Thursday, August 21, 2014

Iraq Updates ( August 21 , 2014 ) - US sending more troops after Foley killing by ISIS.......Kurds may rejoin Iraq Government - oil revenue and the Status of Kurdistan will be key matters to be resolved between the Kurds and Federal Government ..... Europe pledging to send arms and provide military support to the Kurds .....

Evening tweets....

Taking the War to , Peshmerga making advances in theatre with US air support


The US can trade terrorists for a soldier, but it can't pay terrorists for a journalist.





Interesting look at the growing # of Washington thinktankers who advocate a deal with Assad -& the counterarguments


 Retweeted by Alexblx
GEN. : cannot be defeated without being defeated in


Dempsey's comments on today are big indictment of Dempsey himself & Obama policy. Ignoring Syria for 3 years made IS fester, recruit.





Anti War......


US Readying More Troops to ‘Crush’ ISIS

US Using Journalist's Execution as Pretext for Further Iraq Escalation

by Jason Ditz, August 20, 2014
The Obama Administration has never been one to let a sad piece of news slip by unexploited, and when news emerged last night of the beheading of journalist James Foley by ISIS, they were quick to transition their narrative to fit the new story.
The US was already escalating the Iraq War at an alarming pace under the guise of a “humanitarian intervention,” but now are using Foley’s killing as the official justification to continue that escalation in the name of revenge.
President Obama presented ISIS as a “cancer” that had to be “extracted” from the Middle East, going on to accuse them of plotting genocide and offering “nothing but an endless slavery.”
Obama went on to declare that “no just God wouldstand for what they did yesterday and what they do every single day,” vowing his own relentless pursuit of them.
Secretary of State John Kerry was more direct, vowing to crush ISIS militarily, and declaring the group the “face of a new evil” whose very existence is an insult to Islam.
Kerry went heavy on the thesaurus today, dubbing ISIS “ugly, savage, inexplicable, nihilistic, and valueless evil,” and saying the US will track them down anywhere in the world to destroy them.
The State Department also seems to be driving a lot of the escalation push right now, asking for another 300 US ground troops to be deployed to sites in Baghdad, including the US Embassy and the Baghdad airport. The Pentagon is “considering” the request, but its acceptance is all but certain.
The humanitarian excuse for the US war was basically up when they got to Mount Sinjar and realized there weren’t 40,000 Yazidis there. Officials seem to feel Foley’s death is a good excuse to shed the last remnants of that talking point in favor of a return to the 2003-style bellicosity. America’s goal in the war is now wiping out its self-proclaimed enemies, and any suggestion of a closed-ended operation has long sense flown out the window.


Kurds Rejoin Iraq Cabinet, Will Negotiate Ministerial Positions

FM: Kurds Won't Join New Govt Without Clear Plan

by Jason Ditz, August 20, 2014
Kurdish officials have announced the end to a boycott of the Iraqi cabinet, returning after over a month of boycotts to protest a dispute with outgoing Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki.
Iraqi FM Heshyar Zebari, the highest ranking Kurdish cabinet member, says that the Kurdish parties are also planning to negotiate for ministerial positions in the new Abadi government, but will have significant conditions on joining.
PM-designate Hayder Abadi, who desperately needs Kurdish support to push the idea of a “unity” government after years of sectarian divide under Maliki’s rule. Abadi wasfighting with the Kurds over oil revenue sharing in parliament this past year.
It is expected that oil revenue will be one of the Kurds’ conditions on joining the new cabinet, and Zebari suggested there would be others, and that the Kurds won’t agree to back the new government without a clear plan laid out to meet all their demands.



Tweets of the morning......



Minister of Defence Roberta Pinotti says Italy will provide forces with anti-tank missiles.













Politicians call for a parliamentary debate on delivery of weapons to fighting in .











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