Donald Trump hasn't pulled his troops out of Iraq, despite his pledge to end America's grinding wars. It turns out he may not have to. The US is facing the possibility of being kicked out, and that would be a big win for Iran.
That's a judgment call, that it would be a big win for Iran. This is an opinion piece. CNN tries to pass it off as fact and a report -- neither are reality. At the end of the column, CNN offers this tag, "CNN's Tamara Qiblawi contributed to this report." It's not a report.
It is an argument to keep US forces on the ground in Iraq. It is more war porn from a network that should have sunk already from all the war porn they've supplied over the years.
On top of everything else, it's not even an informed analysis. Is Angela so damn stupid that she doesn't know, for example, that most Sunnis and all Kurds boycotted the vote in Parliament she keeps citing throughout the report? Is she such a damn idiot that she doesn't know that the KRG has issued remarks formally rebuking the vote?
How damn stupid is she or, more to the fact, how much of a liar is she?
She wants US troops to stay in Iraq so she presents a factually challenged 'analysis' that leaves out every pertinent detail that undermines her argument.
It's called whoring.
Here's more on the Kurdish response from ASHARQ AL-AWSAT:
President of the Kurdistan region in Iraq Nechirvan Barzani said the vote set a “bad precedent.”
“Our view is that the decision taken by the Iraqi parliament was not a good one and the Kurds and the Sunnis did not take part in that decision,” he told Al-Monitor on Thursday.
“The decision was taken by the Shiite bloc without consulting either of the key components of this country, the Kurds or the Sunnis. It was a very critical step that was taken without seeking consensus and as such violates the spirit of the Iraqi constitution. This is not good for Iraq, either now or for the future.”
“The question that first needs to be addressed is the following: Why are US troops here to begin with? They are here upon the invitation in 2014 of the Iraqi government and in consultation with the UN Security Council when the ISIS was on the outskirts of Baghdad,” continued Barzani.
“The second: Does the current situation in Iraq justify the withdrawal of US and coalition forces given their mission, which is to help defeat ISIS? As far as we, the KRG, is concerned the answer is plainly ‘No.’ All the intelligence indicates that ISIS has regrouped itself and that they are carrying out attacks against Iraqi targets on a daily basis. Hence, it's as much in the interest of Iraqi Kurdistan as it is for the whole of Iraq that US forces remain for the time being,” he stressed.
Here's another detail she left out, "The caretaker prime minister of Iraq -- Adil Abdul-Mahdi -- has left it to his successor to deal with the issue of the U.S. troop presence in Iraq."
Nazli Tarzi (ARAB WEEKLY) writes a column which notes:
Iraq’s October uprising beckoned a predictable response from Baghdad, whose survival has relied upon extralegal violence — from snipers-for-hire to internet blackouts. The death count is rising while the names of fallen — men, women, children and families — are publicly acknowledged.
What is not is the identity of those responsible.
Indifference towards the growing tally of casualties stretching across southern Iraq and the iron fist state-aligned forces cower behind expose the mythical texture of state accountability.
Thuggery and not the law — whose penal codes rehearse the right admonitions — determines the course of state action. Condemnation is reserved for civilians while the criminally righteous are let off the hook.
The shield journalists were promised after the ratification of the country’s Journalist Protection law in 2011 has again exposed the weakness of legislation that civil society rejected on proposal as yet another muzzle on press freedom.
The assassination of Dijla TV journalist Ahmed Abdelsamad and cameraman Safaa Ghali by Iran-serving militias on January 10, as comrades told local media, has seen criticism apply to Iraqi Journalists Syndicate (IJS). This was the charge made by Abdelsamad’s close colleague Mohmad Al Seyyed Mohsen on his “The Compass” programme.
IJS President Moayad al-Lami has repeatedly called for truth over the assassination of reporters and activists but the monotony of Lami’s imploration speaks to the triumph of criminality.
A journalist in Basra who spoke to The Arab Weekly on condition of anonymity put the onus on the IJS to expose wielders of force, not the government itself.
“These outfits have proven unreliable as efforts have not translated into actionable results,” the 34-year-old broadcast journalist said. As protesters pass the one 100-day mark, the death of 30 journalists has been recorded by the Iraqi War Crimes Documentation Centre.
In Iraq, the protests continue. AP notes, "Iraqi security forces wounded dozens of protesters on Sunday as renewed anti-government demonstrations gripped the capital and Iraq’s south, activists and officials said."
- #IRAQ #PROTESTS #BAGHDAD #ALTAHREER
#CRIMINAL #GOVERNMENT #MILITIAS ATTACKING WITH #LETHAL #AMMUNITIONS #TEAR_GAS #BOMBS ON THE #PEACEFUL #PROTESTERS #CIVILIANS #VICTIMS WHILE THE PEOPLE WERE SLEEPING IN THEIR PROTESTING TENTS
#SAVEOURLIVES
ARE YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?!#SOS #HELP!! https://twitter.com/Hassan_raham2/status/1219056291534069761 …
I’m deeply saddened by all what’s going on in my country. 
. And guess what? The government will never respond to the demands of the protesters. Peaceful protests never work out in Iraq, sorry.
. And guess what? The government will never respond to the demands of the protesters. Peaceful protests never work out in Iraq, sorry.Gareth Browne (ALJAZEERA) reports:
Protesters closed large roads in cities across Iraq on Sunday night, escalating their campaign for political change, as the clock ticked down the final hours to their deadline for the government to meet their demands for reform.
In Najaf, demonstrators burned pictures of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and tore down posters of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis the former leader of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), or Hashd al-Shaabi, the umbrella grouping of Iraq's mostly Shia militias.
[. . .]
Roads were also blocked in al-Diwaniyah, Sumaria and Wasit.
Road closures and demonstrations had been expected for Monday, by which time a deadline set by demonstrators in the city of Nasiriya, for a new prime minister and government to be announced, would have passed.
The deadline and its demands announced last week were quickly adopted by protesters from across the country.
The demands include a new electoral law, and a new prime minister to replace Adel Abdul Mahdi who, despite resigning two months ago, remains in office.
- Protests in Iraq are not letting up as protestors block major roads in cities all over Iraq. People should pay attention to these protestors as they are passionate about the idea of Social Change that is desperately needed in Iraq. #CCT320
- Now Wassit (Kut) 180K south Baghdad (#Iraq) joined Nasereyah and other southern cities in blocking main roads as a pressure step to escalate the protest against the corrupted government to choose an non corrupted independent Prime minister and fair elections law ,early elections.
AFP speaks with protesters:
"We began to escalate today because the government did not respond to our demands, notably forming an independent government that could save Iraq," said Haydar Kadhim, a demonstrator in the southern protest hotspot of Nasiriyah.
"Last Monday, we gave them a deadline of seven days. That deadline ends tonight," Kadhim told AFP.
A fellow protester, 20-year-old university student Mohammad Kareem, said more escalation could come.
"We gave the government a timeframe to implement our demands, but it looks like it doesn t care one bit," he said.
"We will keep up our movement and keep escalating to confront this government, which continues to procrastinate," Kareem told AFP.
We're stopping there. A little bitch boy in the US is using the protests to lie and pimp, little whore that he is. We'll call him out tomorrow.
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