Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Hideous Hillary

She apparently has the nomination sewn up.

Patrick Martin (WSWS) reports:

The American media portrayed Clinton’s narrow margin over Sanders as a critical turning point for her campaign, after her double-digit loss in the New Hampshire primary February 9. However, given Clinton’s 40-point lead in Nevada polls until recently, and her institutional support from Democratic Party officeholders and union bureaucrats, the Nevada result demonstrates as much weakness as strength.
Sanders piled up large leads among voters 30 and younger (82 percent to 14 percent) and lower-income working class voters, and actually led Clinton among Hispanics. Clinton led by huge margins among voters over 65, and African-American voters, who made up 13 percent of the electorate, sided with her by a nearly 4-1 margin, accounting for her entire margin of victory.
More important than the margin in Nevada, however, Clinton has all-out support from the party establishment. An Associated Press tally published Sunday found Clinton had the support of 449 “super delegates,” those with a convention vote due to holding elective office or membership in the Democratic National Committee, compared to only 20 for Sanders.

She is so disgusting.

Go read what we came up with at THIRD ESTATE:

I especially enjoyed the lyrics piece we did.

There are 30 songs. Only Ben Harper and Carly Simon got two -- everyone else just had one song on the list.

It was fun to deliberate and debate our choices for that feature.

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Monday, February 22, 2016. Chaos and violence continue, Haider fails Anbar yet again, Mosul's liberation is talked about (if still not executed), WikiLeaks exposed Barack Obama's spying on other leaders, and much more.

Today, WikiLeaks announced:

Today, 23 February 2016 at 00:00 GMT, WikiLeaks publishes highly classified documents showing that the NSA bugged meetings between UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, between Israel prime minister Netanyahu and Italian prime minister Berlusconi, between key EU and Japanese trade ministers discussing their secret trade red-lines at WTO negotiations, as well as details of a private meeting between then French president Nicolas Sarkozy, Merkel and Berlusconi.
The documents also reveal the content of the meetings from Ban Ki Moon's strategising with Merkel over climate change, to Netanyahu's begging Berlusconi to help him deal with Obama, to Sarkozy telling Berlusconi that the Italian banking system would soon "pop like a cork".
Some documents are classified TOP-SECRET / COMINT-GAMMA and are the most highly classified documents ever published by a media organization.

WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange said "Today we showed that UN Secretary General Ban KiMoon's private meetings over how to save the planet from climate change were bugged by a country intent on protecting its largest oil companies. We previously published Hillary Clinton orders that US diplomats were to steal the Secretary General's DNA. The US government has signed agreements with the UN that it will not engage in such conduct against the UN--let alone its Secretary General. It will be interesting to see the UN's reaction, because if the Secretary General can be targetted without consequence then everyone from world leader to street sweeper is at risk."

When Bully Boy Bush was tapping the United Nations ahead of the start of the Iraq War, there was outrage. There's not even a mild rebuke of US President Barack Obama over this.

All this illegal spying is not about keeping anyone safe.

In fact, Barack's got a real problem keeping people safe.

Early Monday morning, THIRD posted "Another national security failure:"

Last week, Mariano Castillo (CNN) reported:

Iraqi and international officials said Thursday that radioactive material was stolen from a contractor working for an oil services company in Basra Province back in November.

The missing material was reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency in November, but the investigation continues into its whereabouts.

How does it go missing?

Yes, it's finally been found.

Jennifer Deutschmann (INQUISITR) reports:

Officials in Iraq have confirmed that missing radioactive material was found intact near a Zubayr gas station. In November, 2015, the material was reported stolen from a secured bunker near Basra Province. The theft was specifically disturbing, as officials were concerned it was stolen by a terrorist organization.

And Mariano Castillo and Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) report:

"El-Humdelilah."

That's what Iraq's deputy health minister, Dr. Jassim al-Falahi, told CNN on Sunday: "Thank God."

Al-Falahi's sigh of relief was over the discovery of some potentially deadly radioactive material that had been missing for months.

"We found the missing radioactive material inside its case with no damages," he said.

We share the relief.

But we also wonder how it happened?

How it was allowed to be missing for months?

Repeatedly, US President Barack Obama insists we in the US are at risk from the Islamic State.

We must bomb Iraq, Syria and Libya as a result.

But when radioactive material went missing -- back in November -- in Iraq and was assumed to have fallen into the 'wrong hands,' there was no effort made to discover where it was.

Sounds like, yet again, Barack Obama has failed on national security.

According to Barack, the Islamic State is a threat to the United States.

But radioactive material disappears in November and Barack doesn't launch into a serious effort to find it?

Was he waiting to see if they used it for a bomb to attack the US on US soil?

Was he waiting to see if they used it to attack a base in Iraq with US trainers?

What exactly was he waiting for as, for four months, he assumed the Islamic State had radioactive material?

Not a lot of thought comes out of the White House.

Which explains why, for 16 months, the US has bombed Iraq to bring 'peace.' The US Defense Dept claims the following today:

Strikes in Iraq
Fighter aircraft conducted five strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:

-- Near Fallujah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and suppressed an ISIL fighting position.

-- Near Mosul, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Ramadi, a strike struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL staging area.

-- Near Sinjar, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and suppressed an ISIL heavy machine gun position.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.

All of these daily bombings and nothing to show for it.

Mosul, for example, still remains under the control of the Islamic State.

The terrorist group seized the city in June of 2014.

Lacking a functioning government, Iraq's just let it remain under the control of the Islamic State all this time.

Yesterday, Brett McGurk announced on Twitter:

Brett McGurk Verified account ‏@brett_mcgurk 24h24 hours ago

Coalition-trained 71st #Iraq Army BGD issued orders to deploy north, prepare #Mosul offensive. Via @khalid_alobeidi

64 retweets 54 likes

They're going to start preparing for a Mosul offensive?

So the thought of three years under the control of the Islamic State is what frightens them, finally forces them to act?

Or at least to say they're about to act.

Finally.

And after a Sunni politician takes to Facebook. SPUTNIK reports, "The Mosul-born politician pointed out that "the IS has executed nearly 4,000 people in Mosul. The city's residents are in urgent need of being liberated," Usama Nujayfi said in a statement posted on his official Facebook page on Sunday."

4,000 citizens slaughtered while the government of Iraq looked on and took no action.

Saturday's snapshot noted Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi addressed Parliament and we mainly focused on the big news that he told Parliament the Shi'ite militias would be taking part in the liberation of Mosul. We touched on that briefly last night.

This address apparently remains uncovered by most of the western press (see this morning's entry).

But it did take place. Here's Haider's Tweet on it.

It took place and the big news was that the Popular Mobilization Forces (Shi'ite militias) would be taking place in the talked of 'liberation.'

That was the big news out of the address.

It's a controversial move -- opposed by those in Mosul -- and it goes against what Haider had previously promised in public.

Meanwhile, AFP reports, "Iraq deployed reinforcements to a military base in Anbar on Monday for an impending operation against the Islamic State group in the western province, a senior officer said."

From Saturday's snapshot:

In a new development, Loveday Morris and Mustafa Salim (WASHINGTON POST) report:

Sunni tribesmen have attacked Islamic State militants in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, the Iraqi military and local officials said Friday, overrunning and burning one of their headquarters as resentment against the group grows.
After the unrest in two neighborhoods, Issa al-Issawi, the mayor in exile of the city 45 miles west of Baghdad, warned that there would be “mass slaughter” unless the tribesmen received assistance.

The flare-up was the first notable sign of armed opposition to the Islamic State inside the city since the group took control of Fallujah more than two years ago. Ill will against the group has been mounting in recent months amid what the United Nations has described as a growing humanitarian crisis inside the city.

Salam Faraj (AFP) adds that there may have been a more specific inciting incident:

[Local official Issa] Sayir said that the gunfight reflected tensions resulting from increasingly difficult living conditions caused by Fallujah’s isolation by the security forces.
A police lieutenant colonel gave a different account, saying the clashes started after Al-Hisba members accused a woman in Al-Nizaiza market in central Fallujah of misconduct because she had failed to cover her hands with gloves.

This matches with what NBC NEWS was reporting yesterday:

Fighting erupted in the ISIS-stronghold of Fallujah on Friday after the extremist militants attacked a local woman for not covering her hands, according to Iraqi officials.
"The clashes started when tens of Fallujah men stood against ISIS militants who started to beat a woman in a Fallujah market because she was not wearing gloves," said Sabah Karhoot, the chairman of the governing council of Anbar province where the city is located. "Therefore, the men could not stand and do nothing."

So it's good that Haider's sent in forces, right?

Well it would be if he could have done so in a timely manner.

Falluja was attempting to liberate itself at the end of last week.

Because Haider al-Abadi's cowardly government would not provide assistance, that effort appears to have been ended.

That's what both THE WALL STREET JOURNAL and AFP are reporting.

So, as usual, Haider dithered and Iraq's hopes fell apart.

iraq

Saturday, February 20, 2016

The Nation magazine promotes further war on Iraq

Hillary Clinton squeaked by in Nevada.

But I am really not interested in that tonight.

In today's snapshot, C.I. writes:

In other destruction, this crap:

But the fact remains that whoever’s elected this year is nearly guaranteed to inherit the war on ISIS that President Obama launched back in 2014. He or she will be the fifth consecutive US president to preside over some variety of military intervention in Iraq—a dour chapter that’s already continued for at least 25 years, dating back to the Gulf War. (And that’s not even counting the US role in the bloody Iran-Iraq war before that.)
The good news is that Sanders sent some promising signals about his judgment on the last US invasion before it was even launched—in fact, probably even more so than he’s usually credited for. But the bad news is that his statements on the latest iteration of the conflict have been all over the map. In his bumbling calls for a “Muslim coalition” to stop ISIS, he’s shown none of the acumen that so distinguished him over 13 years ago.
Without a plan to resolve the ISIS war responsibly, the US war in Iraq could reverberate through yet another generation. If Sanders is elected, that’ll be a grim asterisk to his “political revolution” indeed.

If that garbage appeared at a military think tank, no one would be surprised.

Instead, it's from jizz in his pants Petey Certo and it's published by THE NATION.

That's what happens when Democrats are in charge of the White House (war), THE NATION goes all wobbly and loses any strong voice at all.

The 'responsibly' is a lie.

It's the lie that continues war every damn time, even when everyone knows it's time to end it, the 'responsibly' qualifier keeps it going.

If you're my husband and you're beating the crap out of me?

I'm going to end that marriage.

Responsibly?

No, immediately.

By the same token, there is no 'win' here.

There is nothing but more destruction.

But THE NATION is a cathouse, a bordello of whores and FPIF is a joke.

Does Phyllis Bennis really find pride being associated with what is now a war mongering outlet that let's just sprouted pubes boys pretend that they have any perspective to offer?

Petey's a little idiot who pulls his pud to Barack Obama and thinks that makes him special or smart.

He's just one more whorish idiot arguing for the continuation of war.

We all suffer when liars claim a crime can be ended "responsibly."

We all suffer as the crime continues while these liars look for their way out -- their 'responsible' way out.

Are we really back to this crap?

And from THE NATION magazine no less?

There is no "responsible" way to end the Iraq War.

There was no "responsible" begin to it.

As C.I. notes, it is a crime.

I love it when she writes that if she's being beaten by her husband, she is just going to end her marriage. She is not going to find a way to try to "responsibly" end it.

She is exactly right.

THE NATION is promoting continued war.

And, thing is, they are smart enough to know that.

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:

Saturday, February 20, 2016. Chaos and violence continue, Haider al-Abadi announces Shi'ite militias will take part in 'liberating' Mosul, Shi'ite militias blow up homes in Ramadi, THE NATION magazine descends further into the cess pool, and much more

Starting with refugees, Jeremy Weber (CHRISTIANITY TODAY) explains:

The numbers -- 1 million refugees entering Europe by the end of 2015 -- surpassed comprehension long ago. The question is whether they have now also surpassed compassion.

The world now has more displaced people than during World War II. Beyond Europe, another 2.5 million refugees are in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, while 4.5 million people remain displaced within Syria and Iraq, where ISIS is most active.

This week, a very small number of refugees returned home to Iraq. Tuomas Forsell (REUTERS) reports, "Thousands of Iraqi refugees who arrived in Finland last year have decided to cancel their asylum applications and to return home voluntarily, citing family issues and disappointment with life in the frosty Nordic country." WORLD BULLETIN adds that they will be returning to Iraq in weekly waves of 100 until all wanting to leave have returned.

‏@M_Seloom

العراقيين الذين هاجروا من #العراق الى أوربا وأمريكا، السبب:

14 retweets 14 likes

In Muhanad Seloom's Tweet above, he's presented a chart on Iraq refugees explaining 61% left Iraq for Europe to escape from death, 2% were looking for jobs, 31% were seeking a better life and 6% chose another reason than the three previous ones.

Earlier this month, Maeve McClenaghan (THE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM) reported

Thousands of young people who sought refuge in Britain as unaccompanied child asylum seekers have since been deported to war torn countries that are in part controlled by Islamic State, the Taliban or other repressive regimes, a Home Office minister has admitted.
James Brokenshire said that over the past nine years 2,748 young people – many of whom had spent formative years in the UK, forging friendships and going to school – had been returned to the likes of Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Syria.

The bulk – some 2,018 – have concerned Afghanistan, but an investigation has found that 60 young people have also been deported to Iraq since 2014, the year so-called Islamic State began its brutal regime in swathes of the country.

Of course, the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, has welcomed refugees but with the conditional note that when the war in Iraq and Syria is over, the refugees should return home. That shows many things -- some would say poor manners, for example -- including a belief that the Iraq War will end -- hasn't so far.

And the financial cost is mounting:

The ongoing Iraq War has other costs as well -- such as creating create more refugees daily.

For example . . .

The Arabic explains that, in full of the Iraqi military, Shi'ite militias are blowing up homes in Ramadi.

Sorry, they're blowing homes in 'liberated' Ramadi.

IRAQI SPRING MC notes the bombings and states they're taking place with the cooperation of the Iraqi army.

This reality wasn't conveyed on Wednesday when the top US commander in Iraq, Col Steve Warren, held a press conference, "Moving on to the operational update. In Ramadi, the removal of IEDs and other hazards continues. Police and security forces are going back through the city to begin making it safe for civilians to return."

Blowing up houses is "making it safe for civilians to return"?

This is what happened in Tikrit following 'liberation,' it's what's happening in 'liberated' Ramadi so Muhanad Seloom is right to wonder: "what Would happen to Mosul?"

Alsumaria reports that the Governor of Nineveh Province, Atheel al-Nujaifi states that the Popular Mobilization Forces will not be welcome in Mosul. The Popular Mobilization Forces is a fancy name for the Shi'ite militias that Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has folded into the Iraqi forces. al-Nujaifi notes that not only is this his stance but that it is also what al-Abadi has been stating.

Has been saying.

That changed today.

ALL IRAQ NEWS reports Haider appeared before the Parliament today and announced that the Popular Mobilization Forces would be part of the forces sent in to liberate or 'liberate' Mosul.

Haider further stated that he was under no pressure from the US government to speed up the process of liberating or 'liberating' Mosul.

Mosul, for those who've forgotten, was seized by the Islamic State in June of 2014 -- nearly two years ago. A functioning government would have attempted to rescue the citizens of Mosul long ago.

Haider also declared to Parliament today that no US troops would be present for the liberation of Mosul . . .

except as trainers and advisors.

It's interesting, though.

With Tikrit, the US refused to provide any support at all until certain militias -- heavily linked to Tehran -- were removed from the area.

This led other Shi'ite militias to walk as well.

So now the US government is okay with providing support to these groups?

Wednesday, in his press briefing, Col Steve Warren had this exchange with MILITARY TIMES' Andrew Tilghman.

Q: Yes, as you move your focus over towards the Tigris River and thinking about Mosul, that's an area we've associated more with the -- the militia organizations.

I'm wondering, has anything really changed since, for example, Tikrit last year in terms of your plans for working with those groups or not with those groups? Is there any discussion of maybe some of those militia groups taking part in the training? Is there any -- is there any change in the policy of not wanting to work with them at all and sort of differentiating between the two types of militias that you will and you won't work with?

COL. WARREN: Well, so, I mean, our focus is on the Iraqi security forces, right? I mean, that's who we work with. We work with the Iraqi security forces. Now, there are pieces of the PMF, for example, you know, the Sunni tribal fighters who enroll in the popular mobilization force program who, of course, we're going to work with.

So, but really, all of it's channeled and funneled and focused through the ministry of defense, right? I mean, the end question is whoever is working directly under the control of the ministry of defense, that's who we'll support. So I think that's kind of been our policy all along. That will continue to be our policy.

Meanwhile, there's Falluja.

Said to have been controlled by the Islamic State for over two years now and the civilians there have been 'assisted' by the government shelling their homes.

Oh, yes, in September of 2014, Haider announced that these bombings -- War Crimes -- would cease. But they never did.

In a new development, Loveday Morris and Mustafa Salim (WASHINGTON POST) report:

Sunni tribesmen have attacked Islamic State militants in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, the Iraqi military and local officials said Friday, overrunning and burning one of their headquarters as resentment against the group grows.
After the unrest in two neighborhoods, Issa al-Issawi, the mayor in exile of the city 45 miles west of Baghdad, warned that there would be “mass slaughter” unless the tribesmen received assistance.

The flare-up was the first notable sign of armed opposition to the Islamic State inside the city since the group took control of Fallujah more than two years ago. Ill will against the group has been mounting in recent months amid what the United Nations has described as a growing humanitarian crisis inside the city.

Salam Faraj (AFP) adds that there may have been a more specific inciting incident:

[Local official Issa] Sayir said that the gunfight reflected tensions resulting from increasingly difficult living conditions caused by Fallujah’s isolation by the security forces.
A police lieutenant colonel gave a different account, saying the clashes started after Al-Hisba members accused a woman in Al-Nizaiza market in central Fallujah of misconduct because she had failed to cover her hands with gloves.

This matches with what NBC NEWS was reporting yesterday:

Thursday, Lt Gen Charles Q Brown Jr. hosted a press conference from Qatar. He declared, "Additionally, as you heard yesterday during the press briefing by Colonel Warren, we continue to support ground operations. The recent successes of the Iraqi security forces in clearing Ramadi comes after months of supporting ground forces with close air support. Ramadi's not the only success, though. Airstrikes have been vital in partner force operations to take back Sinjar in northern Iraq and Hasakah and Tishrin Dam in Syria."

Of course, Ramadi's not a success -- not with the Iraq military watching as the Popular Mobilization Forces go around blowing up homes.

But these bombings that Brown's so proud of have not accomplished anything.

Yet, they continue -- and they continue to rip apart an inhabited country that someday, somehow is going to have to try to rebuild.

Today, the US Defense Dept announced/bragged/claimed:

Airstrikes in Iraq

Fighter, attack, ground-attack, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 16 airstrikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:

-- Near Baghdadi, a strike destroyed an ISIL weapons cache and three ISIL rocket systems.

-- Near Huwayjah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Albu Hayat, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

-- Near Fallujah, a strike destroyed an ISIL anti-air artillery piece.

-- Near Habbaniyah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

-- Near Hit, a strike destroyed an ISIL tunnel entrance.

-- Near Mosul, four strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed four ISIL fighting positions, four ISIL assembly areas, an ISIL petroleum site, and two ISIL command and control nodes.

-- Near Qayyarah, a strike destroyed four ISIL fighting positions.

-- Near Ramadi, three strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL anti-air artillery piece, an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL vehicle bomb making facility, five ISIL staging areas, and an ISIL bed-down location.

-- Near Tal Afar, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL tunnel system.

In some of today's other violence, Alsumaria reports that 1 police officer was shot dead outside of Baghdad, 1 corpse was discovered dumped to the east of Baquba, a roadside bombing near Baghdad killed 1 person and left three more injured, and 1 corpse was discovered dumped in Baghdad.

In other destruction, this crap:

But the fact remains that whoever’s elected this year is nearly guaranteed to inherit the war on ISIS that President Obama launched back in 2014. He or she will be the fifth consecutive US president to preside over some variety of military intervention in Iraq—a dour chapter that’s already continued for at least 25 years, dating back to the Gulf War. (And that’s not even counting the US role in the bloody Iran-Iraq war before that.)
The good news is that Sanders sent some promising signals about his judgment on the last US invasion before it was even launched—in fact, probably even more so than he’s usually credited for. But the bad news is that his statements on the latest iteration of the conflict have been all over the map. In his bumbling calls for a “Muslim coalition” to stop ISIS, he’s shown none of the acumen that so distinguished him over 13 years ago.
Without a plan to resolve the ISIS war responsibly, the US war in Iraq could reverberate through yet another generation. If Sanders is elected, that’ll be a grim asterisk to his “political revolution” indeed.

If that garbage appeared at a military think tank, no one would be surprised.

Instead, it's from jizz in his pants Petey Certo and it's published by THE NATION.

That's what happens when Democrats are in charge of the White House (war), THE NATION goes all wobbly and loses any strong voice at all.

The 'responsibly' is a lie.

It's the lie that continues war every damn time, even when everyone knows it's time to end it, the 'responsibly' qualifier keeps it going.

If you're my husband and you're beating the crap out of me?

I'm going to end that marriage.

Responsibly?

No, immediately.

By the same token, there is no 'win' here.

There is nothing but more destruction.

But THE NATION is a cathouse, a bordello of whores and FPIF is a joke.

Does Phyllis Bennis really find pride being associated with what is now a war mongering outlet that let's just sprouted pubes boys pretend that they have any perspective to offer?

Petey's a little idiot who pulls his pud to Barack Obama and thinks that makes him special or smart.

He's just one more whorish idiot arguing for the continuation of war.

We all suffer when liars claim a crime can be ended "responsibly."

We all suffer as the crime continues while these liars look for their way out -- their 'responsible' way out.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Desperate Clinton

ABC NEWS reports:

As the pressure builds ahead of the next contest in the primary fight, ABC News recently obtained an audio recording of what sounds like intensive message polling conducted on Clinton's behalf to a caller in the northern part of the state.

In the recording, provided to ABC News by the Sanders campaign, a woman's voice asks a man on the other end for, among other things, his impression of both talking points that are favorable to Clinton as well as a series of attack lines against the Vermont senator.

The Sanders campaign said the recording and that type of polling are evidence that the Clinton campaign is nervous about a state they once thought they had locked up.

"I am not surprised at all that they are testing negative lines of attack," Tad Devine, a strategist with the Sanders campaign told ABC News in response to the audio recording.

She is so desperate she is going to go negative.

That is all she has to offer.

She is at risk of losing yet again.

She knows it.

So she is willing to do anything.

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:

Thursday, February 18, 2016. Chaos and violence continue, US House Rep Brad Sherman wants to kill some Iraqi civilians, the Iraqi government prepares to carry out more death sentences and much more.

Today, the US Defense Dept announced/boasted/claimed:

Strikes in Iraq
Fighter, ground-attack, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 12 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:
-- Near Albu Hayat, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed nine ISIL rocket rails.
-- Near Fallujah, one strike destroyed an inoperable piece of partner nation equipment, at the request of the Iraqi government, in order to prevent its capture by ISIL forces.
-- Near Makhmur, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL assembly area.
-- Near Mosul, one strike produced inconclusive results.
-- Near Qayyarah, one strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle-borne bomb.
-- Near Ramadi, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed three ISIL fighting positions and an ISIL recoilless rifle.
-- Near Sinjar, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions and an ISIL light machine gun.
-- Near Sultan Abdallah, two strikes destroyed an ISIL heavy machine gun and an ISIL vehicle and suppressed an ISIL mortar position.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.

These bombings are supposed to end the Islamic State in Iraq. No one's ever supposed to think that through or examine it too closely because the 'logic' falls apart quickly.

And once upon a time, US President Barack Obama grasped that.

He knew bombings were not going to defeat the Islamic State.

He ordered bombings to start in August of 2014. Shortly after, August 11, 2014, he made some remarks while vacationing on Martha's Vineyard.

US President Barack Obama: But as I said when I authorized these operations, there is no American military solution to the larger crisis in Iraq. The only lasting solution is for Iraqis to come together and form an inclusive government -- one that represents the legitimate interests of all Iraqis, and one that can unify the country’s fight against ISIL.
Today, Iraq took a promising step forward in this critical effort. Last month, the Iraqi people named a new President. Today, President Masum named a new Prime Minister designate, Dr. Haider al-Abadi. Under the Iraqi constitution, this is an important step towards forming a new government that can unite Iraq’s different communities.

Where did his common sense go?

The US government has done nothing to address the political crises.

And now some even crazier 'plans' are floated. As we noted at Third in "Editorial: Congress has a plan for Mosul," US House Rep Brad Sherman's become all about the killing:

Mosul was seized by the Islamic State in June 2014.

The Iraqi government has been unable/unwilling to liberate it.

So all this time later, Mosul remains in the hands of the Islamic State.

But rest assured, Brad Sherman is on the job.

Last Wednesday, during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Sherman felt the need to pontificate to Barack Obama's Special Envoy Brett McGurk.

About?

Mosul.

Brad's bothered, you understand, by the electricity.

Why, he wanted to know, was the Iraqi government supplying civilians in Mosul with electricity?

Brad would just cut it off.

They've been occupied for almost two years.

Could be for two more years more as far as anyone knows.

But it don't bother Brad.

He also didn't understand why more bombs were not being dropped by the US and why, specifically, Mosul wasn't being bombed.

"Civilians!" the world collectively screams back.

Oh, Brad didn't forget about them.

He just doesn't give a damn about them.

Why when France was occupied, he insisted, the allies killed at least 90,000 civilians while they bombed.

Brad Sherman is deeply disturbed.

Some argue the US government has done nothing at all -- or at least nothing to brag of. Earlier this week, at ALGEMEINER, Joseph Puder argued:

The Obama administration has provided the Iraqi army with military hardware worth billions of dollars. Iraq’s main power brokers are Iraqi Shiite militias, who are loyal to Iran. This raises the question as to why American taxpayers should provide an ally of Iran, and a potential enemy of the US, with such enormous aid.
The Iraqi army’s shameful performance against the Islamic State (ISIS) and its abandonment of vast territory to ISIS, along with the squandering of huge quantities of US supplied arms, brings into question the suitability of the Iraqi army to take on ISIS. The Iraqi-Shiite militias may very well turn against the US in the not-too-distant future. Moreover, some Shiite militias have been shown to be as brutal and blood-thirsty as ISIS.

For those who missed this week's news, the Iraqi forces who are commanded by Baghdad will be thinning out. Seems the economic crisis or 'crisis' will mean funding will be cut so those who are about to face life without payment will be leaving.

By contrast, as the central government of Baghdad has repeatedly withheld the federal monies from the KRG, the Peshmerga have had to fight without pay.

And most have done it.

Because this isn't Iraqis being sent to Jordan or Kuwait to fight there.

This is about Iraqis taking back their own country.

Or that's how the Peshmerga tended to see it.

It was a battle to save the country.

And, payment or no payment, the Peshmerga were in.

Sadly, the same can't be said for Baghdad's forces.

And Baghdad's forces include the militias who are out of control and who are noted in the following Tweet:

In other news, the Iraqi government itself cannot stop killing.

China Xinhua News Verified account ‏@XHNews 14h14 hours ago

#Iraq court sentences 40 people to death for killing of soldiers (AFP pic) http://xhne.ws/F61Jy

44 retweets 40 likes

REUTERS notes that "death sentences in Iraq are often handed down after very brief trials in which defendants are poorly represented, seldom allowed to give evidence and are often tortured into making confessions that are then used against them."

Amnesty International issued the following today:

Iraq: Shocking surge in 2016 death sentences tops 90 as ‘terror’ trial closes

The 40 death sentences handed down today in Iraq after a fundamentally flawed mass trial shows a reckless disregard for justice and human life, said Amnesty International, and brings the total sentenced in 2016 close to 100.
Iraq’s courts have imposed at least 52 death sentences since Jan. 1, 2016. Today a further 40 individuals were sentenced to death as the verdict of a high-profile anti-terror trial is delivered in Baghdad.
“For Iraqi courts to hand down 92 death sentences in just six weeks is a grim indicator of the current state of justice in the country,” said James Lynch, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director.
“The vast majority of the trials have been grossly unfair, with many of the defendants claiming to have been tortured into ‘confessing’ the crimes. These allegations must be urgently investigated and a re-trial that meets international fair trial standard should be ordered.”
Today’s trial involved 47 individuals accused of involvement in the Speicher massacre, in which at least 1,700 military cadets from Speicher Military camp, near Tikrit, were brutally killed by militants from the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS) in June 2014.
Iraq’s Federal Judicial Authority confirmed that 40 people were sentenced to death under the 2005 anti-terrorism law and seven were released due to lack of evidence.
More than 600 arrest warrants were issued by the Iraqi authorities in connection with the Speicher massacre. The Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) went on to announce that it would consolidate all cases relating to the Speicher crimes into one case – opening the door to mass trials. In July 2014, 24 men were sentenced to death by hanging, under the 2005 Anti-Terrorism Law in connection with the massacre.
“These mass, expedited trials raise serious questions about whether the Iraqi authorities really want to uncover the truth behind these abhorrent attacks, or whether they simply want to create the illusion that justice has been done. Once again we are seeing basic human rights trampled upon as the authorities circumvent fair trials in the name of national security,” said Lynch. Amnesty International is calling on the Iraqi authorities to halt the ratification of death sentences and immediately establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.
Background
Before a death sentence can be carried out, the President of Iraq must ratify it. Former President Jalal Talabani refused to ratify any death sentences leading to a backlog of more than 600 cases.
Last year, the new President Fuad Ma’sum came under significant pressure from MPs and the public to ratify death sentences, particularly following the Speicher massacre. A Special Committee was set up in the Presidency Office to manage the backlog. In July 2015, Amnesty International called on the Iraqi President to to halt the ratification of death sentences that would pave the way for executions. Many of those sentenced to death have been subject to grossly unfair trials.

iraq

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