Posted on 01/03/2014 5:13:21 PM PST by kristinn
Just over two years since American troops entirely withdrew from Iraq, the black flag of Al Qaeda flies over the city of Fallujah’s government buildings in Iraq’s western Anbar Province. It was there that several American contractors were killed and strung up over a bridge in 2004 and American Marines fought the biggest battle of the Iraq War.
“The capture of Fallujah came amid an explosion of violence across the western desert province of Anbar in which local tribes, the Iraqi security forces and al-Qaeda militants have been fighting one another for days in a confusingly chaotic three-way war,” reads a report in the Washington Post.
From the WaPo article:
...“At the moment, there is no presence of the Iraqi state in Fallujah,” said a local journalist who asked not to be named because he fears for his safety. “The police and the army have abandoned the city, al-Qaeda has taken down all the Iraqi flags and burned them, and it has raised its own flag on all the buildings.”
At Friday prayers, held outdoors and attended by thousands of people, a masked ISIS fighter took the podium and addressed the crowd, declaring the establishment of an “Islamic emirate” in Fallujah and promising to help residents fight the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his Iranian allies.
“We don’t want to hurt you. We don’t want to take any of your possessions,” the masked man told the crowd, according to the journalist, who attended the prayers. “We want you to reopen the schools and institutions and return to your normal lives.”..
(Excerpt) Read more at mediaite.com ...
The major lesson of the Iraq war is our country and leadership cannot foresee the consequences of any war with the middle east countries with sufficient accuracy to be attempting to micromanage the geopolitics of those countries.
How they see the world is thru the eyes of Islam and that which their leaders dictate they see and believe alone....so there can never be more than conflict between us. No amount of effort on our part will change the trajectory the Muslim Nations live and die by.
That said...we continue to be used by Muslim Leaders because they are well versed at doing just that among their own...centuries they’ve practiced and perfected deception among themselves..it IS their way of life and perfectly acceptable for them. So how can any negotiations/agreements or wars ever accomplish more than a stall to their ultimate agenda of Islam (Political and otherwise) Dominance over the world? as that agenda will never change.
As long as we let them live and procreate in our own countries..the Islamic push for Dominance will continue....War or not the push continues unabated.
BLA-BLA-BLA
GWBush was a train wreck.
I don't need a AM radio talk show host to tell me what I must say.
Sick of libs and you bought their whole enchilada....
Yep you da smart one
BLA-BLA-BLA,
Open GWBush worship died here around Spring 2011 with the last’ Day in the Life’ post.
Two years too late for me.,
So what defense does the American soldier have against the average uninformed voter who cares more about what government will “give them” instead of what keeps them free?
This country deserves what it voted for.
We were in Fallujah well before the election in November 2004, and Rummy resigned the day after the election in 2006, so he wasn’t even around to ask Congress for funding in 2007. Major fail there, I’d say.
Great summation. There ill never be long term peace unless one faction of Muslims wins totally over all others and over all non Muslims.
And the ROE in our purported war against Terrorism embraces the Muslim Brotherhood and builds Mosques,and institutes Shariah Law even in America Deloys Our Military to the sandbox so how many can be killed for their bloody god of death and destruction while the “progressives” play golf and attend State dinners and say Islam is the religion of Peace.
What in the name of American Liberty are we doing?
Afghanistan should have been a punitive expedition and then out. We should have been gone by 12/2003.
>>The major lesson of the Iraq war is our country and leadership cannot foresee the consequences of any war with the middle east countries with sufficient accuracy to be attempting to micromanage the geopolitics of those countries.
Worth saying again. And again. And again.
To take this down to specifics, Paul Bremer was a complete disaster for us in Iraq. Foggy Bottom in general should never be listened to about the Middle East ever again, as you note, absent a complete ground-up rebuild. Get rid of all the Ivy League Leftist theories and start over, and they *might* have a chance of having a clue.
Here is some great commentary on Bremer by Jerry Pournelle:
Bremer’s Diary
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2view/view397.html#Bremer1
The man had no clue what he was doing.
When you compare Bremer to post-WWII military proconsuls like MacArthur and Lucius Clay, who understood military operations and use of force, you instantly see why Iraq went so wrong.
Agreed...I join in your prayer...”Justice is mine, sayeth the Lord.”
I used to think that scripture meant I should just forget everything..but now I realize that God can mete out justice better than I ever could and he will!
ITS WHAT WE DID IN EUROPE WITH OUR BASES AND THE MARSHALL PLAN.
Yes indeed. It worked for Japan and helped them and their people to become a free nation and it would had worked if the President had finished by doing the same, but he had men like the quack Rove advising him and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Too bad for all of us.
Probably weren’t too far off. Iran will probably be taking over Iraq.
Agreed. Nation building is a poor idea, especially in a Muslim tribal dump.
We de-Nazified the Nazis, and nation-built in Germany. We de-militarized the Japanese government, and nation-built in Japan. We were unwilling to de-Islamize in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the results are plain.
Nation building in the country of a former adversary in war is a poor idea IF you are not willing and able to take appropriate drastic action to suppress and eliminate the ideology that you were battling. We weren’t, aren’t, and likely will not be for the foreseeable future.
Beyond that, see tagline.
I don’t think Germany and Japan are comparable to Iraq and Afghanistan, but I understand your point.
I wouldn’t disagree with you. I’m just laying out a prerequisite for a scenario under which you can hope to successfully nation build. Clearly we don’t come close on the ideology issue alone.
From all the above comments I must have missed something in the story. Not saying I’d believe anything a guy with a rag wrapped around his head says but the Masked Stranger from the ISIS seems to have said he supported the local folks and wanted to take on Iran. Since Maliki’s goons are nowhere to be found I say let them go at it. I’ve always said let’s give every one in Asia Minor a weapon and let them fight until every last grudge is settled. The whole bunch may yet be a century away from adopting flush toilets but in the mean time pen them in and let them fling flipflops until they’ve all earned a virgin.
GI’s all know they take a chance on being double crossed by our faux leaders. It falls to the rest of us to support the wounded and honor the fallen. Once in awhile a weak kneed leader gets what’s coming to him——SEMPER FI.
Understood. Thanks for the replies.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.