The Battle of Baghdad


Wolf DeVoon

Recommended Posts

Despite, or rather due to, all the confusing propaganda from either side, it was not exactly clear whether and how far away from Baghdad the ISIS offensive had been halted (if at all). It appears the confusion has also impacted none other than the US State Department, which moments ago announced it would evacuate an "substantial number" of the 5,500 staff situated in the US embassy in Baghdad... Meanwhile, at least 15 people were killed and more than two dozen were injured in explosions in Baghdad on Sunday, Iraqi police and hospital officials told the Associated Press. It was unclear if these were related to the ISIS offensive, and if, as unconfirmed reports on Twitter have suggested, ISIS advance forces have already entered the capital's neighborhoods. [Zero Hedge]

Other Americans in Iraq, particularly contractors working for companies that had been training the Iraqi military on weapons systems purchased from the United States, have already been evacuated from the country. [New York Times]

Isis forces have now gained control of two villages in Adhaim, a move that constituted the militants' first push into Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, CNN reports.

Armed police were seen at checkpoints in Baghdad, searching vehicles and checking drivers' documents. Security was particularly tightened on the northern and western approaches, the likely targets of ISIL fighters on the capital. The city looked gloomy Sunday, with thin traffic and few shoppers in commercial areas. At one popular park along the Tigris River, only a fraction of the thousands who usually head there were present in the evening. In the commercial Karada district in central Baghdad, many of the sidewalk hawkers who sell anything from shoes to toys and clothes were absent. According to police and hospital officials, a car bomb in the city center killed 10 and wounded 21. After nightfall, another explosion hit the area, killing two and wounding five. A third went off near a falafel shop in the sprawling Sadr City district, killing three and wounding seven. And late Sunday, a fourth blast in the northern Sulaikh district killed four and wounded 12. [boston Herald]

Irbil, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's leader directed his troops to make their stand against advancing Sunni militants in a flashpoint city home to a revered Shiite mosque... "Samarra will be the starting point, the gathering station of our troops to cleanse every inch that was desecrated by footsteps of those traitors," al-Maliki said in remarks broadcast Saturday. Iraq's military claimed Saturday it had regained key northern territories, including most of Salaheddin province, which includes Samarra, from ISIS -- a claim that conflicted with reports from security officials in Baghdad and Samarra, who told CNN that 60% to 70% of the province remains in the hands of ISIS.

Bp5UcmBCYAAKJ52.jpg

Sending troops north to Samarra is a big mistake. ISIS can attack Baghdad from east and west.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 99
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Wow, now here is a shocker, apparently ISI has been planning this attack for years!

President "Incompetency Is Us" O'bama and his dangerously inept State Department had no idea!

ERBIL, Iraq — When Islamic militants rampaged through the Iraqi city of Mosul last week, robbing banks of hundreds of millions of dollars, opening the gates of prisons and burning army vehicles, some residents greeted them as if they were liberators and threw rocks at retreating Iraqi soldiers.

It took only two days, though, for the fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to issue edicts laying out the harsh terms of Islamic law under which they would govern, and singling out some police officers and government workers for summary execution.

With just a few thousand fighters, the group’s lightning sweep into Mosul and farther south appeared to catch many Iraqi and American officials by surprise. But the gains were actually the realization of a yearslong strategy of state-building that the group itself promoted publicly.

Continue reading the main story Related Coverage

“What we see in Iraq today is in many ways a culmination of what the I.S.I. has been trying to accomplish since its founding in 2006,” said Brian Fishman, a counterterrorism researcher at the New America Foundation, referring to the Islamic State in Iraq, the predecessor of ISIS.

Photo
15iraq7-articleLarge.jpg
Members of a militia gathered in Sadr City in Baghdad. Credit Ayman Oghanna for The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/world/middleeast/rebels-fast-strike-in-iraq-was-years-in-the-making.html?emc=edit_th_20140615&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=53564225

In Iraq Crisis, a Tangle of Alliances and Enmities

The major players in the Iraq and Syria crisis are often both allies and antagonists, working together on one front on one day and at cross-purposes the next. Here are brief sketches of some of the confluences and conflicts in the deepening crisis.

JUNE 13, 2014
map-720.png

Kurdish

Region

TURKEY

AFGHANISTAN

Kurdish

Autonomous

Region

SYRIA

IRAN

LEBANON

IRAQ

PAKISTAN

ISRAEL

JORDAN

KUWAIT

Persian

Gulf

Gulf of

Oman

BAHRAIN

QATAR

EGYPT

SAUDI ARABIA

OMAN

Red

Sea

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Iran and the United States
  • Have been enemies since 1979 and remain highly antagonistic on most issues
  • Back opposite sides in the Syrian conflict

... but ...

  • Have a major common interest in the survival of the Maliki government in Iraq and the defeat of the Sunni extremist militias
United States and the Gulf Monarchies, including Saudi Arabia
  • Are longstanding allies, sharing an interest in containing Iran
  • Back the opposition to the Assad government in Syria

... but ...

  • The monarchies are hostile to the American-backed, Shiite-dominated Maliki government in Iraq
  • Gulf money has financed jihadist fighters in Syria and Iraq that the United States wants no part of
Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds
  • Have developed extensive commercial relations
  • Have agreed to cooperate in Syria

... but ...

  • The Turks are wary of Kurdish gains in Iraq, for fear that it will prompt a flare-up of Kurdish separatism in Turkey
  • The Kurds are deeply suspicious of Turkish intervention in Iraq
The Kurds and the Maliki Government
  • Are at odds over boundaries, oil revenue and the Kurds’ goal of independence
  • Have sectarian differences (most Kurds are Sunnis)

… but …

  • Share an interest in preventing a Sunni militant takeover of either Iraq or Syria
  • Have cooperated tactically against Sunni militant fighters
The Gulf Monarchies and the Sunni Insurgents
  • Have a common enemy in the Assad government in Syria
  • Share antipathy for Shiite rule and Iranian influence in Iraq and the region

... but ...

  • The monarchies consider ISIS and its goal of a hard-line caliphate too extreme and a threat
  • The insurgents consider the monarchies corrupt and irreligious

It is rather amusing that this government has all of our conversations, chats, communications and checking accounts...however they had NOOOO IDEA that this attack was being planned for several years.

Nice job O'biwan!!

A...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let me preface this by saying I oppose almost all of Rachel Maddow's politics. But she does dig for facts and manages to explain things in simple terms for laypeople in a manner I appreciate at times.

 

I always say you have to identify something correctly before you can judge it correctly. In that spirit, Maddow just laid out one of the best explanations (i.e., a correct identification) of the Sunni-Shiite dynamic in the current Iraq situation that I have come across. It's like a 20 minute crash course for dummies in what is really going on between Iran and Iraq. You don't have to agree with her conclusions in order to get a lot of value out of this particular report.

 

I wish the neocons were this clear when they talk about the issues over there, but they aren't.

 

I haven't even seen this level of clarity on this issue with Glenn Beck, who is my favorite at connecting dots of this nature. He's more concerned with the 12th Imam and stuff like that when he talks about Iran. So you know it's clear (at least to me) if I say she did better than Glenn. :smile:

 

 

Michael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To add to the last post, I was struck by how martyrdom-oriented Shiite culture is.

I have been reading up on shame culture vs. guilt culture--see here for a somewhat half-assed, but clear and short explanation of this.

I got interested because I was following a rabbit hole pointed out by John Truby in his screenwriting material.

Then I stumbled across Maddow's video and the two came together. Martyrdom and the martyrdom rituals that Shiites practice fit the shame culture to a tee. This is something to be aware of when identifying and evaluating these people.

Michael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The fundamental problem here is that after America conquered Afghanistan in 2002, and Iraq in 2003, the American gov't failed to set up some sort of quasi-libertarian or Western-type state, as it did with Germany and Japan in 1945. Rather, the U.S. set up a socialist, shariaist, anti-American, monster state hated and rejected by the locals. America chose the side of tyranny -- and now loudly blames the current disaster on "sectarianism," and quietly blames it on their poor Muslim culture. But when it comes to foreign policy, America is largely a scumbag, pro-slavery nation. That's the problem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The fundamental problem here is that after America conquered Afghanistan in 2002, and Iraq in 2003, the American gov't did not set up some sort of quasi-libertarian or Western-type state. Rather, the U.S. set up a socialist, shariaist, anti-American, monster state hated and rejected by the locals. America chose the side of tyranny -- and now loudly blames the current disaster on "sectarianism," and quietly blames it on their poor Muslim culture. But in it comes to foreign policy, America is largely a scumbag, pro-slavery nation. That's the problem.

One does not "set up" states on people who are not ready or not competent enough to live under them. The folks of Iraq would not know a right if it came and bit them in the ass.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The fundamental problem here is that after America conquered Afghanistan in 2002, and Iraq in 2003, the American gov't did not set up some sort of quasi-libertarian or Western-type state. Rather, the U.S. set up a socialist, shariaist, anti-American, monster state hated and rejected by the locals. America chose the side of tyranny -- and now loudly blames the current disaster on "sectarianism," and quietly blames it on their poor Muslim culture. But in it comes to foreign policy, America is largely a scumbag, pro-slavery nation. That's the problem.

One does not "set up" states on people who are not ready or not competent enough to live under them. The folks of Iraq would not know a right if it came and bit them in the ass.

Ba'al Chatzaf

"The folks of Iraq would not know a right if it came and bit them in the ass"-Ba'al

We're dealing with intellectual primitives here. Individual/ property rights don't occupy any portion of their undeveloped brains.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"The folks of Iraq would not know a right if it came and bit them in the ass"-Ba'al

We're dealing with intellectual primitives here. Individual/ property rights don't occupy any portion of their undeveloped brains.

Not true. In Iraq you could get your hand chopped off for stealing. That shows some awareness of property rights. In fact the Islamic religion is very propertarian.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One does not "set up" states on people who are not ready or not competent enough to live under them. The folks of Iraq would not know a right if it came and bit them in the ass.

Most educated and historically-aware people would have said the same of the fascist and tyranny-loving Germans and Japanese after WW II. But however philosophically and culturally debased current Muslims are -- and no-one has a lower opinion of them and their dominant ideology than me -- they're still human beings. They still have a powerful natural affinity for liberty and justice, as well as for the financial and spiritual riches these two yield. If America had set up an early 1800s-style capitalist state in Iraq and Afghanistan (but with equal rights for all races, sexes, creeds, etc.), and then enforced it for a decade or so, these guys today would be more libertarian than Americans!

Naive and Libertarian-influenced Objectivists frequently say "you can't force freedom down people's throats," and "you can't force people to be free." Yes, you can.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We're dealing with intellectual primitives here. Individual/ property rights don't occupy any portion of their undeveloped brains.

This is an irrational, illiberal Dark Age. So Americans and Westerners are intellectual primitives too. And that may include you, since you probably don't know Austrian, libertarian, and Objectivist theory as well as you should. The point is: people aren't monkeys. Or at least not permanent ones. They can learn. In many respects, one can teach the Non-Initiation of Force Principle in less than 5 minutes. Even to Iraqis!

Of course...teaching it to welfare-state brain-washed, and thus permanently purblind, right-wing conservatives and left-wing progressives may be another matter. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We're dealing with intellectual primitives here. Individual/ property rights don't occupy any portion of their undeveloped brains.

This is an irrational, illiberal Dark Age. So Americans and Westerners are intellectual primitives too. And that may include you, since you probably don't know Austrian, libertarian, and Objectivist theory as well as you should. The point is: people aren't monkeys. Or at least not permanent ones. They can learn. In many respects, one can teach the Non-Initiation of Force Principle in less than 5 minutes. Even to Iraqis!

Of course...teaching it to welfare-state brain-washed, and thus permanently purblind, right-wing conservatives and left-wing progressives may be another matter. :D

Until I see the results of teaching them the non initiation of force I stand by what I said.

As for my knowledge of Objectivist/Austrian/Libertarian theory...I've studied enough to live my life rationally.

Oh, please concern yourself with your own (not mine) life/ knowledge.

-J

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We're dealing with intellectual primitives here. Individual/ property rights don't occupy any portion of their undeveloped brains.

This is an irrational, illiberal Dark Age. So Americans and Westerners are intellectual primitives too. And that may include you, since you probably don't know Austrian, libertarian, and Objectivist theory as well as you should. The point is: people aren't monkeys. Or at least not permanent ones. They can learn. In many respects, one can teach the Non-Initiation of Force Principle in less than 5 minutes. Even to Iraqis!

Of course...teaching it to welfare-state brain-washed, and thus permanently purblind, right-wing conservatives and left-wing progressives may be another matter. :D

Until I see the results of teaching them the non initiation of force I stand by what I said.

As for my knowledge of Objectivist/Austrian/Libertarian theory...I've studied enough to live my life rationally.

Oh, please concern yourself with your own (not mine) life/ knowledge.

-J

Yeah, he is not quite intellectually paper trained yet...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We're dealing with intellectual primitives here. Individual/ property rights don't occupy any portion of their undeveloped brains.

This is an irrational, illiberal Dark Age. So Americans and Westerners are intellectual primitives too. And that may include you, since you probably don't know Austrian, libertarian, and Objectivist theory as well as you should. The point is: people aren't monkeys. Or at least not permanent ones. They can learn. In many respects, one can teach the Non-Initiation of Force Principle in less than 5 minutes. Even to Iraqis!

Of course...teaching it to welfare-state brain-washed, and thus permanently purblind, right-wing conservatives and left-wing progressives may be another matter. :D

Until I see the results of teaching them the non initiation of force I stand by what I said.

As for my knowledge of Objectivist/Austrian/Libertarian theory...I've studied enough to live my life rationally.

Oh, please concern yourself with your own (not mine) life/ knowledge.

-J

Yeah, he is not quite intellectually paper trained yet...

lol. Perhaps I'll send him some newspaper.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The fundamental problem here is that after America conquered Afghanistan in 2002, and Iraq in 2003, the American gov't did not set up some sort of quasi-libertarian or Western-type state. Rather, the U.S. set up a socialist, shariaist, anti-American, monster state hated and rejected by the locals. America chose the side of tyranny -- and now loudly blames the current disaster on "sectarianism," and quietly blames it on their poor Muslim culture. But in it comes to foreign policy, America is largely a scumbag, pro-slavery nation. That's the problem.

One does not "set up" states on people who are not ready or not competent enough to live under them. The folks of Iraq would not know a right if it came and bit them in the ass.

Ba'al Chatzaf

The fundamental problem here is that after America conquered Afghanistan in 2002, and Iraq in 2003, the American gov't did not set up some sort of quasi-libertarian or Western-type state. Rather, the U.S. set up a socialist, shariaist, anti-American, monster state hated and rejected by the locals. America chose the side of tyranny -- and now loudly blames the current disaster on "sectarianism," and quietly blames it on their poor Muslim culture. But in it comes to foreign policy, America is largely a scumbag, pro-slavery nation. That's the problem.

One does not "set up" states on people who are not ready or not competent enough to live under them. The folks of Iraq would not know a right if it came and bit them in the ass.

Ba'al Chatzaf

"The folks of Iraq would not know a right if it came and bit them in the ass"-Ba'al

We're dealing with intellectual primitives here. Individual/ property rights don't occupy any portion of their undeveloped brains.

These types of sentiments are both offensive and false. I've seen Iraqis that have come to this country and speak eloquently in defense of freedom. They may not know how to set up the proper institutions to preserve and protect individual rights, but how many Americans really know? Iraqis turned out in droves to vote in their first free election. It is incompetent leadership and status quo suffering that turns people off to politics. Most people are just trying to survive, not because they are incompetent, but because their governments are malformed, cesspools of corruption --- something the ordinary person can't do anything about. Sure, they have plenty of fanatics, but the majority could learn to live successfully in a free society if they were given half a chance.

Darrell

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I recall, it was the US that demanded Iraq have a constitution designed for a “unified Iraq.” Peter Galbraith and Sen. Biden had argued, as I recall, that the Iraqis should be allowed to split into autonomous governments for (at least) each of the three main regions of the former country. Now, there is the Iraqi VP in sanctuary in the north, and it looks horribly like the splitting may happen in the usual old way of civil war.

While still a senator, Biden made a number of appearances on the Don Imus Show (which was then broadcast on MSNBC) in which he explained his ideas about a tripartite division of Iraq. As I recall, he advocated not completely sovereign countries but a kind of loose confederation with a good deal of sectional autonomy. A Kurdish north was fairly obvious, but Biden explained that problems arose with the Shiites and Sunnis, owing to inevitable disputes about revenue rights to the oil rich areas.

I was very impressed with Biden at the time -- far more than I have ever been since. 8-)

Ghs

House of Kurds

Peter Galbraith - 6/17/14

Link to comment
Share on other sites

House of Kurds

Peter Galbraith - 6/17/14

What did Saddam Hussein, the prime minister of Turkey and Little Miss Moffett agree on?

They all found Kurds in their Way

Ba'al Chatzaf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The fundamental problem here is that after America conquered Afghanistan in 2002, and Iraq in 2003, the American gov't failed to set up some sort of quasi-libertarian or Western-type state, as it did with Germany and Japan in 1945. Rather, the U.S. set up a socialist, shariaist, anti-American, monster state hated and rejected by the locals. America chose the side of tyranny -- and now loudly blames the current disaster on "sectarianism," and quietly blames it on their poor Muslim culture. But when it comes to foreign policy, America is largely a scumbag, pro-slavery nation. That's the problem.

Yes, I wonder why Bush and Cheney didn't give the Iraqis a constitution like the one they cherished and honored during their administration?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The fundamental problem here is that after America conquered Afghanistan in 2002, and Iraq in 2003, the American gov't failed to set up some sort of quasi-libertarian or Western-type state, as it did with Germany and Japan in 1945. Rather, the U.S. set up a socialist, shariaist, anti-American, monster state hated and rejected by the locals. America chose the side of tyranny -- and now loudly blames the current disaster on "sectarianism," and quietly blames it on their poor Muslim culture. But when it comes to foreign policy, America is largely a scumbag, pro-slavery nation. That's the problem.

Yes, I wonder why Bush and Cheney didn't give the Iraqis a constitution like the one they cherished and honored during their administration?

No one has ever conquered Afghanistan.

Not the U.S. Not Alexander the Great, Not Great Britain.

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,

And the women come out to cut up what remains,

Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains

An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.

Go, go, go like a soldier,

Go, go, go like a soldier,

Go, go, go like a soldier,

So-oldier of the Queen!

Rudyard Kipling

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Obama said today "no troops, other than advisers, will be sent"

What about drones? How much money will he propose to send? Supplies? What types of surveillance will he employ? Will the Seals be deployed (shhhh) etc.........

He speaks a lot, in circles.

His sh*t just keeps getting thicker, doesn't it?

-Joe

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our Elected God-King Lord Obama has to appear to be doing something while actually doing almost nothing.

100 advisers vs over 100,000 Taliban.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Starting to look like those old colonial films like Gunga Din.

Also, like history, read about the Mahdi's that came out of the desert to slaughter the British in hmm where was that in Africa again?

A...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our Elected God-King Lord Obama has to appear to be doing something while actually doing almost nothing.

100 advisers vs over 100,000 Taliban.

But it's 300 advisers...now that will tip the scale in their favor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stop open immigration, pull out of the Middle East, stop all foreign aid and just let them all "sort it out for themselves".

And FFS stop buying all oil out of the Middle East. You are enabling them to turn your own money against you. It's a lovely parasitical love/hate relationship. No matter WHAT the USA does the entire Middle East is going to hate you so stop trying and just ostracize the whole lot of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now