I'm not sure you are.
You can't unsee it.
Remember that.
But if you'd like to see the scariest photo online . . .
Click here.
You'll be taken to VOX and a photo -- that obviously hasn't been retouched -- of Hillary Clinton.
It is scary.
Deeply, deeply scary.
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Starting with refugees, Jeremy Weber (CHRISTIANITY TODAY) explains:
The numbers -- 1 million refugees entering Europe by the end of 2015 -- surpassed comprehension long ago. The question is whether they have now also surpassed compassion.
The world now has more displaced people than
during World War II. Beyond Europe, another 2.5 million refugees are in
Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, while 4.5 million people remain displaced
within Syria and Iraq, where ISIS is most active.
This week, a very small number of refugees returned home to Iraq. Tuomas Forsell (REUTERS) reports, "Thousands of Iraqi refugees who arrived in Finland last year have decided to cancel their asylum applications and to return home voluntarily, citing family issues and disappointment with life in the frosty Nordic country." WORLD BULLETIN adds that they will be returning to Iraq in weekly waves of 100 until all wanting to leave have returned.
Muhanad Seloom
In Muhanad Seloom's Tweet above, he's presented a chart on Iraq refugees explaining 61% left Iraq for Europe to escape from death, 2% were looking for jobs, 31% were seeking a better life and 6% chose another reason than the three previous ones.
Earlier this month, Maeve McClenaghan (THE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM) reported
Thousands of young people who sought refuge in Britain as unaccompanied child asylum seekers have since been deported to war torn countries that are in part controlled by Islamic State, the Taliban or other repressive regimes, a Home Office minister has admitted.
James Brokenshire said that over the past nine years 2,748 young people – many of whom had spent formative years in the UK, forging friendships and going to school – had been returned to the likes of Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Syria.
The bulk – some 2,018 – have concerned Afghanistan, but an investigation has found that 60 young people have also been deported to Iraq since 2014, the year so-called Islamic State began its brutal regime in swathes of the country.
Of course, the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, has welcomed refugees but with the conditional note that when the war in Iraq and Syria is over, the refugees should return home. That shows many things -- some would say poor manners, for example -- including a belief that the Iraq War will end -- hasn't so far.
And the financial cost is mounting:
The Int'l Spectator
The Iraq War will have cost the US over $2.4 trillion by 2017, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The ongoing Iraq War has other costs as well -- such as creating create more refugees daily.
For example . . .
Muhanad Seloom Retweeted محمد الجميلي
Like Tikrit, "liberating forces" are destroying houses in Ramadi. Imagine what Would happen to Mosul? #Iraq
Muhanad Seloom added,
The Arabic explains that, in full of the Iraqi military, Shi'ite militias are blowing up homes in Ramadi.
Sorry, they're blowing homes in 'liberated' Ramadi.
IRAQI SPRING MC notes the bombings and states they're taking place with the cooperation of the Iraqi army.
This reality wasn't conveyed on Wednesday when the top US commander in Iraq, Col Steve Warren, held a press conference, "Moving on to the operational update. In Ramadi, the removal of IEDs and other hazards continues. Police and security forces are going back through the city to begin making it safe for civilians to return."
Blowing up houses is "making it safe for civilians to return"?
This is what happened in Tikrit following 'liberation,' it's what's happening in 'liberated' Ramadi so Muhanad Seloom is right to wonder: "what Would happen to Mosul?"
Alsumaria reports that the Governor of Nineveh Province, Atheel al-Nujaifi states that the Popular Mobilization Forces will not be welcome in Mosul. The Popular Mobilization Forces is a fancy name for the Shi'ite militias that Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has folded into the Iraqi forces. al-Nujaifi notes that not only is this his stance but that it is also what al-Abadi has been stating.
Has been saying.
That changed today.
ALL IRAQ NEWS reports Haider appeared before the Parliament today and announced that the Popular Mobilization Forces would be part of the forces sent in to liberate or 'liberate' Mosul.
Haider further stated that he was under no pressure from the US government to speed up the process of liberating or 'liberating' Mosul.
Mosul, for those who've forgotten, was seized by the Islamic State in June of 2014 -- nearly two years ago. A functioning government would have attempted to rescue the citizens of Mosul long ago.
Haider also declared to Parliament today that no US troops would be present for the liberation of Mosul . . .
except as trainers and advisors.
It's interesting, though.
With Tikrit, the US refused to provide any support at all until certain militias -- heavily linked to Tehran -- were removed from the area.
This led other Shi'ite militias to walk as well.
So now the US government is okay with providing support to these groups?
Wednesday, in his press briefing, Col Steve Warren had this exchange with MILITARY TIMES' Andrew Tilghman.
Q: Yes, as you move your focus over towards the Tigris River and thinking about Mosul, that's an area we've associated more with the -- the militia organizations.
I'm wondering, has anything really changed since, for example, Tikrit last year in terms of your plans for working with those groups or not with those groups? Is there any discussion of maybe some of those militia groups taking part in the training? Is there any -- is there any change in the policy of not wanting to work with them at all and sort of differentiating between the two types of militias that you will and you won't work with?
COL. WARREN: Well, so, I mean, our focus is on the Iraqi security forces, right? I mean, that's who we work with. We work with the Iraqi security forces. Now, there are pieces of the PMF, for example, you know, the Sunni tribal fighters who enroll in the popular mobilization force program who, of course, we're going to work with.
So, but really, all of it's channeled and funneled and focused through the ministry of defense, right? I mean, the end question is whoever is working directly under the control of the ministry of defense, that's who we'll support. So I think that's kind of been our policy all along. That will continue to be our policy.
Meanwhile, there's Falluja.
Said to have been controlled by the Islamic State for over two years now and the civilians there have been 'assisted' by the government shelling their homes.
Oh, yes, in September of 2014, Haider announced that these bombings -- War Crimes -- would cease. But they never did.
In a new development, Loveday Morris and Mustafa Salim (WASHINGTON POST) report:
Sunni tribesmen have attacked Islamic State militants in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, the Iraqi military and local officials said Friday, overrunning and burning one of their headquarters as resentment against the group grows.
After the unrest in two neighborhoods, Issa al-Issawi, the mayor in exile of the city 45 miles west of Baghdad, warned that there would be “mass slaughter” unless the tribesmen received assistance.
The flare-up was the first notable sign of armed opposition to the Islamic State inside the city since the group took control of Fallujah more than two years ago. Ill will against the group has been mounting in recent months amid what the United Nations has described as a growing humanitarian crisis inside the city.
Salam Faraj (AFP) adds that there may have been a more specific inciting incident:
[Local official Issa] Sayir said that the gunfight reflected tensions resulting from increasingly difficult living conditions caused by Fallujah’s isolation by the security forces.
A police lieutenant colonel gave a different account, saying the clashes started after Al-Hisba members accused a woman in Al-Nizaiza market in central Fallujah of misconduct because she had failed to cover her hands with gloves.
This matches with what NBC NEWS was reporting yesterday:
Fighting erupted in the ISIS-stronghold of
Fallujah on Friday after the extremist militants attacked a local woman
for not covering her hands, according to Iraqi officials.
"The clashes started when tens of Fallujah men stood against ISIS militants who started to beat a woman in a Fallujah market because she was not wearing gloves," said Sabah Karhoot, the chairman of the governing council of Anbar province where the city is located. "Therefore, the men could not stand and do nothing."
"The clashes started when tens of Fallujah men stood against ISIS militants who started to beat a woman in a Fallujah market because she was not wearing gloves," said Sabah Karhoot, the chairman of the governing council of Anbar province where the city is located. "Therefore, the men could not stand and do nothing."
Thursday, Lt Gen Charles Q Brown Jr. hosted a press conference from Qatar. He declared, "Additionally, as you heard yesterday during the press briefing by Colonel Warren, we continue to support ground operations. The recent successes of the Iraqi security forces in clearing Ramadi comes after months of supporting ground forces with close air support. Ramadi's not the only success, though. Airstrikes have been vital in partner force operations to take back Sinjar in northern Iraq and Hasakah and Tishrin Dam in Syria."
Of course, Ramadi's not a success -- not with the Iraq military watching as the Popular Mobilization Forces go around blowing up homes.
But these bombings that Brown's so proud of have not accomplished anything.
Yet, they continue -- and they continue to rip apart an inhabited country that someday, somehow is going to have to try to rebuild.
Today, the US Defense Dept announced/bragged/claimed:
Airstrikes in Iraq
Fighter, attack, ground-attack,
and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 16 airstrikes in Iraq,
coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:
-- Near Baghdadi, a strike destroyed an ISIL weapons cache and three ISIL rocket systems.
-- Near Huwayjah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.
-- Near Albu Hayat, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.
-- Near Fallujah, a strike destroyed an ISIL anti-air artillery piece.
-- Near Habbaniyah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.
-- Near Hit, a strike destroyed an ISIL tunnel entrance.
-- Near Mosul, four strikes struck
two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed four ISIL fighting
positions, four ISIL assembly areas, an ISIL petroleum site, and two
ISIL command and control nodes.
-- Near Qayyarah, a strike destroyed four ISIL fighting positions.
-- Near Ramadi, three strikes
struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL anti-air
artillery piece, an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL
vehicle bomb making facility, five ISIL staging areas, and an ISIL
bed-down location.
-- Near Tal Afar, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL tunnel system.
In some of today's other violence, Alsumaria reports that 1 police officer was shot dead outside of Baghdad, 1 corpse was discovered dumped to the east of Baquba, a roadside bombing near Baghdad killed 1 person and left three more injured, and 1 corpse was discovered dumped in Baghdad.
In other destruction, this crap:
But the fact remains that whoever’s elected this year is nearly guaranteed to inherit the war on ISIS that President Obama launched back in 2014. He or she will be the fifth consecutive US president to preside over some variety of military intervention in Iraq—a dour chapter that’s already continued for at least 25 years, dating back to the Gulf War. (And that’s not even counting the US role in the bloody Iran-Iraq war before that.)
The good news is that Sanders sent some promising signals about his judgment on the last US invasion before it was even launched—in fact, probably even more so than he’s usually credited for. But the bad news is that his statements on the latest iteration of the conflict have been all over the map. In his bumbling calls for a “Muslim coalition” to stop ISIS, he’s shown none of the acumen that so distinguished him over 13 years ago.
Without a plan to resolve the ISIS war responsibly, the US war in Iraq could reverberate through yet another generation. If Sanders is elected, that’ll be a grim asterisk to his “political revolution” indeed.
If that garbage appeared at a military think tank, no one would be surprised.
Instead, it's from jizz in his pants Petey Certo and it's published by THE NATION.
That's what happens when Democrats are in charge of the White House (war), THE NATION goes all wobbly and loses any strong voice at all.
The 'responsibly' is a lie.
It's the lie that continues war every damn time, even when everyone knows it's time to end it, the 'responsibly' qualifier keeps it going.
If you're my husband and you're beating the crap out of me?
I'm going to end that marriage.
Responsibly?
No, immediately.
By the same token, there is no 'win' here.
There is nothing but more destruction.
But THE NATION is a cathouse, a bordello of whores and FPIF is a joke.
Does Phyllis Bennis really find pride being associated with what is now a war mongering outlet that let's just sprouted pubes boys pretend that they have any perspective to offer?
Petey's a little idiot who pulls his pud to Barack Obama and thinks that makes him special or smart.
He's just one more whorish idiot arguing for the continuation of war.
We all suffer when liars claim a crime can be ended "responsibly."
We all suffer as the crime continues while these liars look for their way out -- their 'responsible' way out.
