The Common Ills: THE WASHINGTON TIMES jumps to conclusions

Sunday, May 19, 2019

THE WASHINGTON TIMES jumps to conclusions

Carlo Muonz (WASHINGTON TIMES) reports that at least one rocket landed inside the Green Zone today -- possibly two -- and that it's being seen as an attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad. If it was an attack on the US Embassy it would be the first rocket attack on a US installation in Iraq since last September's attack on the US Consulate in Basra. AP is less alarmist than THE WASHINGTON TIME and notes that the US State Dept says the rocket landed "near" the Embassy. Rocket attacks on the Green Zone have taken place repeatedly during the ongoing Iraq War. Whether this was an attack on the US Embassy or some other target in the Green Zone or just on the Green Zone in general, no direct line can conclude that this was an attack carried about Iran or by proxies of Iran in Iraq.

As we noted last night, ExxonMobil pulled workers out of Iraq yesterday. AFP reports:

Iraq on Sunday slammed as “political” a decision by US energy giant ExxonMobil to evacuate staff from a southern oil field after Washington ordered personnel to quit its Baghdad embassy.
“The temporary withdrawal of employees has nothing to do with security in southern Iraqi oil fields or any threats,” Oil Minister Thamer Al-Ghadban said.
“The reasons are political and probably linked to tensions in the region,” he added in a statement released by the oil ministry.
Ghadban called the move to pull out staff from the West Qorna oil field west of the southern port city of Basra “unacceptable and unjustified.”

Guess that hurts the myth of 'improved Iraq' and of those "business opportunities" Hillary Clinton was promoting in 2011.

Hillary is not running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in this race. Senator Bernie Sanders and US House Rep Tulsi Gabbard are running for the nomination.

Meet the Press‏Verified account @MeetThePress 16 hours ago

@BernieSanders said he won't apologize for supporting anti-Vietnam War efforts and voting against the war in Iraq. "I will do everything I can to see problems solved diplomatically instead of through war." #MTP

874 replies334 retweets1,875 likes

‏Verified account @ABCPolitics

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard says Trump is leading us down a dangerous path towards war with Iran: "They are setting the stage for a war with Iran that would prove to be far more costly, far more devastating and dangerous than anything that we saw in the Iraq War" https://abcn.ws/2LVbVQP 