Saturday, April 29, 2017

Another US service member dies in the Iraq War

Today, CENTCOM issued the following:

Operation Inherent Resolve Casualty

Release No: 17-164 April 29, 2017
PRINT | E-MAIL

April 29, 2017
Release # 20170429-02
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

SOUTHWEST ASIA — A U.S. service member died from wounds sustained in an explosive device blast outside of Mosul, Iraq, Apr. 29, 2017. Further information will be released as appropriate.

It is CJTF-OIR policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.

CJTFOIR

Phone: 1-813-529-4636
cjtf-oirmedia@mail.mil

Thomas Gibbons-Neff (WASHINGTON POST) observes, "Saturday’s death, if caused by hostile fire, would be the fifth U.S. combat death in Iraq since the start of the campaign against the Islamic State there in 2014, and the first during the Trump administration. In October, Navy Chief Petty Officer Jason C. Finan was killed by a roadside bomb on the outskirts of Mosul just days after the battle to retake the city began."

Thousands of US troops have been sent into Iraq since the summer of 2014.

Special-Ops, of course, remained in Iraq even after the 2011 drawdown. And Barack Obama added a unit of Special-Ops to that total in the fall of 2012.

AP notes, "The Pentagon has acknowledged more than 100 U.S. special operations forces are operating with Iraqi units, with hundreds more playing a support role in staging bases farther from the front lines."

‏Verified account @itvnews

US service member killed after blast near Iraqi city of Mosul, coalition reports http://www.itv.com/news/update/2017-04-29/us-service-member-killed-after-blast-near-mosul/ …

2 replies9 retweets6 likes

Day 192 of The Mosul Slog.

Is there any end in sight?

No end to the Iraq War.

Neil Clark (RT) notes what this never-ending war has 'accomplished':

Since then over 1 million Iraqis have lost their lives. Over 4,800 soldiers from the US and its allies have also died, including 179 from Britain.
In 2007, it was reported that between 12 and 20 percent of returning Iraq War veterans suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
As its opponents predicted, the war caused a refugee crisis of epic proportions. In 2007, the UN said that the number fleeing Iraq had reached 2 million, while there were an estimated 1.7 million internally displaced people. By the end of 2015, the UN said the number of displaced Iraqis had reached 4.6 million. Among the many Iraqis who were forced from their homes, were the country’s Christians, who have faced terrible persecution.
In 2016, it was reported that 80 percent of Iraq’s 1.5 million-strong Christian community had fled since 2003.
Fourteen years on, the US military is still in Iraq – now seeking to “liberate” Mosul from Islamic State terrorists (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), who would not have existed without the previous “liberation” of the country. Even Tony Blair, one of the architects of the war, has partially acknowledged that, without the Iraq War, there’d be no Islamic State.
The plight of young women and gay people in Iraq has gotten worse. In 2011, a HRW report said that young women were “widowed, trafficked, forced into early marriages, beaten at home, and sexually harassed if they leave the house.” Child marriage has risen since 2003, with 25 percent of women being married off before their 18th birthday.
In a 2009 Guardian article, Peter Tatchell who had supported arming Iraqi opposition groups to topple Saddam, noted how “Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, homophobia and the terrorisation of LGBT people has got much worse… The western invasion ended the tyrannical Baathist dictatorship. But it also destroyed a secular state, created chaos and lawlessness… The result has been an Islamist-inspired homophobic terror campaign against LGBT Iraqis.”

Remember when people used to think the Iraq War could end?

Remember how Barack Obama was elected on the promise that he would end the Iraq War?

View all

Link to headline article

US President Barack Obama visits Baghdad, Iraq Barack Obama made has made his first trip to Iraq as President, flying into Baghdad International Airport from Istanbul for a short visit shrouded in secrecy.

The Telegraph

Apr 29, 2017

That was his first trip as president. It was also his only trip to Iraq -- in his eight years as president, only one trip to Iraq.

The caption to the photo? This:

Cheered wildly by US troops, President Barack Obama flew unannounced into Iraq and promptly declared it was time for Iraqis to "take responsibility for their country" after America's commitment of six years and thousands of lives.

Barack was so full of it.

The following community sites updated: