Finally, some good news: Kurdish forces 'recapture part of Mosul dam' Kurdish forces have recaptured the eastern part of the Mosul dam in Iraq from the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, Kurdish officials say. They are making "good progress" but encountering "fierce resistance", according to the Kurdish authority in northern Iraq. A joint operation involving both Kurdish forces and US air strikes began on Sunday morning. In its latest strikes, the US said it destroyed 19 IS vehicles. The strategically important dam was seized by the militants on 7 August. Full Story: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28825029 I have read several reports today that claimed that the Kurds (with US / IA support) have taken the dam back, so it's unclear whether they have recaptured the entire complex. But it looks like if that hasn't happened already, they are on track to do so fairly rapidly. Hope they can hold it... I have commented several times on the dam. For some background on why it is so important, see this primer: Why Iraq Is So Desperate to Retake Mosul Dam from ISIS https://time.com/3126423/iraq-isis-mosul-dam-airstrikes/ It also looks like we've put together a team to take down al-Baghdadi: Islamic State terror chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi hunted by specially-formed elite military unit Around 100 CIA spooks and special forces are hunting for 42-year-old dubbed The Ghost because he leaves no trace despite running an army of followers http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/islamic-state-terror-chief-abu-4067744 These are good developments. They are necessary actions. But are they sufficient? No. None of this will actually stop ISIS; they are smart and they will adapt. If we take al-Baghdadi then another will simply rise in his place; it's already been reported that succession issues have been worked out to deal with such an eventuality. And while retaking the dam was necessary, it does nothing to stop or roll back ISIS; they will simply look to other targets until the time is ripe to take the dam back again. Nothing short of a robust offensive will fix this. We should lead it (as we always must in these situations, since no one else can), with multinational elements - including relevant local stakeholders including the Iraqis (Shia), Kurds, disaffected Sunni tribesmen, the Turks, Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanians, and yes - even the Iranians - and everyone else affected by their terror chipping in. Such an effort might go a long way towards healing old wounds as well. But ISIS has to be obliterated before they grow too powerful. They are not just a threat to local minority groups or even simply regional governments. They are a threat to the entire civilized world. I hope that POTUS seizes the opportunity that ISIS's evil presents to him.
Meanwhile, ISIS just keeps doing it's thing... Please, let American jets bomb my prison... death is better than to be forced off with a strange man: 8 months pregnant, captured by Islamic thugs waging 'Sexual Holy War' - one woman issues a heartrending plea The call came in the early hours, the voice muffled, furtive and shaking with fear. ‘If they see me talking to someone they will kill me for sure, maybe kill all of us.’ This was Nisreen, a 17-year-old seized by the vicious Islamic State forces who have swept through Iraq and Syria spreading fear and panic. She told how she was one of 96 Yazidi girls kidnapped when their towns and villages fell to the fanatics. Now these teenagers wait in terror to be sold into slavery or forced into marriage with militant Islamists. Fully Story: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2726894/Please-let-American-jets-bomb-prison-death-better-forced-strange-man-8-months-pregnant-captured-Islamic-thugs-waging-Sexual-Holy-War-one-woman-issues-heartrending-plea.html In Iraq, captured Yazidi women fear the Islamic State will force them to wed Hundreds of Yazidi women who were captured by Islamic extremists during their sweep through the town of Sinjar are being incarcerated at scattered locations across northern Iraq in what increasingly looks like a deliberate attempt to co-opt them into service as the wives of fighters. As the militants with the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State surged into the area from surrounding Arab villages two weeks ago, snaring those who had not managed to flee, they showed a marked interest in detaining women, notably the youngest and prettiest, according to witnesses, relatives and in some instances the women themselves. Women were separated from men, then younger women were separated from older ones and most were shunted off in buses or trucks. Once in custody, the women are presented with a bleak choice. Those who convert to Islam can be promised a good life, with a house of their own and — implicitly — a Muslim husband, because the extreme interpretation of Islam promoted by the Islamic State does not permit women to live alone. Otherwise, they have been told, they can expect a life of indefinite imprisonment — or, they fear, death. Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-iraq-islamic-state-fighters-capturing-yazidi-women-to-take-them-as-wives/2014/08/16/3a349cd6-24d2-11e4-958c-268a320a60ce_story.html Barbarians. Animals. Monsters. How can anyone not see that at this point?
Ah, side note: Abu Obeida mentioned in the first article was also at Bucca in my compound. I don't remember the individual personally (they all looked the same to me after a while, and their names are a mishmash - I only remember a few of them personally, the ones I had personal conversations/contact with) but I remember him by his "Abu" name, and that he was one of the ones we were worried about. His name came up a lot in "rockmail" (paper messages they tied around rocks and threw between compounds to communicate). Those guys all should have gotten a bullet in the back of the head when we had the chance...
As for the preceding argument about whether Obama armed ISIS... No, he did not. I've posted several links already in this thread on this very subject. If people would read them we'd save some time. Obama resisted arming the rebels early in the conflict, and earned much criticism (deservedly) for doing so. There was a window of about 3-5 months where we likely could have supported the Syrian rebels with some success(who knows how much?), but after that window the rebellion had been co-opted by both the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda. Obama failed to take advantage of the situation and let it spiral out of control, but McCain's rants about failing to arm the rebels were absurd, as by the time he was talking about it the rebellion had already been kidnapped by jihadists. Obama did belatedly approve sending arms to some Syrian "moderates", but this program is of dubious utility, as the "moderates" in Syria at this point 1) have no hope of winning, and 2) are themselves Muslim Brotherhood, lesser versions of the IS people. "Moderate" is a relative term - there are no "good guys" left in Syria at this point, at least not any with any real power. It's a lost opportunity on Obama's part that set an environment for ISIS to grow, and it's an absurd proposition to essentially arm Muslim Brotherhood goons and Nusra AQ affiliates on McCain's part. Thank goodness neither one of those dumba$$es won the election. Oh, wait...
Show me where I said, 'Obama armed the ISIS' in my post. And I don't mind being called David, it's just that Izak is my first name.
Oh, & BTW...I don't mind the name Hussien. I wish Saddam was still in power...at Least the Assyrians would be safe & ISIS wouldn't exist.
Here's a good read by Ali Khedery on Iraq's prospects moving forward with Abadi at the helm. When Mr. Khedery talks about Iraq, you should listen... Iraq's Last Chance http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/opinion/sunday/iraqs-last-chance.html?_r=0
If you have some time, I highly recommend this full-length report on the IS by VICE, who have done some excellent reporting on the group. The video is 42 minutes long, but it is VERY well worth it if you are interested in knowing who these monsters are. [youtube]AUjHb4C7b94[/youtube]
One of my good friends was an intelligence officer in Iraq, and his last assignment was to get al-Baghdadi. He said that he missed getting by less than 10 minutes on two separate occasions. Obviously they knew that he was a pain the ass at the time, hence going after him, but they never thought it was going to be this bad.
I will never understand why he was released. The Iraqis knew they could never release all of the AQI guys we had. We were pushing the relatively moderate Sunnis and Shiites out the door as fast as we could when I left, but it was understood by everyone that the AQI monsters had to stay put. Forever. Somebody screwed up, monumentally.
Unfortunately, it's a lot like scouting basketball players. No one knew he was going to be as influential and crazy as he is just like no one knew Dirk Norwitzki was going to be one of the best power forwards of all time. You can't lock up every "potential" threat. For obvious reasons, my buddy can't tell me any details of any of his missions, but the one thing he did tell me was it is not like in the movies. They essentially work in probabilities. There is an 70 percent chance the target is going to be at this location, and there is will be an 80 percent chance of civilians being there, and so on, and someone has to make a decision to send soldiers in harms way or not based on that fuzzy math. None of us know the amount of intelligence that we had on him when we let him go. My friend says that even 3 years ago, when they went after him with a team of special forces, they did not know he was going to be this dangerous. Intelligence is an inexact science.
The thing is, if it is not this guy, it's someone else. The main problem is the ideology behind it that allows guys like that to find other idiots to follow them.
The guy was in my compound. I don;t remember much at all about him - he wasn't on the radar as one of the big fish, just a mid-level enforcer-type. If we'd have thought he was really a huge threat then he'd have been living somewhere else, not in one of the general-population type compounds like the one I worked in. My unit and I later switched to another compound (a high security one with "more important" types), and he never came through there. Of course, there's a lot we didn't know about these guys and what was really going on. A lot of it was guesswork. We only know what we could glean from documentation we captured from them (they wrote almost everything down, were meticulous note-takers and accountants) and what we could coax them into telling us. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he was being hidden - disguised as a mid-level relative nobody - while really being a shot-caller the whole time. This guy just suddenly takes over AQI when he gets released? A mid-level enforcer doesn't just get to do that out of the blue. These guys aren't dumb, and the burden was always on us to find out what was really going on. Easier said than done.
^ islam should be banned and moslems deported. none of this stuff would happen if we had a strong and honest president like reagan or gwb. thanks for nothing barack hussien obama.
Islamic State Is Pushed Back but Fierce Fighting Continues Around Iraq's Mosul Dam The battle for Iraq's largest dam continued today, even as officials claimed that government troops and Kurdish forces had regained control of the complex from hardline Sunni militant group the Islamic State, which seized it earlier this month. Iraqi military spokesman Lt-Gen. Qassim Atta told state television today that Mosul Dam had been "fully cleansed" of militants by a joint force of Iraqi troops and peshmerga fighters from Iraqi Kurdistan backed by US and Iraqi aircraft. However, when VICE News visited the peshmerga front lines close to the dam, fighting was still clearly underway and medical staff reported a number of Kurdish and Iraqi casualties. There was regular mortar and heavy machine gun fire from the peshmerga positions, and some, though far fewer, incoming rounds from Islamic State fighters. Clouds of black smoke were visible in the distance. Peshmerga told VICE News that they came from villages that the Islamic State had retreated from, set fire to, and booby trapped. Full Story: https://news.vice.com/article/islamic-state-is-pushed-back-but-fierce-fighting-continues-around-iraqs-mosul-dam The dam complex is very large and encompasses quite a few buildings spread over a large area. There are reports that some sections were so heavily booby-trapped that the pesh pulled back entirely from them for fear that ISIS would set off the bombs remotely and bring the whole thing down, and the attacking peshmerga with it. Still, it sounds like they're making progress. It's a delicate operation because of the dam's vulnerability, but it requires many precisely applied strikes with a big freaking hammer to fix - not an easy operation. Pray they are successful in completely retaking the area. ISIS has to be stopped, and this dam has to be secured.
Yep. As mentioned previously, even if we kill al-Baghdadi tomorrow they already have succession pland lined up. But even if they didn't, and even if ISIS is disrupted now, as long as that ideology survives it will be a threat. The idea of a global ummah, the idea that they are simply protecting muslims under attack (nevermind that they are busily killing large numbers of muslims themselves) - that is the problem. And frankly, these genocidal acts, from massacring entire tribes to waging sexual-holy war, are a direct result of a literal interpretation of the Koran. When they tax Christians (most of whom sensibly fled instead), they are simply abiding by the suras. When they give apostates a few chances to convert to Islam before cutting their heads off en mass, they are following the Koran. If Christians were to follow a literal interpretation of the Old Testament (while ignoring the entirety of the New Testament and Christ's teachings) you'd probably see similar results. These people are operating with a 7th century mentality. They are simply carrying out the perfect will of Allah as written - with no deviation. The mindset these people have does not allow for negotiation (unless it is a hudna, a truce only called to provide room for muslims to rearm and rejuvenate for another round of fighting). There is no possibility for a Reformation as Christianity had, the dictates of the Koran must be carried out by the letter of the law. As I said, it's already the perfect word of Allah, so there is no room for modification or improvement. Meaning, there is ZERO possibility of a negotiated settlement with these people. Diplomacy is a complete and utter waste of time. There is no common ground. They must be stopped, as in killed. They must be completely conquered, and their ideology eradicated (a monumentally difficult task that will take generations to accomplish). But understand: this fight is not optional. Whether you/we want to fight is irrelevant. They have chosen for us - they want this fight, and they are going to have it. We can have it on their terms - they will grow powerful in the Middle East and come after us when they are ready - or we can do it on our terms - we can go after them when they are relatively weak, and smother that baby evil in its crib. Absolutely, the ideology is the problem. It's also attractive to young, dumb brains, and it is infectious. The longer it festers, the harder it will be to deal with. Ideologies are hard to kill. But sometimes they are harder to live with.
And before anyone asks... Fight those who believe not in God nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by God and His Apostle, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth , (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued - Sura 9:29 The above is generally used as an excuse to tax Jews and Christians, morbidly presenting a "defense" against the argument that the Koran promotes terrorism. "Well, we're not killing them, just extorting them" is what it boils down to. There are so many suras that encourage killing infidels, they're too numerous to post here. For those who like to Google stuff: Sura 2:98, Sura 2:161, 2:191, Sura 2:193, 2:216, Sura 4:74... could go on and on. A few notables: O believers, take not Jews and Christians as friends; they are friends of each other. Those of you who make them his friends is one of them. God does not guide an unjust people. Sura 5:54 - not exactly a ringing endorsement of the concept of compromise. Make war on them until idolatry is no more and Allah's religion reigns supreme Sura 8:39 - doesn't hold out a lot of hope for a peaceful solution anytime soon. Allah will humble the unbelievers. Allah and His apostle are free from obligations to idol-worshipers. Proclaim a woeful punishment to the unbelievers. Sura 9:2-3 - translation: any deal you make with these people is less meaningful than the toilet paper you wiped your a$$ with before you cut that deal with them. When the sacred months are over, slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them. Sura 9:5 - not remotely an advocacy for a theocratic police state, or anything... Fight those who believe neither in God nor the Last Day, nor what has been forbidden by God and his messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, even if they are People of the Book, until they pay the tribute and have been humbled. Sura 9:29 - sounds like a promising strategy for world domination... I could go on. And on. And on. My point here is not to blast Islam; the Bible contains passages similar to these in the Old Testament. My point is that that the IS monsters read this stuff and take a VERY literal interpretation of it and then apply it in the real world. They are using these passages as the defining logic for their horrific actions. You atheistic libtards should be particularly sensitive to this and should understand what a threat these guys pose: they are ACTUALLY doing what you erroneously accuse people like me (meaning Christians) of wanting to do here. We are witnessing it in action, it is causing massive amounts of death and misery, they will eventually try to apply it elsewhere, and it needs to be stopped. This is a threat that modern society cannot abide.
Kudos to those involved for retaking the Mosul Dam. The damned dam was billed as "the most dangerous in the world" by the US Army. Why? Because it was built during Saddam's tenure on one of the worst locations possible for a major dam. The United States spent tens of millions of dollars keeping it repaired during our occupation of Iraq. It's failure would be catastrophic. Now we'll have to see if the "good guys" can not only hold on to it, but continue to keep it from failing. U.S. airstrikes critical in Mosul Dam capture By Jethro Mullen and Susanna Capelouto, CNN (CNN) -- U.S. airstrikes helped Kurdish and Iraqi forces take control of Mosul Dam on Monday, fighting back ISIS militants who had seized the dam, President Obama told reporters. The stakes were huge for the millions of Iraqis who live downstream from the dam, the largest in the country. "If that dam was breached it could have proven catastrophic, with floods that would have threatened the lives of thousands of civilians and endangered our embassy compound in Baghdad," the President said. The dam has been the center of an intense battle in northern Iraq between the Islamic extremists and Kurdish forces that had been fighting to retake it since Saturday with U.S. air support. "The U.S. military used fighters, bombers, attack and unmanned aircraft to conduct 35 strikes, " said Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby. "We destroyed over 90 targets including a range of vehicles, equipment and fighting positions," he said. Now that the dam is cleared of ISIS militants, Iraqi forces are moving to grow their area of control, the Pentagon said. "This operation demonstrates that Iraqi and Kurdish forces are capable of working together and taking the fight to ISIS," Obama said. "If they continue to do so, they will have the strong support of the United States of America." http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/18/world/meast/iraq-mosul-dam/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Hey, thanks for providing new information Deckard! I suppose this is the drawback of putting each other on ignore... A bit of duplication. Ah well his heart is in the right place. Sounds like he's ready to become a fuill-fledged wingnut warmonger in his own right.
