We're back to square one in Iraq

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sun, 12/29/2019 - 4:54pm

The only thing that has changed in eight years is the size of the conflict.

US forces conducted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against five facilities the Pentagon says are tied to an Iranian-backed militia blamed for a series of attacks on joint US-Iraq military facilities housing American forces.
The strikes occurred at about 11 a.m. ET on Sunday, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. They stand as the first significant military response in retaliation for attacks by the Shia militia group, known as Kataib Hezbollah, that have injured numerous American military personnel, according to US officials.
...
The US airstrike in Iraq near the Syrian border killed four soldiers, including a brigade commander, tied to the militia, the Iraqi military said Sunday. Thirty members belonging to the militia were also injured, according to the military.
Kataib Hezbollah is a group under the Tehran-backed Popular Mobilization Units. Jewad Kadum, a PMU official, said in a statement Sunday that the rescue operations are still ongoing as well as the evacuation of the wounded, recovery of the dead bodies and the extinguishing of the fire caused by the airstrikes.

Kataib Hezbollah was one of the militias that drove out the U.S. in 2011.
It was also one of the groups that destroyed ISIS.
And it was also one of the groups that was shooting protesters in recent weeks.

Is this really the fight we want?

While there were multiple strikes, the sites being hit were relatively small, the official told CNN. Whether the US decides to strike further will depend on the activities of the militia, they said, and whether it conducts additional attacks against US interests.
...
Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi said the Baghdad government rejects "unilateral action" by coalition forces inside his country, according to a statement carried on Iraqi state TV Al Iraqiya.
"We have already confirmed our rejection of any unilateral action by coalition forces or any other forces inside Iraq. We consider it a violation of Iraq's sovereignty and a dangerous escalation that threatens the security of Iraq and the region," the Iraqi prime minister said.

What right do we have being there?

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 12/29/2019 - 5:44pm
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One tweet said that Iran is now attacking a US base, while others say that Iraq is involved in the fighting. And that the Iraqi PM has told us to leave their country.

Oh yeah. And a few said that Trump only did it to freak out the deep state so he can pull the troops out. Yeah I don't know how that works either. Another thread asked gawd to protect our bravery troops and give them armor and weapons to defend themselves. So much for peace on earth huh?

Hey if our troops are being attacked then maybe it's a good idea to bring them home so they will be safe. People seem all bent out of shape thinking how dare anyone attack them. Hmmm..who is thousand of miles away from their country and what gave them the right to be there?

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 12/29/2019 - 5:51pm
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An American Was Just Killed In A Rocket Attack In Iraq Just After Pompeo Set The Stage To Blame Iran

Has a false flag been launched in Iraq? It’s being reported that a U.S. civilian contractor has been killed and U.S. servicemen have been injured in a rocket attack at an Iraqi base.

The Last American Vagabond reviews the many times we have heard about alleged attacks that have not been proven other than the “anonymous military sources” always quoted by the mainstream media. However, this time the Iraqi military did corroborate that a number of “missiles” struck near Kirkuk, resulting in one death and many injuries.

Perhaps most tellingly, this event comes directly on the heels of Mike Pompeo drumming up support for the idea that Iran is an imminent threat to America and American interests. What comes next?

Iran is an imminent threat to America and American interests. How many times have we been hearing this since the Saudi ships were attacked last summer? Bibi is really wanting to get his war with Iran going and he has been pushing hard for it lately. If so then Israel's troops better be on the front lines and not ours.

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Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Sun, 12/29/2019 - 6:08pm
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We going back into Syria and Libya, too. We're committed to fulfilling Israel's foreign policy. There's talk of recommitting in Afghanistan. One morning this year you will wake up in a country at war in Iran. The Neocon Deep State believes that the road to the supreme American Empire runs through the Middle East. The truth is, if the Necons delay another moment, they will lose everything.

The problem was never the American government. The problem is the American people. Someone somewhere needs to kick us to the curb if they can, because the American people cannot control their own government. The fact is, Americans are so mentally damaged that they actually believe they live in a democracy. The American People's delusion is a clear and present threat to every nation in the world. God help them.

On another note, some say this is the most honest three minutes in American television:

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 12/29/2019 - 7:33pm
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@Pluto's Republic

We fought for moral reasons. Fought the war on poverty not on poor people.

We used to build great things, but Boeing has sure pointed out how far our industry greatness has fallen. We are last or close to the bottom on almost everything, but instead of addressing that congress just gives more money to the war machine. Our biggest export is weapons and death. And we can't really say that we are free either. One is not free when they are under constant surveillance. Hell we don't even have habeous corpus anymore. The military can arrest any one of us on the president's whim and lock us up indefinitely without charges or access to a lawyer. Land of the free? Nope. Brave? Nope. Cuz if we were we'd be doing something about what our government has been doing to us for so many decades.

Good video!

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Submitted by on the cusp on Sun, 12/29/2019 - 7:43pm

@Pluto's Republic We suck. That's the damn truth.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 12/29/2019 - 6:29pm
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The first tweet I read on this was that the US attacked Iraqi forces not Iranians. Elijah is usually a good source for news from the Middle East. Well hopefully the truth will filter out.

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Submitted by gjohnsit on Sun, 12/29/2019 - 7:22pm

@snoopydawg

The first tweet I read on this was that the US attacked Iraqi forces not Iranians.

Iran funds those groups, but they are nominally part of Iraq's security forces.

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Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 12/30/2019 - 12:53pm

@snoopydawg it was an attack on Iraq

Iraqi sources said at least 25 militia fighters were killed and 55 wounded.

“The prime minister described the American attack on the Iraqi armed forces as an unacceptable vicious assault that will have dangerous consequences,” his office said.
...
Iraqi security sources said U.S. forces in northern Iraq were ramping up security.

Iraq’s government will announce its official position later on Monday, Abdul Mahdi said.

The PMF bolstered Iraq’s security forces during their battle to retake a third of the country from Islamic State.

They were later formally integrated into Iraq’s official security structure and wield massive political influence.

militias will retaliate

The Iranian-backed militia targeted by US airstrikes in Iraq and Syria pledged to exact revenge for the “aggression of evil American ravens.”

“Our battle with America and its mercenaries is now open to all possibilities,” Kata’ib Hezbollah said in a statement around midnight Sunday, according to the Associated Press. “We have no alternative today other than confrontation and there is nothing that will prevent us from responding to this crime.”

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 12/29/2019 - 9:53pm
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and the death of its creator. This is not just about him, but also the opcw scandal that the mainstream media can't be bothered to talk about.

Narrative Managers Claim White Helmets Founder Was Driven To Suicide By Syria Skeptics

Imperialist spinmeisters are trial-ballooning a new Syria narrative that is so breathtakingly stupid it needs its own article solely for the purpose of mockery.

On Christmas Eve PBS aired a bizarre segment on the death of James Le Mesurier, the former military intelligence officer who founded the extremely shady propaganda construct known as the White Helmets. The segment makes relentless, ham-fisted appeals to emotion, even attempting to associate the White Helmets with Armistice Day using wistful camera pans over poppy flowers and misty war memorial art exhibits, but by far the most yogurt-brained part is its repeated suggestions that Le Mesurier killed himself because people had been accusing him of being a propagandist.

“And now a story of a humanitarian trying to help Syria: the suspicious death in Turkey last month of James Le Mesurier, the co-founder of the White Helmets rescue organization in Syria,” opens PBS News Hour’s Judy Woodruff.

This video is a must watch too cuz it's brimming with propaganda.

Alrighty then. Everyone knows that if people are exposed to some type of chemical that you don't use protective clothing or eyeglasses to keep from being exposed to them yourself. And notice how the guy that used an inhaler on the kid let whatever is in it to go up his nose and get into his eyes. You'd think with all the practice they get they would have gotten it right by now.

Im too lazy to essay this but ya'll can read it yourselves. Trust me you'll be glad you did.

But of course, no one really believes that accusations of conducting propaganda actually drive people to suicide. If that were so, people like me would have thrown ourselves off a building years ago.

And no comment on the white helmets can be complete without this photo of them handing a deceased kid with such relevance.

IMG_1982_2.JPG
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Submitted by wendy davis on Mon, 12/30/2019 - 12:09pm
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After U.S. Strike On Iraqi Forces Its Troops Will (Again) Have To Leave dec 23,

he offers a few tweets including elija magnier's:

Elijah J. Magnier @ejmalrai - 6:20 UTC · Dec 30, 2019
32 killed and 45 wounded the count of #US violent aggression on #Iraq security forces brigades 45 and 46 last night on a military position established to counter-attack and raid #ISIS remnant at al-Qaem, the borders between Iraq and Syria.

includes a link to 'iraqi thoughts', a grisly read...

and linked to this video of the bloody aftermath.

The dead include Abu Ali Madiniyah, the commander of the 1st battalion of the 45th Brigade.

The strikes were in total disregard of Iraqi sovereignty and against forces under direct command of the Iraqi state:

In a statement, Abdul-Mahdi said Defense Secretary Mark Esper had called him about a half-hour before the U.S. strikes to tell him of U.S. intentions to hit bases of the militia suspected of being behind Friday’s rocket attack. Abdul-Mahdi said in the statement he asked Esper to call off U.S. retaliation plans.

The statement said Iraqi President Barham Salih also received advance notice from a U.S. diplomat, and also asked unsuccessfully for Americans to call off it off.

thanks for creating this thread; i'm too jammed in RL to have posted on it. and so fucking sick of US proxy wars with iran and the rest of the 'great powers'. they may have really fucked up with this one.

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Submitted by dystopian on Mon, 12/30/2019 - 12:37pm
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We're back to square one in Iraq

You say that as if it is a bug, not a feature?

And... it's the MIC for the win...

As for us? We're F'd!

So have a good one!

Smell the roses, walk, fish, laugh, be happy, enjoy good food and good friends.

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Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 12/30/2019 - 1:56pm

afghan_2.PNG
the article is even worse

Once the Americans left, the survivors started digging.

There were too many dead and not enough shovels, so a local politician brought in heavy machinery from a nearby construction site. He dug graves deep enough to fit mothers with children, or children with children. Some were still in their pajamas, their hands inked with henna tattoos from the party preparations the night before.

Villagers picked through the rubble of what had been an entire neighborhood, looking for remains to wrap in white linens for burial. A boy clutching a torn rug walked in a daze on top of the ruins. A young man collapsed in grief by a pile of mud bricks where his home once stood – where his wife and four children had been sleeping inside.

The local doctor recorded a cellphone video to document the dead faces, freckled with shrapnel and blood, coated with dust and debris. Some were Afghan men of fighting age, but most – dozens of them – were women and children. Taza was 3 years old. Maida was 2. Zia, 1.
...
U.S. military officials publicly touted the August 22, 2008, Azizabad raid – Operation Commando Riot – as a victory. A high-value Taliban target had been killed; the collateral damage was minimal; the village was grateful.

None of it was true.

The Taliban commander escaped. Dozens of civilians were dead in the rubble, including as many as 60 children. The local population rioted.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Mon, 12/30/2019 - 3:37pm
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Why? Who the hell knows why they think that, but there's a diary on DK today saying just that.

But when Obama admitted that he was training ISIL...crickets and yawns.

Because people supported Obama no matter what the anti war left went to sleep. Those of us that didn't and called him out were told to stfu and quit being racist.

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Submitted by wendy davis on Mon, 12/30/2019 - 6:57pm
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@SecPompeo 7h7 hours ago
More
• “Elections” for the Iranian parliament are two months away, but the regime is already cooking the books by disqualifying over 1,000 candidates. We stand by the Iranian people, who simply want their voices to be heard.

when i'd first seen this horror story at RT last night...well, i woke this a.m. with this timeless song playing in my mind, then it played...all day long:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6z79WMOPtk]

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Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 12/30/2019 - 6:59pm

@wendy davis
Our invasion of Iraq in 2003 was sold as a "defensive" action as well.

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Submitted by wendy davis on Tue, 12/31/2019 - 11:00am
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@gjohnsit

and a second gulf war in 1990, 1991. it's still going on under US chosen abdul-mahdi whose people are rebelling a hella lot (likely aided by cia and special ops).

the US has really most sincerely gone rogue again, as even mahdi had said "stay the hell out of our sovereign bidness!"

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Submitted by wendy davis on Tue, 12/31/2019 - 11:14am
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met in beijing yesterday according to AP via sfgate.com:

BEIJING (AP) — China's foreign minister has decried international "bullying practices" while meeting with his Iranian counterpart Tuesday, in the country's latest criticism of American foreign policy under the Trump administration.
Wang Yi reaffirmed the strength of bilateral relations in opening remarks at the beginning of talks with Mohammad Javad Zarif.

The Iranian minister's visit follows a trip to close ally Russia and comes just after the first-ever drills among the navies of the three countries in the northern part of the Indian Ocean.

“We need to stand together against unilateralism and bullying practices," Wang said.

@JZarif · 4h4 hours ago

On my final trip of this decade, consensus among Iran, Russia & China that:

-Multilateralism is in grave danger due to US actions

-US violations have jeopardized JCPOA & intl security

-Only way E3/EU can save JCPOA is to stop posturing & begin fulfilling their own obligations.

TomCat on twitter has a lot on the riots and burnings of the US embassy is bagdad, as does TR.com

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 12/31/2019 - 12:04pm
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Trump is blaming Iran for this. Bibi and the neocons in the Trump administration are doing all they can to get their war on with Iran and Trump is right there playing along. Any doubts on whether Trump wants to bring the troops gone should be removed by now. So far he hasn't brought any troops home even though people keep saying that he wants to end the wars. Balderdash!!

Without Evidence, Trump Accuses Iran of 'Orchestrating an Attack' on US Embassy in Iraq as Fears of War Grow

Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many," Trump tweeted. "We strongly responded, and always will. Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible. In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!"

Trump's tweet closely mirrored Sen. Marco Rubio's (R-Fla.) response to the embassy protests. "Iran is directly responsible for orchestrating the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Iraq and must be held accountable for it and the safety of every American serving there," tweeted Rubio, a longtime supporter of regime change in Iran.

Any member of congress who authorizes use of force on Iran should of course send their own family members of military age to die in a war for Israel and the neocons of both parties. Haven't enough people died as cannon fodder for the MICC? Yes they have.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 12/31/2019 - 12:05pm
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@snoopydawg

guess who is saying that this is just a wag the dawg scenario to get people's attention of impeachment? And that this was the real reason Putin called Trump earlier this week.

SMDH!

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 12/31/2019 - 12:09pm
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In a just world, millions of Americans would be surrounding Washington DC demanding the US military cease killing people that defeated US ally, ISIS. That sounds redundant?

We are the people from the Old World in the sword of truth series. Bankrupting ourselves and living in a third world country full of squalor just so the war machine is funded.

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