Michelle Tan (Army Times) explains these troops -- what these troops will be teaching, "Priorities for now include urban combat techniques and the ability to move, shoot and communicate at the battalion level, [Maj Gen Paul] Funk said. These priorities are in line with what Iraqi leaders are seeking, he said."
It's really easy for Max Blumenthal to pile onto a dead man, especially one [who] followed orders. But cowards like Max lack the ability and the honesty to call out the people who issue the orders.
Max will attack a dead veteran but he won't call out beloved leader Barack. He's just another temple whore in The Cult of St. Barack.
Those of us who believe in peace -- an apparently small number in the United States -- don't shy from calling out those at the top who make the policy and issue the orders.
And the military the US will be training is largely Shi'ite.
Peshmerga do not need US training. (Peshmerga are a Kurdish force.) And the US government still can't decide whether or not to assist the Sahwa (Sunni forces). Also in limbo is the US government's backed plan for a national force made up of various sects.
So it's going to be like 2007 and 2008 all over again.
The US government's going to be insisting that the point is to restore order but by backing only one component -- what the US government will once again be taking part in will be ethnic cleansing.
If you're missing that reality, you especially need to read Ahmed Rasheed and Ned Parker's latest report for Reuters:
As Shi'ite forces push into territories held by Islamic State, many Sunnis have fled for fear of both the Shi’ite-led government and the Sunni jihadists.
Shi'ite leaders insist Islamic State must never be allowed to strike them again, nor return to areas now abandoned.
Shi'ite groups now decide who can stay in a community and who should leave; whose houses should be destroyed and whose can stand.
In one case, a powerful Shi’ite paramilitary organization has started redrawing the geography of central Iraq, building a road between Shi’ite parts of Diyala province and Samarra, a Sunni city that is home to a Shi’ite shrine.
Alice Fordham (NPR's Morning Edition -- link is text and audio) speaks with US troops in Iraq here
.
The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley, Antiwar.com, Black Agenda Report and The NewsHour -- updated:
There will be an Iraq snapshot tonight. Then we'll be doing year in content. For more on that, see Ruth's "The state of radio." The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
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