U.S. forced to evacuate consulate in Iraq
Last week the Trump Administration ranted against OPEC because the Iranian sanctions are driving up oil prices.
That's called blowback.
Today we see the next level of blowback.
The State Department says the U.S. consulate in the southern Iraqi city of Basra is being evacuated following attacks blamed on Iran-backed militias. The U.S. embassy in Baghdad will provide full consular services for Basra and the surrounding area, the State Department said.
What's most notable is the reaction by US secretary of state Mike Pompeo.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo directly threatened retaliation against Iran on Friday, after accusing Iranian forces of repeatedly directing attacks against US diplomatic facilities in Iraq.“Iran should understand that the United States will respond promptly and appropriately to any such attacks,” Mr Pompeo said in a statement, adding both the US consulate general in Basrah and the US embassy in Baghdad had been targeted.
Recently, #Iran-supported militias in Iraq launched rocket attacks against the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and our consulate in Basra. We’ll hold #Iran’s regime accountable for any attack on our personnel or facilities, and respond swiftly and decisively in defense of American lives. pic.twitter.com/nqbmogbeCA
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) September 25, 2018
What is happening in Iraq could lead directly to a proxy war with Iran in Iraq.
The Pentagon says U.S. forces will stay in Iraq “as long as needed”. There are about 5,200 U.S. troops in Iraq, versus about 100,000 Shia militiamen.
Pompeo is working with Saudi Arabia to form an anti-Iran coalition known as the Middle East Strategic Alliance.
As recently as April, the U.S. was telling those Shia militias were welcome in Iraq.
Last month those Shia militias threatened to attack foreign troops in Iraq if they didn't leave.
Comments
The irony! It burnzzzzz
“ Has the regime in #Iran lived together with other nations in peace? Has it been a good neighbor? Look around the world and you’ll see the answer is a deafening “no.”
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Paging Mr Orwell...
"Iran-backed militias." That would be Iraqis, no? Is the ultimate plan then to, um, eliminate Iraq's Shia? I expect to hear, soon, that Iraqi Shia test their chemical weapons on children.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
It's a left-over from the Iran-Iraq war
Iran created and financially supported Iraq exiles fleeing Saddam.
This never stopped.
When we invaded in 2003 those Shia militias just changed enemies. They killed hundreds of U.S. troops.
That's why more than one group is listed by us as being terrorists.
Then, when ISIS invaded and the Iraqi army collapsed, those same militias stopped ISIS outside of Baghdad.
Of course they also committed ethnic cleansing.
They then defeated al-Qaeda in Syria, which really messed up our foreign policy.
But not every Iraqi Shia
fled to Iran. Of the militia it's likely a single-digit percent. And they still remain native Iraqis whether Iran influences or pays for any of this. And US action would still have to cleanse Iraq of Shia to win.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
That is true
I never implied otherwise (I don't think).
I wouldn't go that far. Plus it would be impossible.
OTOH, those shia militias are popular with shias, so attacking would cause a huge backlash.
Hypocrisy at its finest
Why the leaders of the rest of the world didn't walk out on Trump when he threatened other countries is beyond my comprehension. How much longer will they waste their citizen's lives and their money just because we told them to jump?
Remember when Obama said that "no country should have to tolerate bombs dropping on them from outside their borders?
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
Similar list should be inscribed on a monument on the Mall in DC
Like the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, a memorial to the millions of ordinary people killed as a result of actions of the United States government.
Missing from list
Native Americans.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
Does this mean that the US MIC
will have to move their Al-Qaida troops out of Syria?
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
Like Israel evacuated “White Helmets”—and jihadist leaders too?
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=israel+evacuate+white+helmets+islamist
The God Complex
Well, except for one, who will bomb you to hell if you don't live together as good neighbors, decided by that one nation.
That is the traditional role that we assign to a concept called "God".
There is no self reflection today in the US among political leaders, the main stream press, and most of her citizens. Lavrov is right, this will lead to large scale global conflict.
Because of this the world is at war right now. It is an all out war of words and limited military action and that is why the US uses absurd hyperbole. Unless the sane opposition can get out there and raise the stakes for the US the world will go down the path of all out military war leading to nuclear war. So yes, the words that Pompeo and Trump and Bolton use have consequences if left unanswered. Lavrov is trying but the rest of the world is standing there with their mouths wide open saying nothing. Most world wide leaders understand this, but they are too ch*cken shit to piss off "God".
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
Remember the Maine
n/t
"If I sit silently, I have sinned." - Mossadegh
FWIW
....
...
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
A bill worth backing
no war on Iran
Didn't Congress already abrogate
their Constitutional responsibility when they basically told GWB that he now longer needed Congress to finance his wars before he could declare one? This may be a hard one to walk back.
They could always take it to the Supreme Court. LOL
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
There's a link about it
here
I was kind of surprised to see DiFi's name up there.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."