The US military denies any special operations forces involvement in combat on 11 September or in three other other incidents listed by the peshmerga. Yet in interviews with the Guardian, a dozen Kurdish fighters and commanders said that US special forces troops have been participating in operations against Isis for months.
[. . .]
Karwan Hama Tata, a peshmerga volunteer, showed a Guardian reporter a video which appeared to show two Americans in the midst of the battle accompanied by three peshmerga fighters. He said: “They fight and they even fight ahead of the peshmerga. They won’t allow anyone to take photos of them, but they take photos of everyone.”
The American special forces arrived in Kirkuk earlier this year to train, advise and support peshmerga forces fighting Isis. According to a Kurdish peshmerga commander, about 30 American special forces operatives set up an operations room in the city.
A senior peshmerga commander, who did not wish to be named, said: “In February, for the first time, four American snipers came to south Kirkuk because we had lost several peshmerga to the Isis snipers.
Of course, Special Ops are engaged in combat.
And that's not to say no one should pay attention.
But if people had paid attention, during the drawdown sold by the bulk of the media as a "withdrawal," Ted Koppel was reporting on this reality on both NBC and NPR.
And we noted it here repeatedly.
Over and over.
So the 'shock' value has worn a little old to those of us who paid attention while it doesn't matter -- and never will -- to those who see Barack Obama as their personal lord and savior.
The Cult of St. Barack will repeatedly ignore reality while pretending to care about Iraq by bringing up the tired topic of Bully Boy Bush.
January 2009 is when Bully Boy thankfully left the White House for good.
Ignoring all that followed -- including Barack's overturning of the 2010 election results in Iraq through the use of The Erbil Agreement -- does not lead to honesty.
The hypocrisy and dishonesty was on full display in the week after Master Sgt Joshua Wheeler died as the prepared letters -- full of the same dishonest talking points -- were all over the country with the war over, and Barack pulling all soldiers out of Iraq and blah blah blah.
Reality will not impact The Cult of St. Barack -- they are resistant to reality.
At this point, they'd have to face their own whorish ways and admit that they willfully lied to themselves and others. That's not happening.
They are like the 28% or so that clung to Bully Boy Bush right up to his last days occupying the White House.
No truths will ever invade their fan boy brains.
Today, the United Nations published their woeful undercounting of the dead and injured for the month of November:
-
#Iraq:UN casualty figures Nov 2015: 888 Iraqis killed; 1,237 injured in acts of terrorism, violence & armed conflict
UNAMI
The UN News Centre notes:
Warning of a further “dramatic” worsening of the humanitarian situation in Iraq, a senior United Nations relief official today urged increased international support to assist millions in need and to rebuild areas retaken from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) so people can return to their homes “voluntarily and safely.”
“The human cost of the crisis is devastating. We are extremely worried that all indicators point to a dramatically worsening situation in the months ahead,” said the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Kyung-wha Kang in a news release issued by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
According to the news release, Ms. Kang visited Baghdad and Erbil to discuss the humanitarian crisis, where she spoke with women “who had lost virtually everything.” She is currently on a visit to the region, which will include stops in Jordan and Turkey before wrapping up on Sunday, 6 December.
Ms. Kang stressed that responding to the basic needs of these people will require increased capacity, as well as improved access and security is of utmost importance, adding that insecurity “puts the whole aid operation in Iraq at risk.”
She's talking around the reality that the 'liberated' areas do not translate into "welcome home" as 'liberators' run around burning homes, looting and more.
Let's tour a few headlines from the links on the side.
Really?
Everything?
Because what stands out is how the Guardian is attempting to sell war.
Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons?
Maybe he got them from Saddam Hussein!
The press lies and then they lie again.
No where in the over long "everything" will you find how the West, led by Bully Boy Bush has been attempting to remove Assad for over a decade now.
The whoring never ends at the Guardian -- which remember never covered the Downing Street Memos (but did cover for Labour's crimes) -- which is why you have to wait until near the end of the long, long article for a brief acknowledgment that the bombs dropped can kill civilians -- but, the Guardian rushes in to assure you, it's the Russian "dumb" bombs.
It's all such garbage.
As is NPR's Morning Edition 'report.'
Why hasn't Rand Paul inherited his father's success?
Assuming that a political constituency could be passed from parent to child to begin with, if you're going to cover that story today, shouldn't you cover the press?
Specifically, CNN's Elise Labott cooperating with the State Dept to make Hillary look better this year and to tear Rand Paul apart?
The e-mails GAWKER ran made that very clear.
There is no denial and it's just one in a series of moves that Elise has made which should get her fired. She has compromised the entire network's image.
She should be fired immediately.
And if NPR's truly wanting to ask questions about Rand Paul's popularity, it's incumbent upon them to report on the e-mails and Tweets.
Then we have this:
So that's all it takes? A press release?
The government issues a press release and the ACLU and CCR are ecstatic.
Because governments never lie, right?
Oops, CCR's Michael Ratner has a book on the US targeting Cuba that's built around the premise of government lying.
Ann ran the press release in "Government announcement" but she had the good sense to add:
What do you think?
I'd love to believe a change has come but I'm just not that naive.
Apparently, civil liberty watchdogs like the ACLU and CCR are that naive.
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