The Common Ills: Griffis misses the point again

Wednesday, February 03, 2016

Griffis misses the point again

We stopped highlighting Margaret Griffis (ANTIWAR.COM) due to two chief problems -- she presented as fact that every US air strike only killed members of the Islamic State -- a lie -- and that it turned out her daily violence was including other days violence that she had only just stumbled upon.

Every now and then, an e-mail comes in insisting that for some show of mythical solidarity, I must highlight Griffis.

No, I have no obligation to.

One piece in the last 24 hours includes her continued ignorance on Falluja. I'm not even going there.

Instead we'll note this scribble, "Kurdish President Massoud Barzani has called for a non-binding referendum on Kurdish independence. Kurdistan’s finances, however, are so poor that Peshmerga fighters are abandoning the fight against the Islamic State over unpaid wages."

What do you take away from that?

If Griffis is your primary or sole knowledge, you're probably highly uninformed.

And we'll probably repeat this word for word in the next snapshot because it does matter.

Why are they not being paid?

Griffis repeatedly misses the point and leaves readers uninformed.

The federal government out of Baghdad is still not dividing up the revenues.

This is not a new development.

It's been going on for years now.

It's why, a few weeks ago, the KRG sent representatives to DC to see about financial assistance.

It's also why Brett McGurk met with them on Monday in Baghdad -- and why they were in Baghdad to begin with.

The State Dept's doing its best to play dumb on the McGurk visit but that was the primary focus of the conversations the KRG reps had with McGurk -- what is the status on the financial aid request, what can the US do to help get Iraqi funds from Baghdad flowing, etc.

On McGurk's end, he was seeking more commitment on the battle against the Islamic State and more options for US troops to be stationed in the KRG.

Fact that no one wants to explore: 3,700 US troops are in Iraq (not counting special ops) and there are a lot more in the region -- especially in Kuwait.

The hope on the part of the White House is to take some of the thousands in the region and move them into the KRG, to use the KRG as a staging area.

You know none of that from the insipid sentences Griffis types.

And it matters.

Especially when her sketchy sentences never talk about how Baghdad has denied promised funds forever. That's the starting point of the story.

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