Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and the last major Islamic State stronghold in the country, is nearly under Iraqi government control.
The Islamic State, or ISIS, has occupied the city since June 2014. Now, with the help of U.S. airpower, the entire eastern portion of the city has been retaken, and roughly 33 percent of Mosul is in Iraqi government hands. ISIS is “completely surrounded,” according to Western-coalition officials.
But what’s happening in Mosul could be called “massacre” just as easily as it could be called “liberation.” And the choice of words and focus is instructive.
Link goes to the article at INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE and not at FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS.
Took FPIF a long damn time to catch up with what C.I.'s been documenting for over 160 days.
Daily, she has documented it.
FPIF was too busy the last years praising these same strikes.
They're hypocrites and liars.
And if Sara Flounders hadn't called their kind out on BLACK AGENDA RADIO, they might still be applauding.
I'm so sick of living in a situational ethics world.
Didn't Madonna have a song that went "Living in a material world"?
Seems like one of my three older sisters used to sing that.
At any rate, "Living in a situational world -- SITUATIONAL -- living in a situational world -- SITUATIONAL" is no fun.
I'm sick of the hypocrisy.
I'm sick of the lying.
What's going on in Mosul has been going on.
And only C.I. had the guts to call it out.
It took a bombing that killed hundreds for others to finally pay attention.
Beyonce has a song called "Bow Down Bitches."
I know that because my younger sister loves Beyonce.
I say C.I. should be singing "Bow Down Bitches" to all the copycats who suddenly emerge.
They were silent before this.
They are hypocrites and scaredy cats.
Too scared to call out or stand up.
From C.I.'s March 22nd snapshot:
Let's talk about how.
So if you were a horse-faced attorney who married a gay man who was in the closet, well, you entered into a sex-less marriage to enrich yourself and now you're carrying a baby thanks to modern science.
It's no surprise that you squawk about the Yazidis constantly.
They are not an important part of the story.
Were they wronged?
They were.
By a terrorist organization (ISIS).
So were other groups wronged -- bigger groups.
It's equally true that the Yazidis have been wronged in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. They are seen as "devil worshipers" and they are often attacked for that reason.
But terrorism doesn't exist in a vacuum.
Nor is terrorism an initiating event.
Terrorism is always a response.
ISIS did not one day materialize from the head of Zeus.
The seeds were sewn for it throughout Nouri al-Maliki's second term as prime minister.
His first term was bad enough.
It was so bad that despite cheating and bribing and throwing a fit to get his vote count upped a little, he still lost re-election in 2010. (Ayad Allawi should have been prime minister.)
Nouri was already bad by that point.
And we called him out.
While others -- Scott Horton of Antiwar Radio, for example -- cheered Nouri on.
Most just avoided the issue.
And when Barack used The Erbil Agreement to install Nouri as prime minister for a second term, they said nothing.
And that was November 2010.
Where were you, CODESTINK, when Sunni girls and women were being raped and beaten in prisons and detention centers during Nouri's second term?
Where were you, Norman Solomon, when Sunnis were being rounded up and disappeared?
Or when their peaceful protests were being attacked by Nouri -- literally attacked, people participating in sit-ins were killed?
Must not embarrass Barack -- that was your mantra.
And during that time, as the Sunnis were persecuted non-stop, the foundation for the rise of ISIS was being built.
Now your stupid silence during all of that was appalling.
But your silence today is even worse.
How so?
Don't whine about Islamaphobia or someone who is Muslim being deported or being threatened with deportation or anything else.
Just close your f**king mouth.
Because you're not doing a damn thing to help anyone.
ISIS is a terrorist organization.
And that scares many into not speaking out against the ongoing Iraq War and the Iraqi government.
It's not new, it's not surprising.
In 2002, Nancy Chang wrote the amazing book SILENCING POLITICAL DISSENT: HOW POST-SEPTEMBER 11 ANTI-TERRORISM MEASURES THREATEN OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES.
Everything in there still applies and still matters.
'Oh, I can't speak out against the Iraq War because the Iraqi government needs us to fight terrorism and --"
No, the US-installed Iraqi government is a terrorist organization.
Not just a failed state, it is a terrorist organization.
It terrorizes the Iraqi people -- all of them (even Shi'ites) but with a special emphasis on the Sunnis.
Why on the Sunnis?
Because the US government put into power a number of Shi'ite exiles who fled Iraq decades before but returned after the US-invasion and they came back with a big old chip on their shoulder towards Saddam Hussein and have now spent the last years grudge f**king the company into something far worse than a failed state: A terrorist state.
If you can't speak out about what the US government has done to Iraq and how the Iraqi people are suffering, don't even bother speaking up.
ISIS is a terrorist group.
I have no problem saying that.
Guess what, Amal Clooney, that doesn't excuse the Iraqi government from bombing civilian homes -- which they did for years in Falluja -- first under Nouri al-Maliki, then under Hayder al-Abadi.
That's a War Crime.
Legally defined as a War Crime.
The Iraqi government is fighting a terrorist group?
Doesn't make 'em my friend.
Doesn't make 'em good people.
They are terrorists who gave rise to ISIS via their own actions.
And that's still not been dealt with.
That's what it comes down to, terrorism used to scare people.
And idiots being too scared.
You don't have to support ISIS to call out what the Iraqi government is doing to the Iraqi people.
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Thursday, March 30, 2017. Chaos and violence continues, the UN
Secretary-General visits Iraq, a War Hawk flutters and frets that the US
military in Iraq might be drawndown or -- gasp! -- withdrawn, and much
more.
AP reports 15 people are dead and another forty-five injured as a result of a Baghdad suicide truck bombing last night.
As the violence continues, the United Nations Secretary-General arrived in Iraq.
AP reports 15 people are dead and another forty-five injured as a result of a Baghdad suicide truck bombing last night.
As the violence continues, the United Nations Secretary-General arrived in Iraq.
Just arrived in Iraq to focus on the dire humanitarian situation on the ground. Protection of civilians must be the absolute priority.
He arrives as Iraq is in the midst of a major refugee crisis:
UN News Centre: How is UNHCR handling the large displacement resulting from the current crisis in Iraq?
António Guterres: We immediately started by supporting the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), in northern Iraq, providing tents, blankets and other relief items for the first response for the people that were coming. Now, with our other UN colleagues and NGOs, [we are] working with the KRG in a more organised way in reception centres, in the camps that are being established, and supporting families all over the region. We are doing our best so they get the assistance they are entitled to and that the necessary protection mechanisms are put in place. Of course, the situation is more complex in and around Baghdad, where there is an environment of high insecurity. But we have kept a small team in Baghdad in order to be able to do everything we can to support the people that are suffering so much.
UN News Centre: What is the biggest challenge at the moment?
António Guterres: I think the big challenge is the fighting itself. We are facing an enormous risk in Iraq for the stability of the country and obviously there is no humanitarian solution for this problem; the solution is always political. We humanitarians can do no more than to support people in distress. What we need is to stop the dramatic situations that are now proliferating all over the world.
Oh, wait.
That's Guterres speaking in 2014.
Amazing how little has changed.
But that's part of the story as well -- even if it's not being reported on -- don't worry, we'll get to it.
For now, PRESS TV notes, "Guterres is scheduled to meet top Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi before heading to Arbil, the capital of the country’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region." AFP adds, "After his arrival in Baghdad, Guterres met President Fuad Masum, parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi and Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari."
Guterres arrives on day 164 of The Mosul Slog.
For American audiences, AP tries to reset the time clock (it doesn't do the same for foreign audiences). Rather interesting -- apparently, they think American news consumers can't handle the truth and are also so dumb that they won't notice that the clock's being reset.
It's 164 days.
And look at the concerned Paul D. Shinkman of US NEWS & WORLD REPORTS -- and apparently PROPAGANDA as well:
The Trump administration has indicated it plans
to largely abdicate a U.S. role in Iraq's political future, despite the
certainty that driving the Islamic State group from its remaining
stronghold in Mosul – months, if not weeks, away – starts the clock on a
dangerous new era for a country on the verge of fracturing along rival
warring factions.
The prospect of a reduced U.S. role leaves a
vacuum in crafting a long-term political solution to reassemble Iraq.
Chief among the concerns is that the country's religious and ethnic
populations – minority Sunni Muslims who felt victimized by the central
government in Baghdad and now fear retribution, ethnic Kurds certain to
seek independence for their semiautonomous region, and a majority Shiite
population thought to be under the sway of Iran – will turn on each
other without a common enemy to unite their efforts.
According to Shinkman, grab the Greek worry beads, Donald Trump is going to "abdicate" -- oh, no.
Here's the thing, Shinkman's a damn liar.
There have been people concerned about the political situation in Iraq.
I know because -- check the archives -- I'm one of them.
We have laid out the roots for this conflict for years now.
We have talked about the need for diplomacy.
We have gone over and over how delivering F-16s with no demand of political reconciliation within Iraq was stupidity.
We've talked about the diplomatic toolbox.
We've rightly called Barack Obama out for bombing Iraq since August 2014 and sending even more US troops into the country without offering a diplomatic surge because, if ISIS ever is gone, something else will quickly replace it.
For over two years, Barack did nothing.
Secretary of State John Kerry thought he was Secretary of Defense and spent too much time playing general to do his job.
This is all appalling but it's even more appalling when you grasp that June 19, 2014, Barack himself said the only answer was a political solution.
But the US refused to use the diplomatic toolbox to create such a solution.
Now comes Paul Shinkman suddenly concerned.
He's not concerned.
Paul is part of the war think tank Center for a New American Security -- an affiliation that should preclude him from being presented as anything other than biased -- every column he writes should have a disclaimer at the top.
For those who don't know that organization, it was cofounded by Michele Flournoy -- a woman so addicted to war and violence that even Barack wouldn't appoint her Secretary of Defense though everyone thought she had a lock on the job at one point. (She only made it up to Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.)
War boy Paul suddenly raises the political issue and he's doing it because he wants the military angle in Iraq. He's lying to justify further war.
Today, Speaker of Parliament Salim al-Jubouri has declared to the UN Secretary-General that Iraq needs a Marshall Plan to rebuild.
Such a plan would cost millions -- probably billions.
There's your maneuver.
You insist upon meaningful changes as a condition on funding.
I'm assuming this would be done at the UN level.
European countries -- France most visibly -- have long mocked Barack for his no-strings approach to diplomacy with Iraq.
European countries would be on board with this.
This is a tool that can be used.
That Paul Shinkman doesn't note these type of tools is because he doesn't care about a political solution within Iraq.
He's only tossing that out now because he's afraid that the US will 'walk away' militarily from Iraq and human filth like Paul can't stand for any war to end.
XINHUA notes:
The UN chief's visit came as the Iraqi security forces are fighting to dislodge the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants from their last major stronghold in Mosul.
The troops have been fighting street by street and house by house to recapture the Mosul's old city center, but they were slowed by the heavy resistance of IS militants and the presence of some 500,000 people living in the old houses with narrow alleys.
The fierce battles in the western side of Mosul caused heavy casualties among civilians who were either caught by cross-fire or by airstrikes and shelling.
The British newspaper "theguardian":The International coalition has launched "5000"bombs on the neighborhoods in... fb.me/1d6aRR3Pw
RT reports:
The debris of destroyed houses, schools and hospitals have turned Iraq’s second largest city into an urban graveyard after the US-led coalition and Iraqi government forces launched the offensive in October to liberate the city.
With explosions and gunfire heard in the distance, RT's crew saw US-led coalition jets heading to and from Mosul every 5–10 minutes on Tuesday night. They also witnessed an Iraqi helicopter launching missiles at IS targets on Wednesday and heard chilling stories of how Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists continue to use civilians as human shields during airstrikes.
But instead of organizing humanitarian corridors for civilian to leave the city, the Iraqi government, as noted in the Amnesty International report earlier this week, has been urging Mosul residents to stay inside. Unfortunately for many of them, the perceived safety of their homes became their graves, as Iraqi and US forces continue to target their houses.
“When we were in our home, it was hit by a shell. We went to my parent’s house, and it was hit by a rocket. Wherever we went, we’d be bombed. I heard an airstrike destroyed our home,” one woman with a child told RT.
That's the reality of 'liberation' for Mosul.
As it was for Falluja and Ramadi before.
That's The Mosul Slog.
The following community sites updated:
That's a good one
11 hours ago
Burn!
11 hours ago
Some thoughts
11 hours ago
On abortion and other things
12 hours ago
Medicare for all
12 hours ago
Misses and hits
13 hours ago
It's the only answer
13 hours ago
Even Tricky Dick
13 hours ago
SAYS“
TROOPS FIGHTING LIKE NEVER B4”IN IRAQ. LIKE NEVER B4
OUR TROOPS HAVE FOUGHT DIED,& RETURNED W/ SEEN &UNSEEN WOUNDS 
