The Common Ills: Hejira

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Hejira

Let's start with the daily bombings, the US Defense Dept announced today:

Strikes in Iraq
Rocket artillery and bomber and fighter aircraft conducted nine strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:

-- Near Mosul, four strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL assembly area and three ISIL vehicles.

-- Near Qayyarah, two strikes struck an ISIL vehicle-borne bomb storage facility and destroyed two ISIL boats.

-- Near Ramadi, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL supply cache, two ISIL rockets, an ISIL vehicle and two ISIL heavy machine guns.

-- Near Sinjar, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions.

-- Near Waleed, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL mortar system and three ISIL weapons storage facilities.

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 one 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. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.

Everyone's dropping bombs on Iraq.

And does anyone wonder where they land?

‏@moonnor27

PAINFUL 
from  Fallujah Hospital Iraqi Sunni child Victim of #Iraqi army airstrikes  #Warcrimes #Iraq

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What is the US doing in Iraq?

In this April 16th photo taken by U.S. Army Sgt. Kalie Jones, "U.S. Army First Sgt. Gabriel Montgomery with 524th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 17th Sustainment Brigade, Task Force Battle Born, issues an M16 rifle to an Iraqi soldier assigned to Iraq’s 4th Battalion, 23rd Brigade, during an Iraqi Train and Equip Fund issuing point at Camp Taji, Iraq,"

So the White House plan is to bomb from the air and to train on the ground.

And this has been repeated over and over since August of 2014 -- with very little success.

How bad are things going?

Judith Miller can show up and make solid points.

Judith.

Miller.

Disgraced reporter.

In a piece of THE NEW YORK POST, co-written with Charles Deulfer, these points are made:

In April, the president said the conditions for liberating Mosul from the Islamic State should be in place by year’s end. But Sunni Iraqi tribal leaders and Kurds are quietly warning that “doing Mosul” is likely to result not in military victory but a humanitarian and political disaster.
First, Iraq’s second-largest city is home to 1 million to 2 million people. ISIS, which hasn’t hesitated to slaughter fellow Arabs and flatten cities, has had ample time to prepare to take hostages and booby-trap buildings.
[. . .]
An offensive would spread panic among the city’s beleaguered residents, who would be trapped inside Mosul along with their occupiers. Baghdad’s plans to liberate the city include strangling ISIS by laying siege to Mosul in preparation for a full assault. If Ramadi is any example, liberation could turn Mosul into an uninhabitable ghost town.

Haider al-Abadi can retake Mosul all this time later. The city was seized by the Islamic State in June (a few months before Haider was made prime minister) and it continues to be controlled by the Islamic State.

But let's all pretend 'progress' has been made.

Mosul was seized before Barack began sending a 'few' US service members into Iraq in August of 2014. It continues to be seized as a few US service members has turned into thousands.

Tim Hume and Hamdi Alkhshali (CNN) report, "ISIS has claimed responsibility for an assault on a Baghdad gas plant Sunday, the latest in a series of deadly attacks committed by the Sunni terror group that have claimed more than 100 lives in recent days." BBC adds that the "suicide attack on a gas factory near Baghdad in which 14 people were killed and 20 wounded, Iraqi officials say."

Meanwhile Saif Hameed (REUTERS) reports on the media crackdown going on in Iraq.

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] 4517 (including 20 in Operation Inherent Resolve which includes at least 3 Iraq War fatalities).

Kat's "Kat's Korner: No one hates Drake more than Drake" and Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Original Loose Cannon" went up earlier today. And the following community sites -- plus Z ON TV and Jody Watley -- updated: