Posted on 05/18/2015 7:40:50 AM PDT by AnalogReigns
SANLIURFA, Turkey — When Abu Hamza, a former Syrian rebel, agreed to join the Islamic State, he did so assuming he would become a part of the group’s promised Islamist utopia, which has lured foreign jihadists from around the globe.
Instead, he found himself being supervised by an Iraqi emir and receiving orders from shadowy Iraqis...
All of the men, however, were former Iraqi officers who had served under Saddam Hussein...
His account, and those of others who have lived with or fought against the Islamic State over the past two years, underscore the pervasive role played by members of Iraq’s former Baathist army...
...almost all of the leaders of the Islamic State are former Iraqi officers, including the members of its shadowy military and security committees, and the majority of its emirs and princes, according to Iraqis, Syrians and analysts who study the group.
The raw cruelty of Hussein’s Baathist regime, the disbandment of the Iraqi army after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, the subsequent insurgency and the marginalization of Sunni Iraqis by the Shiite-dominated government all are intertwined with the Islamic State’s ascent, said Hassan Hassan, a Dubai-based analyst and co-author of the book “ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror.”
“A lot of people think of the Islamic State as a terrorist group, and it’s not useful,” Hassan said. “It is a terrorist group, but it is more than that. It is a homegrown Iraqi insurgency, and it is organic to Iraq.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
No, they wouldn't. Why don't you support Christians instead?
Quite true.
But some members of that House are in control to varying degrees of the government. As stated, I’m perfectly willing to assume rogue members of the government or House of Saud knew of or contributed to the attacks. I just haven’t seen any evidence the government was involved.
If you have some, I’m interested in seeing it. There are, after all, close on 30M Saudis, many of them, including many not in the royal family, very wealthy. I just don’t think it’s realistic to assume any bad things done by citizens of SA have “the government” behind it. Especially when the number one goal of AQ is to massacre the royals.
Are there enough Kurdish Christians to defend the region? I was under the impression ... perhaps faulty? .... that the Kurds do not persecute the Christians who live among them.
Are the Christian Kurds numerous enough to form the sort of Christian militias which operate(d) in Lebanon?
There are Christian militias in the area. People don’t talk about them because they are too busy promoting the Kurds.
Without any evidence at all, Sherm, I 'feel' quite sure that certain factions within the Saudi government are tasked with keeping the peace with AQ by any means necessary, ranging from violent to financial options.
The House of Saud is always involved in a sort of 4-dimensional chess game with us, each other, and the rest of the Muslim world. I cannot pretend to understand it. It's a bit like the town poker game always going on in the back room of someplace to which we are not invited ...we just know the game is going on!
Thank you for the intel. I followed up here and look forwardto learning more.
Not surprised. Nazism is like the energizer bunny.
Good post.
The left and libs say this has nothing to do with Islam. The Islamic State is not Islamic etc...
More like he “worked” Washington just like the rest of them. Anti-Semitic pos.
“Maybe it has been best that he has virtually disappeared and we don’t see his face any longer.”
Yes, now we have your beloved Obama.
That keeps his head attached. The Islamic instruction manual states in no certain terms that once a muslim, always a muslim. The penalty for claiming to be a Christian is deadly.
Once his imunity via Al-Taqiyya wears off, ValJar turns into the Queen of Hearts.
Diabolical evil stands, in full sight, at the helm and, in the shadows, behind the helm of our once great beloved republic.
Poking a stick in the eye of our Constitutional Republic can only last so long without consequences.
Screw you and your stupid comment re Obama jack face. When you know what you are talking about come back and see me idiot.
Typical liberal response.
Gentlemen: This is a forum for exchange of ideas. Unlike liberal statist fascists, conservatives don’t agree on everything...and that doesn’t make them un-conservative or liberals.
Some of the most politically conservative people around don’t like the Bushes—any of them. In fiscal policy, and growth of government (minus 9/11 & war spending)—Bush 2 was worse than Clinton. Capital “C” Conservatives follow the ideals of conservatism, not necessarily (in fact lately, often not) the Republican Party.
I know for a fact too, when Bush 1 came in right after Reagan, in an unprecedented move, he fired all the conservative Reagan appointees...just so he could put in loyal RINOs.
Given that ours is a 2 party system though, we basically don’t have much of a choice—except to work within the Republicans, pushing for the intelligence of our ideals—hoping to cure “the Stupid Party,” since American freedom cannot handle much more of “the Evil Party” (the Democrats).
Please keep the personal attacks away. RetiredArmy doesn’t deserve to be called “liberal,” if he didn’t like the Bush clan, or the Iraq war.
I am pointing out simply and factually that the opinions proffered differ zero from those of a Micheal Moore or Cindy Sheehan.
Simple fact.
The issue of de baathification of the military was always a a double-sided argument.
It is not difficult for the overwhelmingly Sunni Iraqi military officers to point to de baathification as “the heart of the problem” NOW.
And yet, if the U.S. had NOT agreed to de baathification, the Shia majority and all their militias (and they do represent some 60% of the Iraqi people) were prepared to be quit of their cooperation with the U.S., and that was when the U.S. was still fighting in Iraq on three fronts - against Al Queda, against the remnants of the former Iraqi military still hoping to resurrect Saddam’s regime, and against the sectarian militias fighting the U.S. and each other.
Without de baathification of the military it cannot be said for certain we would have produced a democratic government of any kind - the Shia leadership would not have supported it. Then what? No one knows.
So yes we know one of the risks we took with de baathification, but we do not know where we would have gotten to without it either.
The worst part of de baathification was also carried out in two ways that were sought by the Shia political class; too quickly, and with too much regard for rank (high) as qalifying for dismissal and too little regard for behavior. Maliki then made things worse as prime minister, by making military appointments by choosing cronies over experience.
Key thing though, is that through the ill intent of Mr. 0, we abandoned Iraq before it was politically stable—even though yes, we had won the war militarily.
Mr. Obama was determined to lose the peace though, and so we—and the whole world—have.
Obama, adhering to the geopolitical myths Marxists tell themselves, kept to the myth that “the war would end” just because the U.S. withdrew its troops. He even announced that “the end of the war” as what his decisions to pull our troops out would do.
Of course that myth, being ideological and not factual, ignored just what the whole “war in Iraq” was about - not the end of Saddam, but in post-Saddam Iraq.
Regardless, Obama, drunk on his life-long Marxist koolaid had his myth to uphold and he stuck to it.
Now, today (actually since day one we were mostly out) reality keeps exposing the myth for the false reality it represented, and though mistakes were made before 2008, the growth of ISIS was not inevitable, save for Obama and Maliki.
Have you ever tried to recall combat troops who were released without pay?
I disagree on any uniparty. Frankly I am more worried with the debt and monetary system.
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