Posted on 01/09/2014 12:22:25 PM PST by Kaslin
Iraq: Late reporting indicates that al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters have begun withdrawing from Fallujah to the suburbs. This report has not been confirmed.
The government announced that it would not attack Fallujah for now in order to minimize civilian casualties. At least one source in Iraq, however, reported that government forces have low morale because they lack the supplies and equipment to mount an operation that has any prospect of success.
Meanwhile in Ramadi, also west of Baghdad, a government and tribal night operation on 6 January failed to oust Islamists from southern Ramadi, according to an army spokesman. The government force was repulsed.
Comment: The fighting in Anbar Province does not threaten the government in Baghdad. Rather it threatens to fragment Iraq, provided the Sunni tribes join the uprising in more strength than they have to date.
If confirmed, the withdrawal of the Islamists indicates they realize they cannot hold territory against more modern and better equipped forces. It also suggests they lack good intelligence on Iraqi government forces.
The ISIS-led seizure of Fallujah does not appear sustainable, but there will be more and worse troubles in Anbar. That is because the Shiite-dominated al Maliki government has disenfranchised the Sunni Arab population. Inclusiveness is not part of the Iraqi understanding of winning elections and majority rule. Thus, there will be more violence and killing.
The Sunni Arabs in Anbar are in revolt, but the second round of Iraq's civil war is just beginning.
Syria: For the record. The first batch of chemical weapons precursors was loaded aboard a ship on Tuesday. The ship sailed from the port of Latakia, Syria, with Russian and Chinese naval escorts. Neither the Syrian government nor the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons identified the chemical storage sites from which the precursors were withdrawn.
The chemical precursors will be taken to Italy, where they will be loaded onto a US Navy ship and moved to international waters for destruction in a specially created titanium tank on board.
This is the start of a process that should have been completed by 31 December. The Sunni uprising prevented Syria from meeting the 31 December target, not the Syrian government.
The start of the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons makes this a good day for Israel.
Security situation. In the past week, news services have reported fighting between opposition factions. Most of the fratricide is occurring in towns in northern Syria south of the Turkish border in a hundred mile swath from the eastern edge of the Alawite region around Latakia, on the coast, to the border of the Kurdish area in the northeast.
Most western reports stress that the main antagonist is the al-Qaida affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or al Sham (ISIS), which includes Syria and Lebanon.
What is missing in most of the press accounts is that the protagonist is not the secular fighting groups supported by the West, but the al-Nusrah Front, which comprises intolerantly devout Islamist fighters. The fighting does not appear to favor one or other group. Both have resorted to executing captured fighters from the other side by the dozens. Neither appears to be making measurable gains, except in body counts.
A difference is that the al-Nusrah Front is Syrian and wants to govern a fundamentalist emirate based in Damascus. ISIL is pan-Arab and wants to merge Syria with Iraq into a single emirate. The Syrian Kurds in the northeast appear to be defending their areas and Government forces are holding their own in the west.
Administrative note: Thanks to all the brilliant Readers who submitted thoughts about the elections in Bangladesh.
Well...it must be the will of Allah for this to happen...so, let’s talk about more important stuff...like the Fall of the US under Obama!
I am speechless . . . .
“The government announced that it would not attack Fallujah for now in order to minimize civilian casualties. At least one source in Iraq, however, reported that government forces have low morale because they lack the supplies and equipment to mount an operation that has any prospect of success.”
Now just WHOM would be benefited by the release of such a statement?
We have traitors in the congress, executive and judicial branch that are part of the democrat socialist peoples party that have and are destroying our country.
My son is never going to give his life for the useless distractions the power brokers have given us. Prepare for China to start a rumble and then watch as we get pulled into that morass in order to get rid of men that are useless eaters by the Chinese and the cowards here in power.
voting is useless now that the fix is in for illegals, unions and parasites to take over the polls. It doesn't even matter how you vote unless you COUNT the votes.
Why should we be upset if tribal leaders take over Fallujah, get rid of AlQaeda, and keep it from erupting into civil war? We shouldn't have gone into Iraq to begin with.
The situation in Iraq is sorta weird, on all levels. I mean, Al Queda isn’t a “Nation” so.........they take these towns, what are they going to do? Try to set up a new country or something? If they did, would they try to join the UN? Do they control an airport or a radio station or a Post Office or a telephone exchange? I think that for a group to establish their own country they’d have to have those things at a mere minimum. You can’t be your own country without your own Country Code for telephone calls and your own Zip code for postal purposes and you have to have an airport. My guess is that, as well, they’d need get their own IP address for Internet. Sounds to me like they haven’t thought this all through.
Not one American life is worth that sand pit.
I hear you and agree
I am heartbroken for those who suffered and sacrificed in Iraq. Yes, the ‘leaders’ we now have are more comfortable with us losing Militarily. It proves, to the Obamabots, that our Military is a waste of money.
Well we did go in and it worked out well. That arrogant pos occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania turned the success around into a failure
“al Qaeda” already overplayed its hand in Fallujah a decade ago, and created blood feuds that haven’t been settled.
I suggest they left because anyone who isn’t from around those parts still has to face tribal chiefs with old scores to settle for butchered raped and robbed families and tribsemen.
One thing our military did was to get the offended tribes to cooperate with us and drive out the psychos out- now they know it can be done. Please keep glory hog John McCain home and let them take care of their own bidness.
To use Michelle’s quote; “All This (U.S. war dead fighting for a people’s right to freely live and vote) for a Flag? (The Black Flag of Islam which now flutters in retaken-Fallujah)
So Obama just pissed away and wasted all those who died in the initial liberation of that $h!t hole
Coming; the Sunnification of Iraq.
Yes, this was a foolish endeavor from the start. Bush and others who pushed for this war are more to blame than anyone. What did they think would happen? Anyone familiar with history would have known this would turn into a disaster.
Nothing of benefit to our country has been accomplished. In fact, the place is worse than it was under Saddam. Christians have been chased out or killed, and Maliki is just as much a tyrant as Saddam was, plus he’s a tyrant who embraces Iran.
If only I could say a few choice words to the cheerleaders for this war like Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, Frum, Condi Rice, and Cheney. Our people were sent to suffer and die for the whims of a bunch of policy wonks who thought they could remake the world.
Saudi Arabians, with some measure of Saudi government assistance, attack the hell out of us on 9-11...so of course we had to invade Iraq.
Thousands of U.S. soldiers dead for zip, nada - but hey at least stuttering dog-painter George Jr. gets to pick up post-war awards from Saudi “royals”.
Much of the middle east is on fire...the fire of Islam’s leader,Satan...who its followers stupidly believe is actually God.
My sentiments exactly. I am so heartbroken for the troops and their families who have sacrficed so much for idiot politicians who treat them like pawns. I cannot imagine losing a son or daughter to this travesty.
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