Jihadists seized five areas in Iraq’s Kirkuk province on Tuesday, a police officer said, after the militants took control of all of another province to its west.
The militants took the Hawijah, Zab, Riyadh and Abbasi areas west of the city of Kirkuk, and Rashad and Yankaja to its south, Colonel Ahmed Taha said.
I can only say “#¤%&/()=(&%¤&
Things sure are going swimmingly since we left. Waste of U.S. blood and treasure.
I can not see the USA fighting another major war again.
Our politics are too divided, the left is too strong, forcing the nation to be too disunited, our national character and special interests too fragmented.
Power will be wielded in other ways - special operations, small wars, use of technology such as NSA - the key similarity being that it will mostly be secret, won’t be open to public scrutiny, affirmation or discussion
Two things.
One: Iraq was stabilized after 2008 with the troop surge.
Second: I’m pretty sure now that Iraq didn’t unravel on its own but this was organized and deliberate on the part of Obama’s foreign policy team. Hear me out, I’m not a conspiracy nut. Obama’s foreign policy has always been predicated on the belief that US influence is harmful and should be rolled back in the world. Having a failed Iraq would serve as a sort of “lesson” to roll back US influence and that we can do no good.
The first point is important though. You have to remember that Iraq already was stabilized, US troops were out of major cities by 2009—even before the full drawdown—and Iraqi forces were fully in the lead. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised at this point if we were funding ISIL or other terrorist groups.
I’ve said since day one that we’d never win this “war” because we’re not willing to fight to win. It won’t be long before Iraq will be in worse shape than under Saddam.
Mosul Seized: Jihadis Loot $429m from City’s Central Bank to Make Isis World’s Richest Terror Force