Wednesday, December 23, 2015. Chaos and violence continue, the Ramadi effort has already hit a snag, the Islamic State is popular in Mosul, Barack Obama finally weighs in on the persecution of Iraqi Christians, and much more.
Susanna Capelouto and Hamdi Alkhshali (CNN) note, "Iraq's military is just a half-mile away from the ISIS-held government
compound in Ramadi in Iraq's battle to retake the city from the
terrorist group, the head of Iraq's joint forces said on state
television."
Maher Chmaytelli (REUTERS) adds, "Iraq's army chief was quoted on Wednesday as saying he needed only days
to drive Islamic State from Ramadi, the city whose fall in May exposed
the weakness of the Baghdad government and dampened hopes of restoring
control in the north and west."
But the march to success, as has repeatedly been the case so far, hit a bit of a snag.
Ghassan Adnan and Matt Bradley (WALL ST. JOURNAL) report:
A new push by Iraqi forces to retake Ramadi appeared to stall
Wednesday in the face of resistance from Islamic State fighters, a day
after government troops made quick progress toward the center of the
strategic city just 60 miles from the capital.
By Wednesday
afternoon, Iraqi forces had paused within 800 yards of a former
government compound in the city center that they are aiming to
recapture, said Gen. Talib Sheghati, head of Iraq’s Joint Operations Command which coordinates with the U.S.-led coalition battling Islamic State.
Gen.
Sheghati said the Iraqi forces were working to defuse bomb-rigged homes
and buildings, land mines and improvised explosive devices buried under
roadways.
The Iraqi forces vastly outnumber the Islamic State in Ramadi.
But even that's not apparently enough to get them to press forward.
This morning,
Falih Hassan and Kareem Fahim (NEW YORK TIMES) reported that even more Iraqi troops are being sent to Ramadi (yesterday, there
were 10,000 -- for the 350 Islamic State fighters) and that, according
to US military spokesperson Col Steven Warren, "there had been no
significant developments in the battle to reclaim the city."
All of those forces, a
bridge via the US and bombings from war planes?
Still not enough, apparently.
Today, the US Defense Dept announced:
Strikes in Iraq
Attack, bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted
24 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s
government:
-- Near Huwayjah, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.
-- Near Habbaniyah, five strikes struck four ISIL staging areas and an ISIL headquarters.
-- Near Mosul, eight strikes struck six separate ISIL tactical
units and destroyed an ISIL building, an ISIL crane, an ISIL bulldozer,
two ISIL excavators, two ISIL vehicles, five ISIL fighting positions, an
ISIL heavy machine gun, an ISIL light machine gun and an ISIL
checkpoint and wounded an ISIL fighter.
-- Near Ramadi, four strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical
units and destroyed an ISIL bunker, 19 ISIL fighting positions, three
ISIL sniper positions, an ISIL anti-air artillery piece, four ISIL
rocket-propelled grenade positions, two ISIL recoilless rifles, two ISIL
grenade launcher positions, two ISIL heavy machine gun positions, three
ISIL command-and-control nodes, two ISIL bed-down locations, an ISIL
staging area, cratered an ISIL-used road and denied ISIL access to
terrain.
-- Near Sinjar, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.
-- Near Sultan Abdallah, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.
-- Near Fallujah, one strike destroyed an ISIL bunker.
-- Near Kisik, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed three ISIL fighting positions.
-- Near Tal Afar, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.
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.
Those war planes, bombing non-stop since August -- of 2014! And achieving so little -- so little that some might even argue they've achieved nothing.
in the terminal where dreams
let so many tickets through
when strangers look in faces
and see somebody there they knew
you might meet me tomorrow
as all the lights are blooming green
and you're feeling a little lonely,
a little sad, a little mean
remember a place
inside of that hotel
where you could do anything you want to do
you couldn't tell
If it's more trouble than it's worth
ah, this is more trouble than it's worth
-- "
Living It Up," written by
Rickie Lee Jones, first appears on her album Pirates
More trouble than it's worth?
Absolutely.
June 19, 2014, US President Barack Obama insisted that Iraq's crises required a political solution. But he's refused to address that issue. He's poured everything into a military approach and ignored diplomacy.
And there's been no real advance.
Ruth Pollard (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD) explains:
Even if Iraqi forces were to reoccupy all of the areas now controlled by
IS and the Syrian city of Raqqa – now its unofficial capital – was
liberated, without serious reform a group like the IS and all the chaos
it causes will just re-emerge from the ashes, warns says Zaid al-Ali, an
Iraqi lawyer and author of the book The Struggle for Iraq's Future.
"Without serious security sector reform and serious justice sector
reform in Iraq there is absolutely no point engaging in any of these
initiatives," says Ali, also a visiting lecturer and fellow at Princeton
University.
Instead of dealing with the threat of Islamic State
militants by undertaking military and police operations based on good
intelligence, Iraqi forces were randomly rounding people up, arresting
them and forcing them to pay bribes to get out.
"The justice
system is equally shambolic … in most cases the most senior leadership
of [IS] get away scot free while the people who cannot afford to pay
bribes are left behind," Ali says.
The government's persecution of the Sunnis is why the Islamic State got its foothold in Iraq to begin with. As world governments ignored the targeting of Sunnis, the only group that appeared to stand up for them was the Islamic State.
Whis is why
Shane Dixon Kavanaugh (VOCATIV) reports:
Research published by IIACCS,
a reputable polling firm in Iraq, shows that support for ISIS among
residents living in Mosul, the nation’s second-largest city, has
steadily increased since it fell to the terror group 18 months ago. The
survey also found that residents’ doubts about the Iraqi Army, and about
the aggressive anti-ISIS air campaign led by the United States, are
lingering.
Nearly 40 percent of people surveyed said ISIS represents their views
and interests. That’s up from just 10 percent in June 2014, the month
the militants seized control
of the city. Around 34 percent of participants said that they now
support the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate and 39 percent would
like jihadists to maintain control of Mosul.
You have to address the root causes. If you don't, you will never defeat the Islamic State.
Children carry through the streets
A brilliant painted star
Angels gather 'round the hearth
Strumming on guitars
Men of great renown and faith
Say prayers on boulevards
It's the night before Christmas
But you don’t have to be an angel
To sing harmony
And you don't have to be a child
To love the mystery
And you don’t have to be a wise man
On bended knee
The heart of this Christmas is in you and me
The night before Christmas
The night before Christmas
-- "
The Night Before Christmas," written by
Carly Simon, first appears on the soundtrack for Nora Ephron's THIS IS MY LIFE
On this topic,
Saif Hameed (REUTERS) reports:
With Christmas
falling this year a day after Prophet Mohammad's birthday, the city of
Baghdad is holding Christmas celebrations in a sign of brotherhood with
Iraq's hard-pressed Christian community.
Fireworks
will illuminate the Tigris river every night of the week and a 25-metre
(82 feet) Christmas tree has been set up in Zawraa public park. In
Zayuna camp, in the east of the city, children listened to Christmas
carols on Wednesday and danced with Santa Claus to Iraqi songs.
And about there, reporting ends and whoring begins.
They're all whoring. One outlet after another.
The Islamic State, we're told has destroyed life for Christians in Iraq.
They apparently believe news consumers are so stupid that they can't remember a year ago or two.
Every year, the press has reported how difficult things are for Iraqi Christians.
Long before the Islamic State emerged, the troubles were via Shi'ite militias.
Barack has long been accused of avoiding the persecution of Iraqi Christians -- among others. But this year, he issued a statement.
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
December 23, 2015
Statement by the President on Persecuted Christians at Christmas
During this season of Advent, Christians in the United States and
around the world are preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
At this time, those of us fortunate enough to live in countries that
honor the birthright of all people to practice their faith freely give
thanks for that blessing. Michelle and I are also ever-mindful that
many of our fellow Christians do not enjoy that right, and hold
especially close to our hearts and minds those who have been driven from
their ancient homelands by unspeakable violence and persecution.
In some areas of the Middle East where church bells have rung for
centuries on Christmas Day, this year they will be silent; this silence
bears tragic witness to the brutal atrocities committed against these
communities by ISIL.
We join with people around the world in praying for God’s protection
for persecuted Christians and those of other faiths, as well as for
those brave men and women engaged in our military, diplomatic, and
humanitarian efforts to alleviate their suffering and restore stability,
security, and hope to their nations. As the old Christmas carol
reminds us:
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.
So there you have it, when he can't blame the persecution on the Islamic State, he has nothing to say. When he can blame it on IS, he rushes to finally weigh in.
Changing topics,
Taylor Weatherby (HOLLYWOOD LIFE) notes:
Congrats are in order for Shaima Qassem Abdulrahman!
The 20-year-old student was recently crowned Miss Iraq, becoming the
first to receive the honor since 1972. But as her country is facing some
turmoil, Shaima’s win comes with several death threats for her
involvement with the competition. Despite the scary circumstances, the
newest Miss Iraq is hopeful that her title will have a positive affect
on all Iraqi women.
Kate Storey covers the for ELLE
here.
Faisal Al Yafai (THE NATIONAL) finds the whole thing to be a sham and offers:
It is a country where, while young Iraqis walk down a catwalk, it is still unsafe for women (and men) to walk down the street.
Where
the number of women in work has plummeted since the US invasion. Where
female political representation, though mandated by law, is contorted by
political parties. Where the legal system cannot provide justice for
the crimes committed against women by both Iraqis and Americans.
It
isn't clear how any of those issues will be progressed by young girls
wearing nice clothes and parading on a stage in front of judges. Nor is
it especially clear how their doing so constitutes a “celebration of
life”.
iraq
cnnthe wall st. journalmatt bradley
