Iraq militants take Syria-border post in drive for caliphate

Reuters ^ | June 21, 2014 | BY KAMAL NAMAA

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Sunni fighters seized a border post on the Iraq-Syria frontier, security sources said on Saturday, smashing a line drawn by colonial powers almost a century ago and potentially creating an Islamic Caliphate from the Mediterranean Sea to Iran.

The militants, led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), first moved into the nearby town of al-Qaim on Friday, pushing out security forces, the sources said.

Once border guards heard that al-Qaim had fallen, they left their posts and militants moved in, the sources said.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

[cripplecreek]

And we’re on the wrong side.

[MrBambaLaMamba]

Have the calls “Obama for Caliph!” begun?

[onedoug]

It won’t be long before he’ll be spreading his filthy prayer rug in the White House lawn.

[A Navy Vet]

Gotta love the "Arab Spring". It has so quieted those barbarians. /sarcasm.

Often wish we had just bombed Saddam into submission (worked for Quaddafi back when) and simply tactically nuked Aftganiscrap. It's amazing what the US can do from the air.

All those wasted lives in Iraq, when we could have just sent in Spec-Op ground controllers to target every known Saddam hangout/palace, which we did at a small level. Blow them all to hell and I bet Saddam would have chilled, but still be in power so the new ISIS Caliphe wouldn't be threatening the ME.

I often wonder if Bush made a mistake with his ground invasion. Yes, I know it was about WMD, but bomb Saddam enough, I bet he would have become more compliant. Use MOABS and other bunker busters and things could have turned out different. Now it's Iran's turn, but won't happen due to our appeaser-in-chief.

[Bluestocking]

ISIS’s morale must be sky-high as it marches through strategic points with little opposition. Of course, Allah must be on their side; what else would murderous jihadists think as they behead their way across the Middle East and into the history books?

Meanwhile, Obama thinks he can send in 300 advisors to help the Iraqi government. But why would anyone take advice from soldiers foolish enough to sacrifice their lives in a suicide mission whose only purpose is to give the impression that Obama is ‘’doing something’’ besides playing golf all day.

[bert]

Here is a great website.....

http://www.vox.com/a/maps-explain-the-middle-east

Exerpt.....

The Sunni-Shia divide The story of Islam's division between Sunni and Shia started with the Prophet Mohammed's death in 632. There was a power struggle over who would succeed him in ruling the Islamic Caliphate, with most Muslims wanting to elect the next leader but some arguing that power should go by divine birthright to Mohammed's son-in-law, Ali. That pro-Ali faction was known as the "Partisans of Ali," or "Shi'atu Ali" in Arabic, hence "Shia." Ali's eventual ascension to the throne sparked a civil war, which he and his partisans lost. The Shia held on to the idea that Ali was the rightful successor, and grew into an entirely separate branch of Islam. Today about 10 to 15 percent of Muslims worldwide are Shia — they are the majority group in Iran and Iraq only — while most Muslims are Sunni. "Sunni" roughly means "tradition." Today, that religious division is again a political one as well: it's a struggle for regional influence between Shia political powers, led by Iran, versus Sunni political powers, led by Saudi Arabia. This struggle looks an awful lot like a regional cold war, with proxy battles in Syria and elsewhere.

[Mike Darancette]

Fixed positions are not usually a good thing for insurgents

[2banana]

Israeli, India and Lebanon is all Sunni?

[bert]

I take the color coding to mean that the Moslem population in the country is Shia or Sunni.

I interpret the Israel designation mean that Israeli Moslem Arabs are Sunni. Ditto Indian Moslems

[varon]

I often wonder if Bush made a mistake with his ground invasion. Yes, I know it was about WMD, but bomb Saddam enough, I bet he would have become more compliant

Saddam was boxed in for years by his limited fly zone and he was only a serious threat to Iran. That status unfortunately was not very profitable to our private contractors, so, bullets had to fly, munitions spent, troops moved, places blown up, places rebuilt, destroyed weapons replaced etc etc and the death merchants were happy.........

Does anyone still, seriously think all the fighting in the mid-east is about human rights to freedom , individual liberty, rights to self determination and all those empty sounding slogans? The turmoil, chaos and death is what makes the wealthy criminals, ruling countries even wealthier.

If wars and bloodshed were the foundation for assured human freedom then we should be living in paradise by now because of all the lives lost, bodies maimed and accomplishments destroyed to date in human history.

Peace is not profitable!!!

[wideminded]

Very interesting maps on that site. Thanks for posting the link.