The United States is mulling further intervention in Iraq as government forces flee Al Qaeda-linked insurgents and the country appears teetering on chaos. While the Administration is not ready to commit boots on the grounds, we may be moving toward a further influx of hundreds of millions or billions in military aid and even air strikes. As ISIS insurgents are seizing U.S. weaponry, the U.S. has already started to flood the country a new massive shipment of new free weapons.
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant or ISIS is on a roll and nearing the capital. It is an al-qaeda linked terrorist group following the Wahhabi movement, the extreme religious view advanced by our ally Saudi Arabia.
So let’s take stock. We replaced a dictator based on lies in a massive invasion ordered by George W. Bush. We then spent over $2 trillion (the cost is over $4 trillion when you include Afghanistan). Both President Bush and President Obama continued to pour hundreds of billions of dollars in the country despite massive corruption and billions that simply disappeared. At the same time we have been cutting back on our own educational, environmental, scientific, and social programs due to a lack of money. Consider what $4 trillion would have done.
More importantly, we have lost some 4,486 U.S. service members between 2003 and 2012. Thousands have been wounded, many with lifelong disabilities. Our leaders continued to pour troops into the country because no one wanted to admit that the war was a mistake or that we were losing to Islamic insurgents. We continued to lose people and spend trillions in the belief that we could reverse centuries of sectarian and social strife.
In the meantime, we became increasingly hated by many Iraqis and we opened the country not to Saddamists but Al Qaeda forces who moved into the area as an opportunity to fight America and take over large parts of the country. They are now seizing advanced US weaponry so we are again arming extremists. Now to make our disaster complete we not only have Al Qaeda taking control of areas but Iran has now reportedly sent in troops to fuel the Shiite/Sunni violence. It is offering as many as 10,000 Iranian troops.
It is another example of the economic principle of “path dependence”: we have so much invested that we cannot change course. So once again, we will open up our coffers until the last helicopter leaves from the roof from the Green Zone.
Nick, as for the core of ME issues being Sunni versus Shiite, yep, you nailed it. However, if they ever once resolve those differences, with one of those my enemy’s enemy is my friend deals, it will be fanatical Islam versus Israel. Then back to Sunni versus Shiite. I live among 40,000 Arabs, most are Shiite in my area. Among the ordinary working people I don’t find them much different than the rest of us, which is one reason I live here. With the current ISIS/ISIL push there will be no celebrations here with people waving purple fingers in the air. That is sad. Lives lost, friends of mine among them, for something of an ideal that seems to be vanishing before our eyes. Feels like the 60’s all over again.
Dang. The critter ate my last comment as well. So be it. Karma:)
Reagan was right on this one. Nancy Reagan, that is. Just say no!
Jerry this craziness is @ the core of virtually ALL the hatred in the Middle East. Sunni v Shiite.
Help please. I had a comment eaten. Thanks.
Nick, I have restored the comment.
Saucy, I’ve been bringing myself up to speed. Firstly, at the core, this craziness in Iraq is that this a Sunni/Shiite war. I learned Iran[Shiite led] is helping the Maliki govt.[Shiite led] against ISIS. What we are now seeing is a terrorist army that is organized, focused, and ruthless. Unlike Al Qaeda, ISIS has taken over a large swath of Syria and Iraq, and HELD that territory. This is a paradigm shift. Paid armed forces in Syria and Iraq are frightened by the savagery of ISIS and simply flee, leaving armored equipment and weapons. Obama just made a statement that he is “weighing all options.” I’ll bet he uses his favorite toys, drones. I am ambivalent on that. We should assist the Kurds if they are attacked. They are sane, tough people who will never cut and run like Iraqi forces did. I will adjust my thoughts as I learn more or the situation changes.
Saucy, I’ve been bringing myself up to speed. Firstly, at the core, this craziness in Iraq is that this a Sunni/Shiite war. I learned Iran[Shiite led] is helping the Maliki govt.[Shiite led] against ISIS. What we are now seeing is a terrorist army that is organized, focused, and ruthless. Unlike Al Qaeda, ISIS has taken over a large swath of Syria and Iraq, and HELD that territory. This is a paradigm shift. Paid armed forces in Syria and Iraq are frightened by the savagery of ISIS and simply flee, leaving armored equipment and weapons. Obama just made a statement that he is “weighing all options.” I’ll bet he uses his favorite toys, drones. I am ambivalent on that. We should assist the Kurds if they are attacked. They are sane, tough people who will never cut and run like Iraqi forces did.
Nick, I retrieved your comment on 6/13 at 5:07 pm
Iran to the rescue……………….
Iran will provide support to al-Maliki’s government to combat an “extremist, terrorist group that is acting savagely,” President Hassan Rouhani said on state television yesterday.
The Wall Street Journal reported that two battalions of elite Quds Forces from Iran are backing up Iraqi forces.
Mr. Nice Guy Sheikh Abdel-Qader al-Nayel………………
A military spokesman for Iraq’s tribal revolutionary council, said that Iraqi Sunnis are particularly supportive of “our revolution.”
The main goal of the insurgency is Baghdad’s Green Zone, home to the prime minister’s office, parliament and foreign embassies,
“to demolish the current political process and form a national salvation government,” al-Nayel said.
Stay tuned……same bat crazy channel.
John wrote “All agencies knew 9/11 was coming.”
Large conspiracies are difficult to keep secret. If “all agencies” knew 9/11 was coming, then you would have had tens or even hundreds of potential Snowdens. I think it is highly likely that someone would have sounded the alarm before the event, especially given how many of those officials would have families in the firing line, but now that we are almost 13 years after the event, it boggles the mind that such a secret could be maintained.
A perfect example is the grand jury proceedings regarding Rocky Flats. It was nowhere near as momentous as 9/11, yet the grand jury members leaked much of the knowledge to journalists because they were good Americans and wanted the truth to be known.
Your premise fails the smell test.
Nick Spinelli wrote “I do not support going back into Iraq”
Yes, I knew that. Sorry if my words gave a different impression.
“What about the pipeline to make us free of the Middle East oil?”
Which one: Keystone XL or South Stream? Okay, that second one actually helps Europe.
I am in favor of any pipeline that frees us from the Middle East. I think it is a crime if China is allowed to take Canadian oil. I just want the pipeline to be built robustly and I think we know how to do that.
I am not in favor of fracking, however, because I have a sneaky suspicion that our aquifers will be permanently tainted. And then we are f**ked.
I am on the fence with respect to drilling in Alaska because the environment is extreme. That drunken Exxon captain already screwed us once.
And the plans to make money by exporting our fracked oil are looney-tunes. We should be topping-off our Strategic Petroleum Reserve first.
Saucy, What about the pipeline to make us free of the Middle East oil?
Saucy, If you read what I said, I do not support going back into Iraq. If a case can be made, I will listen w/ an open mind. But as of now, I say stay out.
9/11 was “permitted” just like Pearl Harbor. All agencies knew 9/11 was coming. The Twin Tower targets were presented to all agencies by the “Blind Sheik” in 1992. Bin Laden was run by the CIA against the USSR just like the CIA (shadow government) ran Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan as a decoy for the shooter/security officer escorting Bobby. Bin Laden’s “fliers” were tracked. Saudis who harbored the “fliers” in Florida were allowed to fly out of this country on 9/12. Tom Clancy told us and Bin Laden that fully fueled jet air liners could be flown into governmental and New York buildings with devastating effect.
Bush, like McKinley/Roosevelt and the sinking of the Maine, like Roosevelt and Pearl Harbor, like Johnson and the Gulf of Tonkin, used a contrived attack to start a war. The American military was preparing for desert operations at MCAGCC 29 Palms and other military facilities for more than a decade prior to 9/11.
You might want to analyze the actions of the puppet masters that pulled Bush’s strings.
The opiate of the masses is the driving force here, not oil. Countries with oil are happy to sell it at high prices.
If we could end our addiction to the opiate of the masses, we could get out of the Middle East entirely. We would all have to be like Einstein and Michio Kaku, physicists who live in Realville where there is “nothing between the atoms.”
The Founders, who admonished against “foreign entanglements,” weren’t religious zealots, in fact they were Deists.
America has “evolved” far from the intent of the Founders, far from the context formed by the Preamble, far from the freedom of the Constitution and far into a belligerent theocracy and other incoherence.
We saw this coming before the first bomb was dropped on Iraq.
Nick,
How can the republican party survive without cutting loose the Bush administration?
Nick Spinelli wrote “Make no mistake about it, ISIS has their sights on the US. They are in competition w/ Al Qaeda to be the baddest in the world.”
There are many Islamic fundamentalist groups in the world who intend to force Islam on the world. As was seen with the shoe bomber, underwear bomber, Times Square bomber, Portland bomber, Boston Marathon bombers, 9/11, London’s underground / bus bombers, Madrid train bombers, Moscow Nord-Ost siege, Beslan, et al, they have taken the fight to North America and Europe. Have you been paying attention to the Islamic takeover of British schools, particularly the “Trojan Horse” plot in Birmingham? Muslims are very similar to Bolsheviks (which I know something about) and Scientologists in their tactics, i.e. they are fanatical and crazy.
We don’t have the resources to occupy Iraq and keep it peaceful, especially since we have outsourced millions of jobs overseas which resulted in many Americans dropping into the poor class. The domino theory is very expensive to maintain. We should bring our forces home and concentrate our efforts here, possibly by closing the immigration gate to Muslims, but opening it wider to Christians from the Middle East like your pals in San Diego.
P.S. This is one reason I do not agree with libertarian theory, as it calls for unfettered immigration.
Dredd, that picture says it all. A vacuum was created when Saddam Hussein was deposed. There was no ISIS or even Al Queda before that vacuum was created….by us.
Nick Spinelli
Bob, There is always a price for fraud. And EVERYONE pays the price. You’re talking to a fraud investigator.
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Too big for fraud investigations.
Some of the world’s press is not pulling any punches (Mission Accomplished).
When are the warmongering chickenhawks of the US government (Democrat and Republican alike) and their pliably supine lickspittle stenographers in the media going to be held accountable for their war crimes in lying the US into an elective war in Iraq which has been directly responsible for untold death and human suffering?