The Common Ills: Hejira

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Hejira

Today, the US Defense Dept announced:

Strikes in Iraq
Fighter aircraft conducted 14 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:
-- Near Baghdadi, a strike destroyed an ISIL ammunition cache.

-- Near Fallujah, a strike destroyed two ISIL bunkers and two ISIL fighting positions.

-- Near Habbaniyah, two strikes struck two ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL supply cache.

-- Near Haditha, a strike produced inconclusive results.

-- Near Kisik, a strike destroyed an ISIL bulldozer.

-- Near Mosul, three strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL supply cache, an ISIL weapons cache, two ISIL assembly areas and an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Qayyarah, three strikes struck an ISIL headquarters and destroyed an ISIL mortar system and an ISIL assembly area.

-- Near Sinjar, two strikes struck an ISIL vehicle bomb facility and suppressed an ISIL mortar position.

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.

Meanwhile, Loveday Morris and Mustafa Salim (WASHINGTON POST) report:

The Iraqi military on Sunday said it is planning to storm Islamic State-held Fallujah, the city that was the scene of the bloodiest fighting for U.S. Marines during the Iraq War.

In a late-night televised address, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-
Abadi said the operation to retake the city in the western province of Anbar had begun.

Are you surprised?

If you are, the White House certainly wanted you to be.

In Saturday's snapshot, we opened with the White House read out of US President Barack Obama's call with Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. And we noted:

ALSUMARIA reports that Haider and Barack discussed the upcoming 'liberation' of Falluja. In fact, that topic is in the statement released by the Prime Minister's office summarizing the phone call.
Strange that it failed to make the statement released by the White House.
Or strange until you realize that the White House is pushing for Mosul to be the next focus.

Mosul will have to wait.

The White House wanted Mosul first because of optics and the whole two year thing -- next month being the second year anniversary of Mosul being seized by the Islamic State.

CNN offers an embarrassing report here. Jim Muir (BBC NEWS) provides this analysis:

The Iraqi army, police and irregular forces virtually surround Falluja and have been heavily reinforced in preparation for an assault on several fronts that military sources say could begin in the next day or so, and which they expect to last two or three weeks.
That may be optimistic, given the many weeks it took earlier this year to take full control of Ramadi, another city further to the west.
Falluja has been held by the militants of IS much longer, for nearly two and a half years, and has withstood a massive battering by government shelling and bombing.
But Iraqi military sources believe the number of militants there has been cut roughly in half and that the battle for Falluja will be a lot less tough than it was for Ramadi.

The reporting is all one sides and doesn't address anything other than official positions.

Muir even manages to slam Falluja civilians in one section of BBC's report (we didn't quote that section).

Left out is anything that has to do with the civilians.

Maybe Monday, the one-sided reporting will end?

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).

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Sunday, May 22, 2016

Hejira

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