POLITICO asserts that US President Barack Obama is planning an October Surprise to influence the outcome of this year's presidential election.
For those late to the topic, refer to Robert Parry's reporting on the 1980 October Surprise at CONSORTIUM NEWS.
POLITICO'S Mark Perry reports that Barack is planning to start the battle to retake Mosul in early October and, "If Mosul is retaken, it would both mark a major political triumph for Barack Obama and likely benefit his party’s nominee at the polls, Hillary Clinton, undercutting Republican claims that the Obama administration has failed to take off the gloves against the Islamic State."
Mosul was seized by the Islamic State in June of 2014.
Barack's 'answer' since August of 2014 has been to drop bombs on Iraq daily.
Today, the US Defense Dept announced:
Strikes in Iraq
Attack, bomber, fighter, remotely piloted aircraft and rocket artillery conducted 10 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:
-- Near Haditha, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.
-- Near Hit, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle and an ISIL fueling station.
-- Near Mosul, two strikes struck an ISIL headquarters and suppressed an ISIL mortar system.
-- Near Qayyarah, three strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed four ISIL vehicles, two ISIL mortar systems, an ISIL-used road and two ISIL assembly areas.
-- Near Ramadi, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL vehicle, and an ISIL heavy machine gun.
-- Near Tal Afar, a strike struck an ISIL vehicle.
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.
That doesn't defeat the Islamic State nor does it address the issues that allowed the Islamic State to take root in Iraq. As Dr. Alon Ben-Meir (BRADENTON TIMES) has argued:
I maintain that unless the political discussion begins now between
the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government and the Sunnis (under the auspices
of the U.S.) to determine the fate of the Sunni community, defeating
ISIS alone will not end the ongoing Sunni-Shiite civil war in Iraq that
has claimed the lives of tens of thousands since 2003.
The Obama administration should, parallel to the fight against ISIS, immediately start to negotiate the future status of the Sunni Iraqis with the Iraqi government and agree on establishing an autonomous region in their three provinces -- Ninevah, Salahildin, and Diyala --to run their own affairs along the lines of Kurdish autonomy in the north, with a loose connection to the central government in Baghdad.
And any effort to utilize the retaking of Mosul for US political purposes would meet with criticism.
Criticism.
Donald Trump said some stupid stuff.
Are you shocked?
Me too.
No, nobody really gives a damn.
That's the reality.
A member of a military family chose to speak for Hillary Clinton at the Democratic Party's national convention.
To some, that was the parent using their child's death for political purposes.
Donald's got nothing to do with the Iraq War.
He was not in Congress, he was not in the White House.
A parent wanted to speak for Hillary.
Donald mouthed off as he always does.
As the hatred for Donald has poured on, there is less and less concern about the parent.
That's not a surprise.
This is what Hillary's crowd does all the time: Overplay.
If they'd left it alone, if they'd left it to reporting, outrage may have built.
Instead, they have made it a non-stop issue, to the point that it's now a non-issue.
Somebody got their feelings hurt? Oh well, that's life in the real world.
That's why when we're kids, our parents teach us, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me."
By going to the well repeatedly on this, Hillary's crowd has ensured Donald's remarks are now a non-issue (wait a week and see the polls).
The first problem they've created in their rush to hide behind the military is that now charges are flying around that Donald Trump doesn't understand "sacrifice."
Sorry but the country is not made of military families -- nor of military families who see only one form of "sacrifice."
But that's what Hillary's crowd has preached and, in doing so, they're angering a larger portion of the country who (rightly) realizes there are many ways to sacrifice in the United States.
And their little snit -- which recalls their attempt to turn Valerie Plame into a martyr and Joan of Arc (she's neither, she is someone wronged by the Bully Boy Bush administration which broke a law that his father demanded be written) -- means people note other things.
Like Pat Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, killed in Benghazi on September 11, 2012.
On CNN's NEWSROOM today, Brooke Baldwin spoke with Pat Smith.
It repeatedly seemed as though Pat was brought on to attack Donald Trump (she didn't).
But the reality is, Pat chose to speak at the GOP convention.
She was trashed for it by the press.
Ann noted her remarks at that convention:
My name is Patricia Smith. My son Sean was one of four brave Americans killed during the 2012 terrorist attack at Benghazi. Sean was a wonderful son and father to my two amazing grandchildren, Samantha and Nathan, now 10 and 11.
He was proud to serve his country with the United States foreign service.
The last time I talked to Sean, the night before the terrorist attack, he told me, ‘Mom, I am going to die.’
All security had been pulled from the embassy, he explained. And when he asked why, he never received a response. Nobody listened. Nobody seemed to care. The very next day, he was murdered by radical Islamic terrorists.
To this day, I don’t even know why a computer guy like Sean was sent to Benghazi. That night, we lost sons, brothers, fathers and husbands. We lost four brave Americans, who made the ultimate sacrifice for the country they chose to serve. And the American people lost the truth.
For all of this loss, for all of this grief, for all of the citizens and the tragedy of Benghazi has brought upon America, I blame Hillary Clinton!
I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son. Personally!
In an email to her daughter shortly after the attack, Hillary Clinton blamed it on terrorism. But when I saw
Hillary Clinton at Sean’s coffin ceremony two days later, she looked me squarely in the eye and told me a video was responsible.
Since then, I have repeatedly asked Hillary Clinton to explain to me the real reason why my son is dead.
I’m still waiting.
Whenever I call the state department, no one would speak to me, because they say I am not a member of the immediate family.
Sean is my son.
Hillary Clinton is a woman, a mother and a grandmother of two. I am a woman, a mother and a grandmother of two. How could she do this to me? How could she do this to any American family?
Donald Trump is everything Hillary Clinton is not. He is blunt, direct and strong. He speaks his mind and his heart. And when it comes to the threat posed by radical Islamic terrorism, he will not hesitate to kill the terrorists who threaten American lives.
He will make America stronger, not weaker.
This entire campaign comes down to a single question: If Hillary Clinton can’t give us the truth, why should we give her the presidency?
That’s right: Hillary for prison. She deserves to be in stripes.
Leaving aside the endorsement of Donald Trump (an opinion of Pat Smith's), the above is fairly straight forward and factually accurate.
She was blown off and ignored by the State Dept.
That was true in 2012, true in 2013, true in 2014.
She was told a lie.
Based on Hillary's e-mail to her daughter Chelsea, Hillary knew it was a lie before she uttered it to Pat Smith.
I disagree with Pat's decision to endorse Donald Trump.
Guess what?
I didn't trash her for it.
I didn't need to.
In America people can endorse whomever they want.
Carly Simon loves Bill Clinton. Hillary's always been suspicious about that love. But Carly's endorsed Hillary and that doesn't surprise me. I'm not going to trash Carly for her endorsement. She has every right to endorse whomever she wants. And my disagreement over who should be president -- over whether Hillary should be president, I should say, does not change my love for Carly or awe over her tremendous accomplishments as a songwriter.
Pat choosing to endorse Donald -- for whatever reason -- is more than understandable to many after how she was treated following the death of her son.
The refusal of the same crowd now in an uproar over Donald Trump's remarks to support Pat Smith goes a long way towards explaining how, having overplayed this moment, they now have already lost any ground they would have had if they'd allowed the moment to play out by itself without trying to turn it into a national controversy.
I might vote for Jill Stein. I might not. I'm exploring and I need to see who all will be on my state ballot (California). I could end up voting for Jerry White if he's on my ballot.
But next week, in Houston, at the Green Party convention, Jill should be named the Green Party nominee.
Today, Jill made an announcement.
- Honored to announce human rights champion Ajamu Baraka as my VP running mate! #SteinBaraka http://www.jill2016.com/jill_stein_selects_ajamu_baraka_as_vp …
- .@DrJillStein announces her VP pick - human rights activist @ajamubaraka: http://www.jill2016.com/jill_stein_selects_ajamu_baraka_as_vp … #SteinBaraka
Dr. Jill Stein 
Green Party US 
Strange, isn't it, that after Barack's historic wins in two presidential elections, the Democratic Party could offer no person of color on their ticket. Same with the Republican Party.
Dr. Nyasha Amina pens a column entitled "20 Reasons Black Women & Men Should Consider #JillNotHill This November:"
Reason 1. Stein Nails Her Feminist Case Against Hillary Clinton http://www.bustle.com/articles/163588-jill-stein-nails-her-feminist-case-against-hillary-clinton
Reason 2. Stein Deserves Your Attention If You Are Looking For Alternatives On The Left http://www.bustle.com/articles/173092-jill-stein-deserves-your-attention-if-youre-looking-for-answers-on-the-left
Reason 3. Stein is Making Inroads And Is Currently Polling at 15% Among Millennials http://www.wsj.com/articles/jill-stein-the-green-partys-presumptive-presidential-nominee-makes-inroads-1467413879
Reason 4. Cornel West Agrees That Stein Should Be The First Woman President http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dr-cornel-west-is-right-jill-stein-should-be-americas_us_5788c31ae4b0cbf01e9f84c2
Reason
5. Donations To Stein’s Campaign Have Exploded Nearly 1000% Since Mid
July. The American People Are Financially Supporting Her http://usuncut.com/politics/jill-stein-campaign-surge/
Reason 6. Stein Answers Your Questions Directly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFd0QuuAKLY&feature=youtu.be
Reason 7. Stein’s Interview on C-Span https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQwb1arK0eA&feature=youtu.be
Reason 8. The Green Party Has A Clear and Substantial Racial Justice Plank and Stein Boldly Advocates For It https://twitter.com/TheBpDShow/status/758321707245506561
Reason 9. African
American Princeton University Professor Eddie Glaude Offers Us A
Prophetic Progressive Voting Strategy That Includes Supporting A Third
Party Candidate Like Stein http://www.democracynow.org/2016/7/28/michael_eric_dyson_vs_eddie_glaude
Reason 10. Preserving The Democratic Party’s Power Is Not Our Responsibility Or Even In Our BEST Interest https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/27/hillary-clinton-general-election-bernie-sanders-campaign?CMP=share_btn_tw
That's ten, use the link for the full twenty.
Gary Johnson is the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate.
- My conversation with the @latimes Editorial Board... http://ow.ly/AJmm302Oshf via @latimesopinion #teamgov #election2016
Gov. Gary Johnson 
Bill Weld is Gary's running mate.
How can someone win my vote?
1. Invasion of #Iraq was wrong & illegal
2. US Muslims shouldn't have to plead for equality & humanity via sacrificing a son to illegal war
Address the Iraq War.
We remember, right, that the Iraq War vote was done in the fall of 2002 -- as part of the 'rollout' for that year's mid-term elections.
That means the Iraq War, in November, will have been going on for four presidential elections -- 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016.
No, that's not normal.
Nor should it be 'the new normal.'
Jerry White is the Socialist Equality Party's presidential candidate. The Socialist Equality Party issued the following:
With the conclusion this week of the Democratic National Convention, the two major capitalist parties in the United States have formally selected their presidential candidates. In the face of an immense economic, social and political crisis, neither Democrat Hillary Clinton nor Republican Donald Trump has anything to offer but austerity, war and the continued assault on democratic rights.
The conclusion of the two conventions makes all the more clear the critical importance of the campaign of the Socialist Equality Party and its candidates, Jerry White for president and Niles Niemuth for vice president. The SEP is fighting to build a socialist leadership in the working class to prepare for the inevitable social upheavals and struggles that will follow these elections, whoever is elected.
The Republican convention earlier this month marked a turning point in the decay of American politics, with the nomination of a semi-fascistic billionaire who is basing his campaign on national chauvinism and “law and order.”
The Democrats and their political supporters, including Bernie Sanders, insist that the only way to stop the danger posed by Trump is to back Clinton. All “lesser evil” arguments, however, ignore the fact that Trump is a product of the same degenerate political system as Clinton, which has brought the world unending war, corporate and political criminality and the greatest levels of social inequality since the 1920s.
Trump is only able to position himself as an opponent of the status quo because of nearly eight years of the Obama administration, which has seen the super-rich attain new heights of opulence while every index of social suffering—falling wages and median incomes, chronic unemployment, child poverty and shorter life expectancy—has worsened.
At their convention, the Democrats proved completely detached from the social reality confronting the masses of working people in the United States. They pitched themselves to the most complacent and comfortable sections of the middle class who agree with Obama’s claim that “America’s pretty darn great.”
The convention was carefully scripted to frame the election of Hillary Clinton as “historic” because she would be the first female president of the United States, recycling the same narrative used eight years ago to market Obama.
The Democrats combined every form of identity politics with the fervent promotion of militarism and war. The nationalist jingoism on display culminated in the blood-curdling speech by former Marine General John Allen Thursday night, when calls for “No More War” by some Bernie Sanders delegates were drowned out with rabid chants of “USA, USA, USA!,” the same slogan heard last week at the Republican convention.
While the convention excluded any serious discussions of the war plans that are being drawn up, the character of a Clinton administration can be seen by the campaign that is being whipped up to prepare the population for war against Russia, with incalculable consequences. In denouncing Trump as an agent of Putin, Clinton’s supporters in the media and political establishment are managing to frame her campaign as a critique of the Republicans from the right.
The Democrats are returning to their historical status as the chief party of imperialist militarism, with Republican neo-conservatives who spearheaded the criminal invasion of Iraq now flocking to her campaign. Within the military brass and foreign policy circles, Clinton is considered a far more reliable and hawkish commander-in-chief than Trump.
Meanwhile Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders—his “political revolution” against the “billionaire class” completely denuded—has prostrated himself before Clinton. As the SEP warned, Sanders did everything in his power to deliver his supporters into the clutches of the representative of the “billionaire class” who as a senator voted to authorize the war in Iraq and as secretary of state spearheaded the wars in Libya and Syria.
In an election year dominated by the growth of social opposition, the American people are being presented with the “choice” between Clinton and Trump. What an indictment of the entire political system in the US!
The growth of anti-capitalist sentiment in the US and around the world will not be stopped by the opportunist maneuverings of Sanders. As for the Green Party, which is being promoted by the groups that had backed Sanders, it is a capitalist party, hostile to the working class and the struggle for socialism. Wherever they have come into power, as in Germany and Australia, the Greens quickly abandoned their pacifism and embraced militarism and austerity.
To fight for its interests, to oppose inequality, war and dictatorship, the working class needs its own party, and that party is the Socialist Equality Party. The SEP is running in these elections to fight for a genuine socialist program. The fundamental problems confronting the working class cannot be solved outside of a struggle to unite all workers—of every race, gender, ethnicity and nationality—in the United States and around the world, in a fight against capitalism, an economic system that subordinates everything to the interests of a tiny corporate and financial elite.
We call on all our readers to join us in this struggle. While the dangers are immense, so too is the strength of the working class, united in revolutionary struggle. The task is urgent, and no time can be lost. To fight against war and barbarism, against inequality and dictatorship, make the decision support our campaign and join the Socialist Equality Party.
Ignoring the Iraq War -- or making the 'answer' to it "USA! USA!" -- does not address anything.
It certainly doesn't address the struggle so many Iraqis are enduring.
Search results
- Retweeted 574 times4.7m children in #Iraq need humanitarian assistance - almost 1 in 3 children in the country. @UNICEFiraq
- "Children uprooted by conflict can find themselves alone, without family & in grave danger" @mcgregor_ewan on #Iraq http://ow.ly/tusy302PwlG
UNICEF
Unicef UK
Doctors w/o Borders
The following community sites updated:
Iraq snapshot
1 day ago
BAD MOMS
1 day ago
JASON BOURNE
1 day ago
Iraq
