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After capturing the capital city of a major Iraqi region, ISIS is claiming one of its biggest victories. According to local officials, Islamic State militants likely killed as many as 500 people in the city of Ramadi, and forced 8,000 to flee their homes. Ramadi, a city of 192,000 people, is the capital of Anbar Province, a large desert region that the Iraqi government announced just last month it was hoping to save in a major military offensive. “It’s a pretty significant setback,” Steve Bucci of the Heritage Foundation told Yahoo’s Bianna Golodryga on Monday. Bucci says American aid to...

 CBS This Morning was on the screen (I almost said "tube") this morning and I watched an exchange between Charlie Rose and John Dickerson.  Rose introduced the topic as Marco Rubio being the latest GOP candidate  to "run into trouble" this morning over his comments about the Iraq war. There clearly is a herd mentality out there among the media to play the gotcha game regarding Iraq. Rose played a video clip between Chris Wallace and Marco Rubio in which Wallace asks Rubio "Was the Iraq war a mistake?" Rubio answered properly that it wasn't a mistake at the time. Wallace...

Gov. Sarah Palin: "Jihad Is On The March"It's unfortunate and potentially frightening knowing that everywhere you look today jihad is on the march – even on American soil. Warnings for potential terrorist attacks on our homeland are now stepped up, and with the arrest of dozens of Americans on terrorism related charges, the message is clear that no place seems safe from jihad. Our military personnel and law enforcement agencies have to be right every time, but the terrorists only have to get “lucky” once to do horrible damage to our country. The threat of radical Islam is real, and...

President Obama’s strategy in fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) is facing fresh scrutiny after the militant group toppled government forces in the major Iraqi city of Ramadi. The city’s fall represented the biggest military gain for ISIS this year. The White House on Monday acknowledged the seizure represents a “setback” but signaled it is unlikely to alter its approach to fighting ISIS. But there are signs the public has become increasingly worried about ISIS’s gains in Iraq and Syria. Even members of Obama’s own party say the loss of Ramadi should be cause for alarm. “The loss of Ramadi is...

<p>Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. When ISIS began its attack on Ramadi last week, the Iraqi government threw in its elite units, hoping to stem the tide of the radical Sunni advance and the overall targeting of Baghdad proper. Instead of pushing ISIS back, what transpired was a repeat of the flight from Mosul and other former Iraqi strongholds — a disorganized rout.</p>

Who created ISIS? Was it Jeb Bush's brother? (Shout out to Rob Lowe- Thank you!). Can it be traced back to CIA overthrow in 1953 of Mossadeq? Jimmy Carter's lack of leadership support for the Shah in 1979? Is it due to our support of the Saudi royals and other secular Muslim dictators? Or our abandonment of them in wake of the Arab Spring? Did it all start with Reagan and the CIA (war in Afghanistan and CIA support for the Mujahadeen against the Soviets)? Was OBL a CIA creation? Did the U.S. create Saddam? After all, there's that famous...

The posters of President Bashar al-Assad once hung proud in Syria’s capital. Supporters of the regime would confidently predict the defeat of the “terrorists” - the accepted term for the rebel opposition. In the last few weeks, however, the the insurgents have turned the tide of the civil war by winning a string of battlefield victories against Mr Assad’s forces. In the north, a newly unified rebel coalition called the “Army of Conquest” managed to capture Idlib, a provincial capital, and much of the surrounding territory.

Despite what the Pentagon may say, the "degrade and defeat" strategy against the Islamic State terror group isn't going well. Instead, the militants gained control of the provincial capital of Ramadi after months of contesting it with Iraqi Security Forces and Sunni tribes. And that means the Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh) now has a superhighway or sorts across Syria and Iraq. Ramadi is the capital of Anbar, Iraq's largest region. The province is predominantly Sunni and abuts onto Baghdad, which is only a little more than fifty miles away. Now that Ramadi has fallen, ISIS will have...

Paul Krugman: Thanks to Jeb Bush, we may finally have the frank discussion of the Iraq invasion we should have had a decade ago. But many influential people — not just Mr. Bush — would prefer that we not have that discussion. There’s a palpable sense right now of the political and media elite trying to draw a line under the subject. Yes, the narrative goes, we now know that invading Iraq was a terrible mistake, and it’s about time that everyone admits it. Now let’s move on. Well, let’s not — because that’s a false narrative, and everyone who...

America and Iran on Monday took another step towards direct military co-operation in Iraq as pro-government forces prepared a counter-attack to retake the key western city of Ramadi. Iran’s defence minister, Hossein Dehghan, flew into Baghdad for talks with the government after the Iraqi army fled from a concerted attack by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on Ramadi, the capital of the majority-Sunni Anbar province.

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...

he key Iraqi city of Ramadi fell to ISIS on Sunday after government security forces pulled out of a military base on the west side of the city, the mayor and a high-ranking security official said. The ISIS advances came after militants detonated a series of morning car bomb blasts, Mayor Dalaf al-Kubaisy and a high-ranking Iraqi security official said. The explosions forced Iraqi security forces and tribal fighters to retreat to the city's east, they said. But Iraqi and U.S. officials said Sunday that the fight for Ramadi is far from over. Clashes have raged in the beleaguered capital...

Key Iraqi City Falls to ISIS as Last of Security Forces Flee By TIM ARANGO MAY 17, 2015 Iraqi security forces withdrawing from Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, on Sunday. As the city fell to the Islamic State, militants from the group carried out executions of people loyal to the government. BAGHDAD — The last Iraqi security forces fled the provincial capital of Ramadi on Sunday, as the city fell completely to the militants of the Islamic State, who ransacked the provincial military headquarters, seizing a large store of weapons, and killed people loyal to the government, according to...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic State militants claimed full control of the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on Sunday in the biggest defeat for the Baghdad government since last summer. Related Stories Islamic state militants say in full control of Iraq's Ramadi: statement Reuters Islamic State raises flag over local government HQ in Iraq's Ramadi Reuters U.S. hits Islamic State in Syria as jihadists press attacks Reuters U.S., allies conduct 18 air strikes in Iraq, eight in Syria Reuters U.S.-led coalition launches 24 air strikes against Islamic State -task force Reuters In a statement, the group said it had seized tanks...

Most Iraqi troops have abandoned their positions in Ramadi as Islamic State militants have advanced further into the city, officials have told the BBC. They said IS militants had taken control of a compound that was used as the provincial military command centre.

China Retakes Top Spot as the Biggest Foreign Owner of U.S. Debt By IAN TALLEY It was a short-lived domination. After just a month of being the top holder of U.S. Treasury debt, Japan has once again been pushed into the No.2 slot as China bulked up on Uncle Sam’s bonds and notes. As we noted last month – and several times before that – Treasury’s data is a rough guesstimate. That makes it hard for analysts sifting through the obscure sheaves of digital data to glean anything but rough trends. It also makes it difficult to draw precise conclusions....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Foreign holdings of U.S. debt rose in March as China ramped up its purchases and displaced Japan as the leading owner of U.S. Treasury securities. The Treasury Department says overseas ownership of U.S. debt rose 2.1 percent in March to $6.18 trillion. That is below January's record of $6.22 trillion. China added $37.3 billion ... bringing its stockpile to $1.26 trillion... ahead of Japan, which added just $2.5 billion...to $1.23 trillion. ... The U.S. deficit topped $1 trillion from 2009 through 2012. Foreign governments...account for two-thirds of the foreign holdings...rose 1 percent from the previous month to...

Iraqi security forces attempting to retake control of the western city of Ramadi were routed in heavy fighting Sunday, the worst defeat for Iraq’s central government since Islamic State militants stormed across the country. In a replay of last year’s military debacle, elite units abandoned their U.S.-provided equipment to Islamic State fighters and fled the area, leaving several hundred soldiers surrounded in the last government-held enclave in the city. Multiple security sources, none of whom agreed to be identified, speaking from both within the besieged Anbar Provincial Operation Center as well as with the units fleeing the city, described the...

Russia has deployed hundreds of troops for drills in Central Asia with its ex-Soviet allies in a show of force as anxiety grows over a surge in fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan. Around 2,500 personnel from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) are taking part in joint exercises due to run to Wednesday in Tajikistan. The move is seen as re-enforcing Moscow's role as the main guarantor of the fragile region's security after US troops leave Afghanistan. The Russian deployment of about 500 troops for the drills started last week, bolstered by soldiers from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Belarus....

Iraqi state television is reporting the country's prime minister has ordered security forces not to abandon their positions in Anbar province to the Islamic State group. The order Sunday by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi came as some Iraqi forces retreated from Ramadi, the provincial capital. It wasn't clear whether Iraq still maintained any control of the city, which the Islamic State group seized much of in recent days. Already Sunday, coordinated suicide bomb attacks targeted Iraqi forces in Ramadi. Some Iraqi forces apparently left behind their weapons and vehicles. Earlier, al-Abadi ordered Shiite militias to prepare for going into the...