Looks like the Iraqi Army refuses to fight the Islamist folks. If they won't defend their country, neither should we. You can't fight for a people who won't fight for themselves. Perhaps its best if Iraq breaks into a Kurdish, Sunni, and Shia area.
The problem is if Iraq falls then it is a real slippery slope. That is to say it could become a much wider conflict. Radical Islam wants to put an end to the west and western culture.
let the Sunni extremists and Shia fight it out. this is a conflict in the making for centuries, maybe its time to fight it out. all I care about is no WMDs be used on civilians.
Tram, if my country is being invaded and I do not pick up arms to fight or support the fight.....I am not innocent and am selfish.
I vote to nuke it from orbit. That's the only way to be sure. A more serious suggestion is to take the people caught in between those two asshats out of the country until things can be stabilized. Then, after they're done fighting because they've been weakened so much, we strike and wipe them out completely. I'm tired of those people and their constant petty crap. They need to go the way of the dodo and let sensible, peaceful people develop their country into something more respectable and profitable.
Amen, enough about Iraq. In a way it was Nam all over again. The CIC has his hands full at home. Outside of sorrow for the Iraq population, I could not care less. Any American interest should not be there in the first place. Get all our people out and scram.
yes, we made this mess. but we have done our (*)(*)(*)(*)ing best to fix it, and if the Iraqi people just refuse to handle their own country, we can't be their mommy forever.
Agreed. The "straight edge borders" that were applied arbitrarily on Mandatory Iraq, Syria, Transjordan etc. were destined to fail from the start. The US attempts to do what Imperial Britain and France failed to do also, predictably, failed. The best possible "solution" (not to say that's even our problem) is an organic one. Let them suss it out! It's their land, after all....
ISIS Threatens to Invade Jordan, 'Slaughter' King Abdullah by Khaled Abu Toameh, June 12, 2014 And our Dear Leader sits in the White House dithering over what to do. said. The Islamic Caliphate appears to be closer than we might realize. Read more with links @ http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4354/isis-jordan ISIS Spokesman: Nouri Al-Maliki an Incompetent Underwear Salesman @ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/12/crisis-in-iraq-insurgents-take-major-cities-live-blog Iran Deploys Quds Forces To Support Iraqi Troops, Helps Retake Most Of Tikrit @ http://www.ibtimes.com/iran-deploys...iraqi-troops-helps-retake-most-tikrit-1599766 Iran Deploys Forces to Fight al Qaeda-Inspired Militants in Iraq @ http://online.wsj.com/articles/iran...s-in-iraq-iranian-security-sources-1402592470 And this map should really get you thinking from http://warnewsupdates.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-map-of-radical-islamic-strongholds_12.html
So, now we have: Iraq. Ukraine. Turkey. Brazil. There seems to be a lot of political unrest in the world right now. I wonder if something is behind it that we can't see, and if so what.
That's never been a concern when it comes to our policy with drone strikes in Pakistan. Why should it be one for Iraq? It wasn't one during the invasion or occupation of Iraq either.
Well, if we hadn't armed rebels in Syria against Assad, ISIS would be a lot less powerful now. You can blame a lot more people than just Obama for that. Both parties have supported policies that have strengthened radicals. We can even go back to supporting the mujahideen against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the late 70s and 80s.
This is a good idea. Obama cannot afford it. May be only Curds would get out winners and take the oil. A similar solution would be right for Ukraine. Lvov with its Carpathian regions would stay independent.
If only we'd thought this through back in 2002 when we thought we'd 'democratize' Sunni and Shia. Iraq falling to Islamic militants was totally predictable. Instead, we decided to overthrow the guy who had it under control.
I feel bad for those civilians too, but you are missing one point. Terrorists use civilian shields as a dirty rotten trick to manipulate people to gains sympathy for them. And it is a trick that seems to work. A lot of the time those drone strikes are against real terrorist targets, and they should not be allowed to have a shield of any sort. So while it is a deplorable thing, that means that civillians will die. If terrorists have a shield to hide behind, then there's no way to win the war and they will tear your society down. With that being said, when the drone strikes are a mistake, then the people who are behind those strikes should be held criminally accountable for.
Well when briefings agree there is no viable opposition to Saddam in the country you wonder what thought process gets you to a place to create a power vacuum.
I acknowledge that this is the technique they use, but for every civilian we kill, there are multiple relatives of that civilian that suddenly have a reason to support our enemies. We create more terrorists than we kill when we use this approach. For me, it's not even about sympathy. It's about strategy. And so far, drone strikes have been pretty ineffective. Pakistan and Afghanistan are basically lost causes. Iraq has become one as well. Like it or not, Saddam provided stability for Iraq, and it's going to take another dictator to achieve that there.
Lets recognize and independent Kurdistan, using its currently held assets and move in with a base and embassy there. Face it this is the only stable part of Iraq its time to salvage what we can and at least they still like the USA.
IMHO, this is what's going to happen: They will NOT strike against Jordan because the military is extremely well-trained and equipped and very pro their king and independence. The Kurd are well-armed and extremely independent. They are not part of the Sunni/Shia discord and will even expand their territory. Iran will insert even more troops, gaining control of all the southern oil fiends. The Sunnis will end up backing into Syria where they will try to restart their rebellion against Assad - who is getting military support from Putin. This is far from over and will become even more regional, spreading everywhere throughout northern Africa and all of the Middle East.
The neocon thought process. Nothing furthers their ends better than anarchy and disintegration in the ME.
What we need to do is put Saddam back in power. Just shove his bones into a stuffed version of himself which holds a loaded shotgun aimed at a chair. When a question needs to be asked an official sits in the chair and pushes a big red button. At this point Saddambot either says "yes", "no", or just zhoots the guy with his shotgun. Problem solved.