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War, War, War See other War, War, War Articles Title: Iraq Wants America Back It seems like only yesterday that Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, was celebrating as the last American soldiers left Iraq. Now, with an al Qaeda offshoot threatening to take Baghdad, Maliki’s government is quietly asking at least some troops—specifically airmen and drone pilots—to return. While Iraq’s government is not requesting a surge in U.S. ground forces like the one President Bush ordered in 2007, Maliki’s government has been asking for the U.S. to conduct targeted air strikes and the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance work to find those targets. READ MORE Europe Says ‘Non’ To Uber And there are plenty of new targets. On Tuesday, the al Qaeda offshoot known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS) overran Iraqi military positions in Mosul, the country’s second largest city. On Wednesday, reports from Iraq said the terrorist group was pushing toward Iraq’s capital, Baghdad. If President Obama agrees to launch drone strikes in Iraq, it would not be unprecedented for the region. The United States is playing a similar role in Iraq’s neighbor, Yemen, with intense counterterrorism training and drone strikes. But Obama also has boasted that he ended the U.S. war in Iraq and thus far has been hesitant to reenter the conflict. READ MORE Cabbies Jam London to Protest Uber “What we really need right now are drone strikes and air strikes,” said a senior Iraqi official Wednesday. But the official stressed that so far the Obama administration has been reluctant. A senior U.S. military official told The Daily Beast on Wednesday that the request for U.S. air strikes inside Iraq has been discussed in recent months. “There are no plans right now to participate in anything like this,” the official said. In earlier conversations, the official said the U.S. side “did not give them a hard no—it was ‘Thanks for your interest and we will talk about it more.’” READ MORE 90% Chance of El Niño Foreign Policy’s Gordon Lubold first reported last month that Iraq sought armed drones from the United States in quiet talks about more military assistance and that those drones likely would have to operated by U.S. forces. A spokeswoman for the National Security Council, Bernadette Meehan, told Lubold that the White House had not received a “formal request to operate armed drones over Iraq…Nor is there debate in the administration about diverting armed drones over Iraq or planning to do so.” When asked for comment Wednesday, Meehan said: “We are not going to get into details of our diplomatic discussions, but the government of Iraq has made clear that they welcome our support in their effort to confront [ISIS]. We have expedited shipments of military equipment since the beginning of the year, ramped up training of Iraqi security forces, and worked intensively to help Iraq implement a holistic approach to counter this terrorist threat. Our assistance has been comprehensive, is continuing, and will increase.” READ MORE 800 Terrorists Rout 30K Iraqi Soldiers But two senior Iraqi officials told The Daily Beast that Iraq indeed has asked for the United States to conduct air strikes inside the country since November, when Maliki visited Washington. In an interview Wednesday, Iraqi Ambassador Lukman Faily declined to discuss any specifics of the Iraqi military requests to the United States. But he did say, “We are asking for almost everything short of boots on the ground.” Faily described the requests as falling into the category of “counterterrorism cooperation.” READ MORE White House Plans More Gitmo Transfers “The United States has capabilities in the region. They have the ability to help us,” he said. “We have made requests. They are aware of this. There is an urgency now. We hope they understand the sense of the urgency we are dealing with now.” Related from The Daily Beast [BourrasqueDeNeige] This ties together some disparate information, the details of which have been confusing. Why is the United States sending arms and providing material support to "moderate" opposition groups in Syria? Perhaps this is all part of a larger plan to: 1. overthrow the Assad government on behalf of the state of Israel 2. reduce the power of the Shi'tes in Iraq since ISIS (or ISIL) is a Sunni Muslim organization, thereby anti-Iran and pro-Saudi Arabia 3. During the dissolution and destruction of Syria, there are some disputed border regions that Turkey wants returned 4. The Russians are sponsors of Bashir al Assad and will lose an important naval base should the Assad government be overthrown 5. The entire raison d'etre of the Iraq invasion was to provide a new base of operations for the US in the Middle east (they voluntarily left Saudi Arabia right after 9/11) and these attacks bring the US military back into Iraq The only missing piece is that the United States expected the junta in Kiev to kick the Russians out of Sevastopol in the Crimea, depriving them of another strategic naval base, but that part was foiled when the citizens of Crimea voted to join the Russian Federation. Look for aggressive actions by the Ukrainians to recapture Crimea. The policies; continue the policy begun after German reunification to expand NATO to the east, right up to the Russian border, dismantle the Russian Federation in order to apply pressure to the Chinese on the west, reduce Iranian influence in Iraq, expand NATO into the Middle east, Syria being the first country under their "protection", remove Syria as a threat to Israel via regime change and reducing its territory by returning disputed areas to Turkey. It's all beginning to make sense now.+4-1 ErnstRanches I spent quite a bit of time in Iraq and the middle east. I have fought against Arabs, fought with and trained them. The last time my team and I were attached to an Iraqi unit to help train and equip them. The problem with the Iraquis as well as most middle eastern armies is they lack motivation. Their favorite thing to say is Inshallah. Inshallah, is Arabic for "God willing" or "if Allah wills. They absolve themselves od any responsibility for making something happen. If Allah wants it to happen it will is their mind set, so they feel no obligation to put forth effort. As such, they are incapable of being an effective fighting force, and unable to deter the insurgents on any meaningful scale. +49 Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
Maybe the desk jockeys at the Pentagon thought they'd be "good practice" for this very reason??? Come on, let's be frank. It's Russia that the DOD and the neo's have been wanting to take on. The military hate Russia for having to ally with Uncle Joe in WW II. The neo's hate Russia ( Putin) for putting their compadres in jail for tax evasion.
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