OBAMA BOMBS IRAQ?

WASHINGTON — Airstrikes on towns in northern Iraq seized by Islamist militants began late Thursday in what Kurdish and Iraqi officials called the first stage of an American-led intervention to blunt the militants’ advance and provide emergency aid to tens of thousands of refugees.

The Pentagon firmly denied that American forces had begun a bombing campaign. But Pentagon officials said it was possible that allies of the United States, either the Iraqi or Turkish militaries, had conducted the bombing.

Kurdish and Iraqi officials attributed the bombing campaign to American forces. An announcement on Kurdish television of what was described as an American intervention prompted street celebrations and horn-honking by residents of towns under seige by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Anwar Haji Osman, deputy minister of the Peshmerga, the Kurdish military force, said in the televised statement that his forces had contact with the Americans and that the bombings had been carried out by fighter jets.

Kurdish officials said the bombings had initially targeted ISIS fighters who had seized two towns, Gwer and Mahmour, near the main Kurdish city of Erbil. A top Iraqi official in Baghdad close to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq said that the Americans had consulted with the Iraqi government Thursday night about starting the campaign, the government had agreed and the bombing had begun.

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I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear —
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’

Whilst in contemplative mood, I would ask ATW readers if, in their opinion, Shelley’s masterpiece has its own echo in this Telegraph article about the Iraqi city once described by an American President as a place where he could  “see the outlines of the Iraq we’ve been fighting for”.

I would only comment that if this resembles what all those American lives, as well as the vast amounts of treasure spent upon this ill-conceived and poorly-executed shambles produced, maybe we should have left Saddam Hussein in place, and, once the Taliban were driven from power, left Afghanistan as well.

Wikipedia says: “The history of Iraq from 2003 to 2011 began with the U.S.-led invasion of the country in March 2003 which overthrew the Ba’ath Party government of Saddam Hussein. This was followed by a war that lasted from 2003 to 2011, and ended when U.S. troops left the country.”

That must be true because here’s the BBC report of British forces leaving Iraq in 2009, and here’s the BBC report of US forces leaving Iraq in 2011. So why then are British and American forces still fighting in Iraq?

Hundreds of terrorists have been killed by the SAS waging a “secret war” against al-Qaeda in Iraq, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose. More than 3,500 insurgents have been “taken off the streets of Baghdad” by the elite British force in a series of audacious “Black Ops” over the past two years.

It is understood that while the majority of the terrorists were captured, several hundred, who were mainly members of the organisation known as “al-Qa’eda in Iraq” have been killed by the SAS. The SAS is part of a highly secretive unit called “Task Force Black” which also includes Delta Force, the US equivalent of the SAS.

Statistics are always a good thing to start with, to read, to digest and to remember!

Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom (wonder who thought up that deeply cynical title?)

4474                       USA Armed forces deaths

179                         United Kingdom Armed Forces deaths

12.38 a.m. 18^th December             Time of completion of final American armoured convoy withdrawal as it crossed over Kuwaiti border post.

100 hours later, a string of 14 deadly bombs, inclusive of back-up bombs, brought havoc to many areas of central and suburban Baghdad. Such is the ferocity of these explosive attacks that some murderous outfits claim responsibility, and it can never be proven that they lie for political gain. The Sunnis blame the Shia, the Salafi blame everyone, the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister (currently in hiding in Kurdistan after being blamed for planning some death squad attacks himself) blames the Shia Prime Minister; and so the circle grows. The Iraqi Parliament (pardon my laughter) hasn’t sat together for more than about two days since its’ election, so apart are the various factions, and so full of a hate which has lasted some 1200 years of Islamic terror and war, because they all just ‘know and believe’ that they are right, and they will kill thousands to make that point!

In the background, the Iranian mullahs make their sermons, spread their hate, and warm their plans of death, destruction and the Caliphate. The Bush administration laid the plans for a stabilisation force of American military, complete with the necessary legal immunity, but the Obama bunch couldn’t or wouldn’t make those plans reality, so they called out ‘Hi-Ho for the border’, the convoys holding the only capable and trustworthy force in the whole of Iraq revved up in the early dawn, and Iraq is now days or months away from Saddam Hussein Mk.2., whether he be Shia, Sunni, atheist or believer.

And all those lives, American, British, Allied? Have they been squandered so that Tony Blair can get richer? Have we swapped one dictator for yet another? Does anyone really care?

The question is whether the US is leaving Iraq too quickly? This follows  Thursday’s series of bombings that killed nearly 70 people in Baghdad. My own view is that the fact that some Iraqis want to kill others is nothing to do with US presence or otherwise. It is a factor of their hatred for each other and quite honestly I am happy that our military are no longer in the middle! When leftists moan about all those tens of thousands murdered in Iraq, they omit the detail that most of these have been slaughtered by fellow Muslims. I supported the removal of Saddam and his Ba’athist regime but I see no reason why we should remain in that land, acting as little more than target practise for deranged Islamists. Your thoughts?

Following the withdrawal of American and British troops from Iraq, with that proud and ancient land now cleansed of the presence of the Great Satan, how are Iraqis getting on with their lives? Ending them, violently. 

A wave of apparently co-ordinated bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, have killed at least 57 people and injured more than 170, say officials. The interior ministry said 13 locations had been attacked, including al-Amil in the south of the city and Halawi and Karrada closer to the centre. The bombings are the worst in months – and follow the withdrawal of US troops. They come amid fears of rising sectarian tensions as the unity government faces internal divisions. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attacks. However, analysts say the level of co-ordination suggests a planning capability only available to al-Qaeda in Iraq.

They love death like we love life … to borrow a phrase. Still, if they must kill better they do not kill our people. I wish they would desist from mass slaughter but this time only liberals can blame us. They hate each other to death and sadly there is nothing we can do to stop them.

It’s time to take a moment out of the daily hustle and bustle and reflect on what the US has actually achieved in Iraq. Today marks the formal ending of US operations in this theatre of war and were one to listen to the likes of the BBC one could be forgiven as seeing it as just one vast failure, costing thousands of lives. Futile; illegal; plain wrong.

It was anything but; Just consider;

1. Nine years on, Saddam is in his grave, hanged for his crimes against humanity. The removal of this tyrant has been a tremendous moral achievement.

2. His two evil sons, Uday and Qusay,  join him in hell and deservedly so given their serial barbarism. Iraq is infinitely a better place without these two monsters.

3. No more genocide conducted against the marsh Arabs, no more Halabja’s.

4. No more funding of the families of Palestinian suicide killers.

5. No more weapons of mass destruction – see point 3.

6. No more invasions of Arab neighbours.

A high price has been paid by US and UK soldiers. This wars was not conducted in the way I would have preferred and most certainly it was fought with one hand behind the back. I always favoured a harsher approach to the Baathists and an earlier exit, having crushed the “insurgents” into the dirt.  However the “International Community” and the Media did everything possible to oppose the war – they were busy gunning for Bush whilst our military were gunning for the Islamist killers that were attracted by the presence of Americans.

The decision to invade Saddam and remove him from power was long overdue. I congratulate President Bush for seeing the operation into being and above all I congratulate our brave and noble military for their years of heroism. Was it worth it? YES. America should stand proud of what it has acheived in Iraq. It is not perfect, it is not a Jeffersonian democracy. It has major problems. But it is a BETTER place than 9 years ago and we should have the courage to stand up and say so.

Obama got his headlines about troops being home by Christmas, so it might not matter so much now if any American troops will remain there. With Gaddafi’s downfall, the Emperor has even claimed that his leadership had made it possible to turn the page on a decade of war and refocus on bolstering the US economy and paying down the national debt.

Well, not quite.

It turns out that American troops will leave Iraq because of the 2008 ‘Status of Forces Agreement’ which Bush negotiated. The Obamses administration tried to extend the occupation but Baghdad wouldn’t extend the current immunity from law which American troops have, so home they go. However, not all troops will be going home. We learn also that ‘a small army’ will remain under the control of the State Department, including a large number of private contractors.

George Carlin’s advice to never, ever believe the government is again proven wise.

I see that the Lancet’s much quoted figure of Iraqi civilian deaths at 650,00 has been shown to be slightly out. The truer figure is just over 100,000 with “cost effective” suicide bombers responsible for 10,000+ of these. I do hope the Lancet and the Guardian and the BBC and all those other left wing propagandists who pretend to be news gatherers will apologise….then again, Bush is gone so mission accomplished?

I previously commented, within the ongoing Bahrain tragedy and torment, that a young woman was arrested by the Bahraini Police after reciting a poem which was deeply critical of the Bahraini regime, as well as of the Latifa family who have dominated Bahrain political and commercial life for many decades; and how she was reported to be in a military hospital suffering from injuries inflicted by torture, or dead.

But we are castigated by a Sunday Times reader named Abbot, from Anglesey who states that we should put our own house in order before commenting upon others, as it was not too long ago that a British woman was arrested and convicted under British Anti-terrorism laws, for reading out the names of British soldiers killed in Iraq while she stood before the Cenotaph in Whitehall. (No link because of paywall)

Very true, Mr. Abbott, Maya Evans was arrested, cautioned and subsequently found guilty of a breach of the Serious and Organised Crimes Act, and rightly so; she knowingly broke the law, and was prepared to face the consequences. However, Miss Evans was treated with all courtesy, arrested by Metropolitan policemen who all come complete with identity numbers and warrant cards, bailed along with her fellow demonstrator, and then tried in open Court with a proper solicitor in attendance. She was not beaten up, carted off and further brutalised by hooded gangsters as was Ayat al-Gormezi. Miss Evans’ family knew precisely where she was at all times, because our systems of justice, despite being deeply flawed in many areas, give protection to the innocent until proven guilty, unlike Ayat al-Gormezi’s loved ones, who still do not know if she lives, or not!