Sunday, April 18, 2021

Another attack in Iraq

 Another day in Iraq, another attack on an airbase.  ALJAZEERA reports, "At least five rockets hit the Iraqi military airbase at Balad north of Baghdad, wounding two Iraqi soldiers, the Iraqi military said in a statement. Security officials had said earlier that the Katyusha rockets had fallen on the area of the base that houses US contractors, and that no casualties had been reported."  AFP notes, "The rockets targeted Balad airbase north of Balad, and two crashed into a dormitory and a canteen of US company Sallyport, the source told AFP."  SPUTNIK adds, " There are no US servicemen at the Balad Air Base in Iraq that came under a rocket attack on Sunday, Spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), Col. Wayne Marotto, said."  IANS points out, "In recent months, the heavily-fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, home to the US embassy and American troops in Iraq have been the target of repeated attacks blamed on pro-Iranian groups."  AFP provides this context, "There have been around 20 bomb or rocket attacks against American interests, including bases hosting US soldiers, since US President Joe Biden took office in January."


Meanwhile, PRESS TV continues to insist that Israel has a base in northern Iraq.  When that became an issue last week, we walked it through and noted that if they did have a base in Iraq, it would be in the KRG because of Israel and the KRG's longstanding relationship which was one reason that Israel supported the referendum.  Now PRESS TV, which couldn't find that detail on their own last week, adds it and completely gets it wrong:


The Iraqi Kurdistan Region on September 25, 2017 held a non-binding referendum on secession from Iraq despite widespread opposition from Iraq’s officials and neighbors as well as the international community.

Israel was firm in supporting the Kurdish secession, in a move observers said was aimed at securing the flow of oil supplies from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and building a pro-Israeli entity at the heart of the Muslim world.

The move, however, failed as it was declared illegal by Iraq’s top court and the federal government in Baghdad.


I'm not that fond of the stupid but I really hate liars.  The referendum id not fail and it doesn't matter what a Baghdad court said.


This was a non-binding measure meaning that no action was ever going to come from it.  How is that so hard for the stupid to understand?


Jalal Talabani disappointed the Kurds when he tried to wax poetic on secession and just came off like a fool.  He never recovered from that moment.  Kurds were outraged by his remarks.


This referendum was about taking an issue that was dear to so many Kurds -- in Iraq and around the world -- and letting them have a say.  


Overwhelmingly, the voted for the measure.  They registered that they supported an independent Kurdistan.  That's what the measure was about -- where do the Kurds stand on this issue.


They made their voice heard and did so despite threats from the US government, among others.  It was a strong moment for Kurdish pride and it was not a failure in any way.  It formalized the conversation that has been going on for years.


No one believed -- no sane person -- that a non-binding measure would result in Kurdish independence.


It  would be great if PRESS TV could try to practice even a modicum of journalism and not just spew lies.  It's been banned by FACEBOOK.  I don't support that.  Because of that ban, we've tried to work the outlet in a little more often.  But if they can't stop outright lying, they're on their own.  I have other things to do than to promote people who are too stupid or too big of a liar to get the basic facts right.


Not in the damn mood.


Isaiah's latest THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Glenn Greenwald Reaction" went up last night.  The following sites updated:








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