The Common Ills: Nouri's failures multiply as third city falls to rebels

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Nouri's failures multiply as third city falls to rebels

Headline of the day on Iraq? "Gunmen control several districts in Mosul, The governor sneaks out of the city."

It only gets more dramatic. Liz Sly and Ahmed Ramadan (Washington Post) report Mosul is under the control of rebels, "Fighters with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an al-Qaeda offshoot, overran the entire western bank of the city overnight after Iraqi soldiers and police apparently fled their posts, in some instances discarding their uniforms as they sought to escape the advance of the militants." Mohammed Tawfeeq, Jomana Karadsheh and Laura Smith-Spark (CNN) report:

Speaking at a news conference in Baghdad, Osama al-Nujaifi appeared to point the finger at the central government, accusing security forces of abandoning Mosul when the fighting began.

Al-Nujaifi said security forces "abandoned their weapons, their tanks and their bases and left them to terrorist groups, even Mosul airport." He also said gunmen had taken over ammunition storage facilities.

The speaker, whose brother Atheel al-Nujaifi is the governor of Nineveh province, said the central government had been warned over the past few weeks that militant groups were gathering but had taken no preventive action.

Wait. There's more. RT notes, "Eyewitness accounts describe the scenes of chaos on the streets of Iraq’s second-largest city as people fled for their lives. A number of reports say that militants are freeing detainees from police stations, while AL RAI Chief International Correspondent Elijah J Magnier tweeted that the ISIS had freed over 2000 inmates from a 'counter terrorism prison'." Dentist Mahmoud al-Taie tells Ali A. Nabhan and Matt Bradley (Wall St. Journal), "The whole of Mosul collapsed today. We've fled our homes and neighborhoods, and we're looking for God's mercy. We are waiting to die."

How awful.

But at least it can't get any worse, right?

In Nouri's Iraq, it can always get worse (and usually does).

All Iraq News reports that Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi declared at a press conference today, "The ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] elements controlled the IA [Iraqi Army] helicopters and security forces withdrew from Shurqat Airport in Mosul."

Well thank goodness the White House hasn't been supplying Nouri with weapons, helicopters and F-16s . . .

Oh, wait.

They have been supplying Nouri with those things. In fact, Nouri got his first F-16 last week.

Doesn't look smart, does it?

The White House supplying a government with weapons the government can't even secure?

Maybe Barack can next press the Congress to okay plutonium being shipped to Nouri?

Mitchell Prothero (McClatchy Newspapers) notes:

Iraqi provincial officials confirmed reports from ISIS media outlets that at least one major Iraqi military base had fallen and with it, huge amounts of American-supplied military equipment, including possible attack helicopters. ISIS-linked Internet accounts were filled with credible appearing photos of large amounts of captured and destroyed U.S.-built armored vehicles.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/06/10/229877/police-army-flee-as-isis-seizes.html#storylink=cpy

The failures of Nouri are the failures of Barack.

That's what happens when you thwart an election and insist the your special friend is the 'winner.' (In 2010, Nouri 'won' a second term not via the election or even via post-election horse trading. He 'won' via the US-brokered Erbil Agreement -- a contract which circumvented the Iraqi Constituiotn.)

Now thug Nouri wants a third term as prime minister?

Martin Chulov (Guardian) observes, "Maliki had positioned himself as the only Iraqi politician who could stand up to Isis. But his forces have been unable to win back Fallujah, or Ramadi and seem increasingly impotent as the insurgency gathers steam."

In other violence, National Iraqi News Agency reports a Shirqat battle left 1 rebel dead and three police members injured, 2 people were shot dead in Baghdad, an Amiriyat al-Fallujah suicide bomber took his own life and the life of 1 Sahwa with four more injured, the corpse of a farmer was dumped on the side of the street in Samarra and police discovered it had been rigged with a bomb, and 2 Baquba bombings have left 5 people dead and eighteen more injured.

Through Monday, Iraq Body Count counts 534 violent deaths so far this month. 534 violent deaths in the first nine days of the month.

Nouri is a failure. He didn't deserve a first term as prime minister but Bully Boy Bush insisted on him. He didn't deserve a second term but Barack Obama overturned the election results and circumvented the Iraqi Constitution to give Nouri a second term (via The Erbil Agreement). Failure Nouri now wants a third term?

The following community sites -- plus the ACLU, Iraq Inquiry Digest, Antiwar.com, Susan's On the Edge, Jake Tapper, Ms. magazine's blog and Black Agenda Report -- updated: