The Common Ills: Barack's continued failure on Iraq

Though he's failed to expand efforts to address it, US President Barack Obama has insisted for months that Iraq needs political solutions, not military ones.

He's done nothing on that front. But he has bombed repeatedly in the last months.

Big surprise a 'plan' that begins and ends with bombing accomplishes not one damn thing.

If you're not getting how bad things are in Iraq, how in need of political solutions the country is, note that All Iraq News reports the Council of Ministers met today and did not -- did not -- address the 2014 budget.

Iraq has still not passed a 2014 budget.

The 2015 calendar year starts January 1st, yes. The 2015 fiscal year?

It started October 1st.

Yet the Council of Ministers, in place for over a month now, just like the previous Council of Ministers they replaced, are unable to pass a budget that should have passed no later than September 30, 2013.

CBS News reports, "President Obama met military commanders from more than 20 countries on Tuesday to discuss how to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)."

And that will provide political solutions how?

It won't.

The 'plan' is a failure revealing that the man is a failure.

He has no answers and he's just going to keep making war.

Until he stops, he's ensuring that this last act in the final years of his presidency will be used as a metaphor for his entire eight years -- someone who hesitated, refused to make decisions, then threw force at the issue when he had no answers and then refused to modify his actions when the proof of the failure was there for everyone to see.

BBC reports:

Turkish F-16 and F-4 warplanes have bombed Kurdish PKK rebel targets near the Iraqi border, as their ceasefire comes under increasing strain.

The air strikes on Daglica were in response to PKK shelling of a military outpost, the armed forces said.

You can do Turkey a favor and pretend this is somehow 'Islamic State' related.

It's not.

But you can play dumb. AFP does.

This is part of the non-stop violence that began in the 80s between the PKK (Kurdish group that uses violence) and the Turkish government. At the heart of it all, the PKK feels the Kurds are discriminated against in Turkey -- and they are.

During Nouri al-Maliki's first term as prime minister of Iraq, Turkey began bombing northern Iraq.

They did so with the help of the US government which, among other things, provided 'intelligence.'

For Iraq it wasn't a big deal at first. By the time Nouri was in his second term, it was. Iraqis -- not just in the north where the bombings took place -- were outraged by the attacks on their sovereignty and by the civilians being killed in these bombings.

Maybe AFP and others have to lie today because they don't want you to know that Barack's bombings today will soon meet the same fate with Iraqi citizens calling out their 'leaders' who allow the country to be bombed and innocents to be killed.

Amnesty International has a new report:

Shi’a militias, supported and armed by the government of Iraq, have abducted and killed scores of Sunni civilians in recent months and enjoy total impunity for these war crimes, said Amnesty International in a new briefing published today.

Absolute Impunity: Militia Rule in Iraq provides harrowing details of sectarian attacks carried out by increasingly powerful Shi’a militias in Baghdad, Samarra and Kirkuk, apparently in revenge for attacks by the armed group that calls itself the Islamic State (IS). Scores of unidentified bodies have been discovered across the country handcuffed and with gunshot wounds to the head, indicating a pattern of deliberate execution-style killings.

“By granting its blessing to militias who routinely commit such abhorrent abuses, the Iraqi government is sanctioning war crimes and fuelling a dangerous cycle of sectarian violence that is tearing the country apart. Iraqi government support for militia rule must end now,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Adviser.

The fate of many of those abducted by Shi'a militias weeks and months ago remains unknown. Some captives were killed even after their families had paid ransoms of $80,000 and more to secure their release.

Salem, a 40-year-old businessman and father of nine from Baghdad was abducted in July. Two weeks after his family had paid the kidnappers a $60,000 ransom, his body was found in Baghdad’s morgue; with his head crushed and his hands still cuffed together.

The following community sites -- plus the Guardian, The Diane Rehm Show, Susan's On the Edge and Antiwar.com -- updated: