No one culda saw that one coming
Earlier this week a U.S. serviceman died in Iraq via an IED for the first time in several years.
Then this morning I saw this.
The US informed #Baghdad that PMU units, suspected to be behind the IED explosion, should leave #Baiji area within 72 hours. https://t.co/tyx2ElSa1K
— Zaid Benjamin (@zaidbenjamin) October 5, 2017
If this is true, it's a very big deal.
PMU's are the Shia militias fighting ISIS, that are aligned with Baghdad and Tehran.
IOW, de facto allies.
The thing is, it's not like there were no warnings.
Iranian-backed proxies in Iraq have “vowed to start killing Americans again once the Islamic State is expelled,” The Washington Times has reported (“Ruthless Iranian militia vows to turn against U.S. troops once Islamic State is defeated in Iraq,” Sept. 7, 2017). However, many major U.S. news outlets have failed to cover this story.Jafar al-Hosseini, a spokesman for Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH), told Iran’s Fars News Agency that the U.S. must leave Iraq or be confronted with a new war. Washington Times correspondent Rowan Scarbarough observed that al-Hosseini’s “scripted messages on Beirut’s al-Mayadeen Arab-language TV station suggest” that Kata’ib Hezbollah “is not bluffing.”
Scarbarough detailed that the group has about 5,000 operatives and was organized in 2007 by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, which trained them in the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other tactics. IEDs were used to kill approximately 500 U.S. personnel.
KH was designated a terrorist organization in 2009 by the U.S. State Department
Just a few months ago we bombed and killed dozens of Iraqi PMU's in Syria. We killed another 10 in June.
You don't suppose they took offense to that, do you?
Comments
Nothing to worry about
It isn't important until Trump calls someone in Iran "Rocket Man" and threatens to destroy their country with fire.
At which point, no doubt, we will be apprised of the situation and told what to believe about it by MsNBC, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
Fuck. And when they start using EFP's, you know they're serious
For those who don't know, EFP's are "Explosively Formed Penetrator" bombs.
They're designed to shred US armor, and kill and wound the troops inside of our "IED-Proof" vehicles.
While I was over there we didn't worry as much about IED's. They were going to happen no matter what, but the EFP's were another matter. They were extremely effective at scaring the hell out of us. Fortunately, they didn't use them to the same degree as IED's, because you actually have to have access to machine tools to make EFP's.
Oh man, so many acronyms coming back. You know we were told not to call them "Car Bombs"? We were supposed to refer to them as "VBIED", which tells the same thing, but takes over twice as long.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Trump's supporters are starting to figure out that his
rhetoric about getting the fuck out of the ME was B.S.
I actually think he meant it (bad business deal that), but he got so much push back that it was easier to just hand the wars over to the Generals. Russia, Russia, Russia, etc.
chuck utzman
TULSI 2020
The neocons are fully in control again,
forever and always, no matter who wins the elections. Col. Kwiatkowski wrote about this recently, she was a whistle-blower who worked in the Pentagon's office of special plans under Doug Feith in the run up to the Iraq War. Some things just don't change.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
@chuckutzman
And I suppose that's really over to Dick Cheney, advisor of the Trump Admin and crush of Vice President Pence...
The DeathStar Empire will continue until it drops though the last bit of floorboard it just bombed.
Edited for a letter typo - your proof of authenticity!
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
I'd be interested to see backup on this:
"Scarbarough detailed that the group has about 5,000 operatives and was organized in 2007 by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, which trained them in the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other tactics. IEDs were used to kill approximately 500 U.S. personnel."
It's right out of the neocon propaganda playbook. Scarborough is a conservative propaganda artist for the Wash Times.
Thought Bush was freeing Shia from tyrannical rule.
I remember thinking during Bush regime "what real clusterfuck when we are fighting the Shia who I thought we were liberating from Saddam." I don't think the neocons understand the consequences of bombing Iran and what it would mean to US troop safety and presence in Syria and Iraq.
Well, if enough Americans
were to be killed, and they could spin that right with Russia, Russia, Russia, they care less about those troops, but that might help gin up the war. War with Iran and Russia keeps the BRICS at bay maybe? And that One-Belt thing?
I put nothing past them.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
@MrWebster
If they can't 'get' principles of right and wrong and have no empathy, ethics or conscience, they ain't gonna 'get' nuffin at all except that they 'want it all and they want it now!'
Ir's all a movie to them, in which nothing but them is accepted as being 'real' or mattering.
Now playing, Dick Cheney And The NeoCons in: 'War Against The World'.
'If we can't take it, you can't keep it anyway.'
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
These insurgents don't understand our freedom drones.
Clearly they are irrational and hate us because of our freedom.
Heh! Mission accomplished!
Which mission?
From now on, I demand timelines for each mission. Right now they are all blurred. I think that is a point.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
As impossible as it may be
to understand what is actually taking place, the fact is that going into Syria and arming "groups" with contradictory purposes, like fighting ISIS while fighting against the Syrian army ISIS is fighting against, was idiocy. Unless you wanted endless war because war produces unchecked wealth.
@Linda Wood
Seems to me you have a very good understanding...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.