The Common Ills: Hejira

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Hejira

The Islamic State is on the run! Haider al-Abadi's military is winning!

I'm sure there's another lie in there that I'm forgetting.

But the point is, Ramadi has fallen.

Hamdi Alkhshali and Catherine E. Shoichet (CNN) report, "The key Iraqi city of Ramadi fell to ISIS on Sunday after government security forces pulled out of a military base on the west side of the city, the mayor and a high-ranking security official said." Al Jazeera adds, "Iraqi special forces soldiers were reported to be fleeing the city on Sunday as the armed group succeeded in breaching their last holdout."

Haider al-Abadi's force fled.

Again.

This despite last month's claims by Haider that those days were over, that the Iraqi military was now a success because the soldiers were no longer fleeing.

Yes, that's how low the bar is in Iraq.

If soldiers don't flee, the Iraqi military is a success.

And Haider keeps the bar that low by threatening and bullying the press, insisting that they are harming the military when they report the realities about the military.

The only one doing harm is Haider who thinks lying to the Iraqi people passes for protecting them.

Since August, US President Barack Obama has had the US Air Force doing combat missions in Iraq -- that's what war planes bombing Iraq are -- combat missions.

And what's the point?

Not only has no time been spent on reaching a "political solution," but the military nonsense hasn't seen the Islamic State fleeing Iraq.

And now Ramdi's fallen.

The Iraqi military can't get their s**t together enough to defend their country.

There is no progress.

And all the lies from Haider and the White House are revealed in a single day as lies.

"Propaganda" is the term that's been applied to the Islamic State.

But the US government has executed its own propaganda efforts.

To little success.

Mitchell Prothero (McClatcy Newspapers) calls the loss of Ramadi "the worst defeat for the Iraqi government since the fall of Mosul nearly a year ago." And Prothero reminds:

In a replay of last year’s military debacle, elite units abandoned their U.S.-provided equipment to Islamic State fighters and fled the area, leaving several hundred soldiers surrounded in the last government-held enclave in the city.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/05/17/266937/islamic-state-routs-last-elite.html#storylink=cpy

And now with Ramadi fallen?

Justin Fishel (ABC News) notes, "As a result of the ISIS advance, Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has authorized Iranian Shiite militias, known as the Popular Mobilization Force, to enter the Sunni-dominated Anbar province and assist Iraq's security forces and local tribal fighters."

Yeah, that's only going to make things worse.

Margaret Griffis (Antiwar.com) counts 138 violent deaths across Iraq today.

I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name

The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4495.

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