Dion Nissenbaum and Ghassan Adnan (WALL ST. JOURNAL) report some left the Mosul military base:
About 10 Turkish military vehicles left the camp early Monday, Turkish and Iraqi officials said, and they are moving to another base in northern Iraq. While Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the move was meant to address Baghdad’s concerns, he added that Ankara had no plans to leave the disputed base.
It did little to assuage Iraqi officials who see Ankara’s presence as an illegal incursion. “Redeployment is not withdrawal,” said Iskander Witwit, a member of Iraq’s parliament who sits on the defense and security committee.
The move comes only after Shi'ite cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr declared that his forces/followers would be willing to protect Iraq by taking on the Turkish forces.
And if you're looking to award credit for the small move on Turkey's part, it's to Moqtada, not the inept White House which had Vice President Joe Biden joshing and cajoling the Turkish government with empty words.
But then the US government has never provided any leadership on Iraq other than leading into an illegal war and leading on how to continue it forever.
(Or are we supposed to forget what today is the anniversary of?)
(The fake out, for those who've forgotten.)
Instead of leading, the US government has behaved shamefully and criminally.
Ned Parker (REUTERS) has a major report on abuses in Iraq carried out by Shi'ite militias and officials and the US government's long role in concealing that abuse and looking the other way:
The documents show how Washington, seeking to defeat Sunni jihadists and stabilise Iraq, has consistently overlooked excesses by Shi’ite militias sponsored by the Iraqi government. The administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama have both worked with Badr and its powerful leader, Hadi al-Amiri, whom many Sunnis continue to accuse of human rights abuses.
Washington’s policy of expediency has achieved some of its short-term aims. But in allowing the Shi’ite militias to run amok against their Sunni foes, Washington has fueled the Shia-Sunni sectarian divide that is tearing Iraq apart.
The decade-old U.S. investigation of the secret prison implicates officials and political groups in a wave of sectarian killings that helped ignite a civil war. It also draws worrying parallels to the U.S. government’s muted response today to alleged abuses committed in the name of fighting Islamic State.
Those accused of running the secret prison or of helping cover up its existence include the current head of the Iraqi judiciary, Midhat Mahmoud, Transport Minister, Bayan Jabr, and a long revered Badr commander popularly referred to as Engineer Ahmed.
I would argue that they've done more than overlook, they've rewarded these terrorists.
And they continue to.
There is no political solution in Iraq because the US government doesn't demand it.
Oh, sure, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter will lie to Congress (we noted that two Fridays ago, remember?) but lying's all they offer.
And they'll continue bombing even though it's achieved nothing.
Yesterday, the Defense Dept announced:
Strikes in Iraq
Bomber and fighter aircraft conducted 13 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:
-- Near Huwayjah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL mortar position.
-- Near Kisik, three strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed three vehicle bombs, two ISIL improvised bombs, five ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL heavy machine gun, and an ISIL light machine gun.
-- Near Mosul, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL mortar tube.
-- Near Ramadi, three strikes struck three ISIL staging areas, denied ISIL access to terrain, and destroyed an ISIL bed down location, two ISIL staging areas, and an ISIL command and control node.
-- Near Sinjar, three strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed four ISIL fighting positions and two light machine guns.
-- Near Tikrit, a strike destroyed two ISIL oil tanks.
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 a 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.
Last night, Wally and Cedric updated:
Cranky Clinton between the sheets
7 hours ago
And new content (finally) posted at Third:
- Truest statement of the week
- A note to our readers
- Editorial: How the Iraq War continues
- TV: Punishing the viewer
- Gas and a giggle
- Actresses and classic films (Ava and C.I.)
- Diane Keaton's Classic Film Canon
- Faye Dunaway's Classic Film Canon
- The years have not been kind
- This edition's playlist
- John Kirby's war on women
- Wave of protests brings anti-war mood onto the str...
- Isakson Applauds Committee Passage of Legislation ...
- Highlights
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
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