Today, the US Defense Dept announced:
Airstrikes
in Iraq
Bomber, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted
12 airstrikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:
-- Near Albu Hayat, a strike struck an ISIL tactical
unit.
-- Near Fallujah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical
unit and destroyed an ISIL rocket rail and two ISIL defensive fighting
positions.
-- Near Habbaniyah, a strike destroyed an ISIL
defensive fighting position.
-- Near Mosul, a strike denied ISIL access to
terrain.
-- Near Qayyarah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical
unit and wounded an ISIL fighter.
-- Near Ramadi, five strikes struck an ISIL tactical
unit and destroyed an ISIL indirect fire site, two ISIL tactical vehicles, an
ISIL recoilless rifle, an ISIL vehicle, three ISIL buildings, three ISIL
anti-air artillery sites, an ISIL tunnel system, and two ISIL weapons caches.
-- Near Sinjar, two strikes struck two ISIL tactical
units and destroyed an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL vehicle.
I'm not doing a snapshot tonight. We finally got done with Third.
The plan had been to open with an excerpt from a radio program -- which we'll do in tomorrow's snapshot.
For now, we'll note the strikes and answer a question from the e-mails.
What story do I wish we'd included this month (November for a few hours more) that I didn't have time for (or make time for)?
"Turkish faith movement secretly funded 200 trips for lawmakers and staff" which was called "Turkish Sect Funded Congress Travel" when it ran on the front page of USA TODAY WEEKEND's October 30 - November 1st edition. The reporters are Paul Singer and Paulina Firozi.
Ali Mamouri (AL MONITOR) has a piece which concludes:
The Iraqi government should focus its efforts on a comprehensive and realistic national reconciliation in which the various Iraqi parties can agree on a single national decision. This reconciliation should include confronting and settling comprehensive details about the future of the liberated areas or the disputed areas to prevent bitter conflicts in the future.
In a smarter world, the bulk of pieces written would be calling for that.
There's no military answer.
The military (and the police) can help strip away the Islamic State but only after the conditions that created support (or tolerance) for it are addressed.
"Why caps?" wondered Rhonda in an e-mail.
Because we're basically lazy.
I'm fine with italics -- and fine if they're forgotten. Rebecca usually uses does a title like this: 'klute.'
Others get tired of italics.
So, back in the 60s, rock journalism used to do titles of songs in quotes and titles of albums in all caps.
Most of us have moved towards that.
At Third, it's what we're doing.
Kat does it at her site.
And she does reviews here and uses it here.
I hadn't planned to do it here until it hit me that her reviews here would be using caps for titles. So to be consistent, I'm moving towards that as well.
It's interesting because since we started doing it, I've seen two other sites toy with it.
(Two other non-community sites. One was a music piece at CounterPunch.)
