.
Times are changing….and it may be rough. Hopefully it will be rough enough.
The US has told senior Iraqi officials that the Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, must leave office if it is to intervene militarily to stop the advance of Sunni extremists, The Independent has learnt.
So we can assume Maliki might turn to the Iranians instead.
Shades of Vietnam? Lucky the ISIS doesn’t have a Ho Chi Minh but they might have a mini General Giap after the Mosul equivalent of Dien Bien Phu
Breath of fresh insight from James, thankyou.
Agent Cameron after his SIS briefing yammered, “close down ungoverned spaces” to stop the conditions for terrorism flourishing. This might be construed as securing airports and other public transport spaces and ‘beefing up’ security and threat levels in the cold light of imminent ISI(S) covert action division paramilitary operations.
It also means enhanced security at nuclear establishments and particularly nuclear storage… in Scotland… Faslane for instance. A terrorist attack would certainly skew the Scotland independence referendum towards ‘No’ or union – an accord essential in times of war or at least embedded in the ooze or creep towards imperium in imperio.
So much for the Jesus inspired ‘open society’ and National Citizen Service (Hitler Youth), Agent Cameron, the passion seems to have tapered after the demise of WebCameron, the Big Society On-line Web Program.
Yet my passion for the children in Iraq has risen warlord – so much I have dug deeper down the ‘Big Society’ rabbit hole which predictably molds and mutates into a unique source of black income, privatisation of public services and control, subjection and ultimately chains around common people.
USS Liberty: We Held a Memorial Service and NOBODY Came
http://thearabdailynews.com/2014/06/16/uss-liberty-held-memorial-service-nobody-came/
‘Impossible you say? Not so. In fact it happens every year. On June 8th of every year — the anniversary of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty — USS Liberty survivors and our families gather to hold a memorial service in Washington DC. This year it was held in the Navy Memorial.
Members of Congress were invited to send an official representative to honor our fallen shipmates as were the Department of Defense and Navy Department, The American Legion, the Navy League and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
These are all organizations who never miss an opportunity to honor the American military especially those who have been Killed in Action during an attack by an enemy of the United States.
Well, almost never.
The Department of Defense was a no-show.
The Navy Department was a no-show.
The American Legion was a no-show.
The Navy League was a no-show.
Congress was a no-show.
This is nothing new.
We’ve been holding an annual memorial service in Washington, DC for decades. They’re always invited but they NEVER attend a memorial service for USS Liberty KIA. At most a ten minute drive from their offices to honor American fallen sailors and none of those organizations could be bothered to send a single official representative.’
Well, isn’t that strange? Can’t make it out at all!
The Obama version of democracy. Hopey Change was actually a Strangelove all along.
Obama ‘to bypass Congress over Iraq’
President Obama believes he does not need congressional approval for US action against advancing militants in Iraq, the top Senate Republican says.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-27916806
The BBC used Nick Bryant, Frank Gardner, John Simpson and Jonathan Beale in that report. Mark Urban with his maps and magic electronic marker pen must be on holiday. Are they not a bunch of predictable propagandists?
YCNMIU BiBiCee this morning,
The silly giggly Scottish weather woman wearing an even sillier BIG hat was reading out the dress code for Royal ‘Asscot’ down to the width allowed of a strap on a dress and the type of hats allowed to be worn. Definitely no fascinators.
She was sitting on a bench in front of the grandstand painted to resemble the Union flag.
On their business news there was good news for graduates. Macdonalds are creating 8,000 jobs over 3 years. There’s a new Amazon Fire phone. Woweee!
That nice Mr Branson, busy taking chunks out of our NHS, is allowed to keep running the West Coast line for another 2+ years. He must have been a good boy.
Followed by James Rubin (ex Asst Sec of State and married to CNN’s Amanpour) giving out US propaganda on Iraq. Maliki must go etc.
Then Mr Unt came on to talk about dementia care. He is SO caring.
Then the predictions for tonight’s match. 3-1 for Ingerland.
All of this shit to the background of war, mayhem food banks and poverty. I switched off.
s/be ‘She was sitting in front of the grandstand on a bench painted to resemble the Union flag.’
In case you thought that the grandstand was now red, white and blue. Soon to be just red and blue?
Happily I was wrong to think Blair was returning to the UK yesterday after his tour of Kuwait, Egypt and Israel on behalf of Blair.
He appears to be taking some time off in Marbella.
Perhaps, having moved both George Galloway and Sir Peter Tapsell to call for his impeachment (GG has started proceedings), he wants to be near the exit when the police arrive?
I know for sure that George Galloway did not vote for the war but had to check on Tapsell.
‘“Has 84 year old Peter Tapsell forgotten he voted for Iraq war?” the Political Scrapbook website inquired.’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/andy-mcsmiths-diary-impeach-tony-blair-its-only-208-years-since-the-last-time-9546393.html
Who voted for and against.
http://www.stopthewarmongers.org.uk/
Lest we forget that this is where ISIS come from (yes, I know, the Mail !). How did they move so quickly and in such large numbers into northern Iraq? The US must have put in a bulk order for pick-up trucks to take to Jordan !
ISIS have been created by US/Saudi. They are being armed and trained by the US in Jordan.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/10/us-syria-crisis-rebels-usa-idUSBRE9290FI20130310
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2351622/Assad-busters-At-secret-base-Jordan-U-S-Special-forces-training-Syrian-rebels-war–loads-fear-sleeper-cells-nation-wreak-terrible-revenge.html
ISIS have been created by US/Saudi. They are being armed and trained by the US in Jordan.
Hard to see why. The outcome of a successful insurgency. Maliki’s departure (as the US now want him to go) will be a forcefully unified Iraq (as the US will not countenance a breakup of this wholly artificial entity) under a strong Sunni minority government. If the government is sectarian, the US will still be fighting it. If the government is secular – meet the new Saddam. Same as the old Saddam.
Some irony there. Irony also visible in the near-certainty that the planners of this move were almost certainly ex- Saddam Ba’athists, who have joined and probably helped organise the insurgents who were originally against the Ba’athist Assad.
This is not simple. SOME of the ‘ISIS’ fighters may well have been trained by Americans in Jordan, some by Israel, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi too. There are outright salafists in there, whom the US have been trying to kill for years, and, as I say, probably resurgent Saddamists, who were trained in Iraq. They’ve been waiting for an opportune moment (remember, they were allowed to go home with their arms and banned from holding public office by us?)…and here it is.
I can’t agree, BZ. This is all about Syria (and hence Iran). With sufficient chaos in Iraq, they will not be able to help Syria. The US will also be able to stop any Iranian help for Syria, partly though having their proxies all over western Iraq and with the added benefit of air cover.
The US only kill their proxies when they no longer have a use for them.
To repeat: This is all about Syria.
The outcome of a successful insurgency. Maliki’s departure
Nonsense, of course. Read “The outcome of a successful insurgency including Maliki’s departure…”
Not quite the Akkadian empire renaissance Mike, more:
I – Islamic state
S – Saud al-Faisal
I – Insurgency
S – Sale of arms to Iraq
http://nsnbc.me/2014/06/15/isis-unveiled-identity-insurgency-syria-iraq/
http://philosophyofmetrics.com/2014/06/13/us-attempting-overthrow-of-iraqi-government/
The geopolitical onion, Mark !
PNAC/AIPAC is very devious, I’ll give it that.
Good articles.
Granted, sure, that it has for over a decade been all-but-stated US policy to
destroybring the benefits of a global market to Syria and Iran, I don’t think the US has any control over this situation and is as strategically buggered by it as Iran is. And it could equally be argued that if RG units are in Iraq to support the Shi’a (they are or soon will be), then so much the easier for Aid for Assad; the chaos being a fine excuse.In the very long term we are going to see Iraq as three, possibly four contiguous states only one of which has any interest in Iran, or vice versa. It would be better to accept this now, but the US will try all the available alternatives before hitting on the right one. Again.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/18/1307959/-ISIS-Iraq-Five-Articles-You-Might-Find-Interesting
Self explanatory.
There are diversions here. Clever ones.
Remember Father Merrin: “There is only one.”
ISIS IS US
Sofia – The correct treatment for verrucas is to freeze them.
guano wrote earlier about the kurd on the Beeb sounding ok with ISIS. beeb is almost orchestrating the revolution from irbil. jim muir went 50 miles to mosul, told studio u can’t go into the city, peshmerga encircle it (meaning as protection), black ISIS flags are flying & life is back to normal, (with everyone happy seemed to be his message). beeb didn’t document this. however, this guardian pic from 17 june kind of tells the story!
Iraq crisis Q&A: what do you want to know about the Isis offensive?
PHOTO CAPTION: Peshmerga fighters at a checkpoint outside Mosul which is currently under control of Isis militants Photograph: Sebastiano Tomada/Getty Images
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/17/iraq-crisis-isis-experts-answers-questions-iran
beeb’s other meme is these several thousand ISIS are about to take over Baghdad (leaving behind their conquered cities?)& people should get out now. two at the end of this piece asking for US to come in:
VIDEO – BBC – Struggle for Iraq: ‘People desperate to leave Baghdad’
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27933410
BZ,
Any chance of a Marybreak in the near future?
a quick followup to my comment re peshmerga/ISIS.
i now get the feeling the powers that be are attempting to achieve quickly in iraq what they failed to achieve in syria, namely a move on the Capital.
lots of clues in the following highly-crafted “have your say”. love the pre-recorded baghdad resident begging ISIS to hurry up and come and save them, guest are atrocious:
AUDIO: BBC: Have Your Say: Who are Isis?
The advancement of Isis (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) across northern Iraq has taken the world by surprise. They’ve taken control of Iraq’s second largest city Mosul, and is said to be advancing on the capital, Baghdad. They’re being described “as the most powerful and effective extreme jihadi group in the world,” taking over from Al Qaeda. Who are ISIS and what are their origins?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p020tdqh
Guano wrote (page 2): “Islam gives .. no beheading innocent men women and children.”
True Islam just beheads the guilty men, guilty women and guilty children, eyy, Guano?
Of course, once those guilty children (or men/women) are beheaded, any subsequent discussion of actual guilt and a possible appeal is somewhat academic, isn’t it?
. . .
Guano also : “It particularly annoys me when Jemand tries to portray this violence as part of the nature of Islam.”
Obama might say – “It particularly annoys me when people try to portray this violence as part of the nature of American foreign policy.”
The Quran, which you might like to acknowledge, Guano, speaks with approval of achieving many things using violence.
People can apologise and make excuses for Islam all they like, in the same way that gun slingers apologise and make excuses for the misuse of guns.
The failure of people to read instruction manuals and follow the law is to be expected and is, therefore, beside the point. The simple fact is that both guns and Islam are associated with unneccessary harm to society and neither should be tolerated.
Careful what you wish for Jemand.
Have you got one of those dolls with my name on it that you stick pins into because I keep getting these strange pains?
Jemand –
Habbabreak ™ works for all nuisances. Instal it, it puts up an icon on the website heading, with options to disable anyone you (dis)like. Even me. Blocking just two of the congregation vastly improves the readability and coherence of threads. I have blocked just two.
Baal.
Wise advice I know.
I always thought Dad and his minions were old fossils.
972mag.com/close-your-books-were-having-a-pop-quiz-in-hasbara/64946/
Time for a little Habbabreak!
@Mary – yes, I do. A large one that looks like it’s hailing a cab. Is your pain in the ‘lower back’ region?
@BZ – Thanks. I want to block everyone (including Craig) except Trowbridge. Now that guy really knows what’s going on with the whole mind-ray, laser guided earthquake thing.
Belated kudos to Dreoilin.
ISIS – ISIL , Balance sheets – Powerpoints – Photo-Ops in the desert – Brand new white Toyota pick up trucks cutting through Iraq swifter than a hot knife through Halva.This fascinating stage mgmt is over the top and its tricky knowing what is real anymore.
I stopped believing in International terrorism when they began using exploding underpants and shoes.Exploding cigars would have been the way but smoking was banned on aircraft.
So Maliki is the wrong guy and now the US want to change the regime.Heard it before !
1st step ? To what ? Reassigning military hardware to NATO and Saudi factions in Syria ,those same friends of Syria that are not actually Syrian.This will level everything that has been left standing so far into far fairer killing fields.Erdogan is the wrong guy too,will he suffer the same fate as Maliki ?
I listened to Obama last night rambling on about what he was going to do and not do and why.The US has at least 8 permanent bases in Iraq and countless contractors.1st step is just to legitimise what they already have. They cannot afford to have a sovereign Iraq.
This is just more White House Hollywood for the Middle East.
it’s all starting to fall into place:
19 June – Jerusalem Post – Kurdish journalists to ‘Post’: We may fast-track push for independence
“Kurdistan needs people like prime ministers David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir,” Kurdish journalist says.
Asserting that “Kurdistan needs people like former Israeli premiers Golda Meir and David Ben-Gurion – brave patriots, honest, and non-corrupted leaders,” he said that Kurds wanted to have a democratic state like Israel…
Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, told the BBC in a report published Tuesday that he believed the country would break up and that Sunni radicals would continue to make territorial gains.
Barzani said it would be “almost impossible” to return to the way things were before the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group took the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
“Iraq’s disputed areas, including oil-rich Kirkuk, are under Kurdish control,” noted Aram…
Even Turkey, which has traditionally been a staunch opponent of Kurdish nationalism, “has come to realize that not only is Kurdish independence a natural path that ultimately cannot be stopped,” but it could provide a potential strategic partner in the tumultuous Middle East…
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Kurdish-journalists-to-Post-We-may-fast-track-push-for-independence-359850