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Thomas EscrittSeptember 24, 2014  THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The Dutch government said on Wednesday it would deploy six F-16 fighter jets, which could be operational in a week, to support the U.S.-led strikes against Islamic State insurgents in Iraq. The Netherlands, a member of NATO and a close U.S. ally, will target the ultra-radical Islamist militants in Iraq and provide training and advice to Iraqi and Kurdish regional military forces for a period of up to one year, Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asschertold journalists. "We regard IS as a grave threat, not just for the region it is destabilising,...

Via Mediaite, indeed they have — and this isn’t the first time that point has been made by a reporter to a State Department mouthpiece. Shep is correct in the precision of his terms, too. Although lazy people like me refer to the Bush/Cheney approach as “preemptive” war, preemption really describes a case where you have reason to believe your enemy’s about to land a punch on you. You’re preempting the blow by hitting him first; the imminence of his attack is key. The Bush/Cheney approach vis-a-vis Saddam was really one of preventive war. It wasn’t a matter of Saddam...

This is what an ISIS rout looks like in Iraq: Up to 300 troops killed. Others missing, possibly dead or having fled. Dozens of military vehicles, from tanks to ambulances, destroyed or seized. And the Iraqi military in disarray, so much so the country’s Prime Minister has sent “anti-terrorism forces … to hold the negligent (military) leaders responsible.” What happened Sunday east of Falluja, around military encampments in Saqlawiyah and Sejar, is bad enough for the Iraqi government. Yet what makes it worse is that it’s happened before. This latest incident was particularly galling because, according to surviving Iraqi soldiers,...

This is what an ISIS rout looks like in Iraq: Up to 300 troops killed. Others missing, possibly dead or having fled. Dozens of military vehicles, from tanks to ambulances, destroyed or seized. And the Iraqi military in disarray, so much so the country's Prime Minister has sent "anti-terrorism forces ... to hold the negligent (military) leaders responsible." What happened Sunday east of Falluja, around military encampments in Saqlawiyah and Sejar, is bad enough for the Iraqi government. Yet what makes it worse is that it has happened before. This latest incident was particularly galling because, according to surviving Iraqi...

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen and President Massoud Barzani. ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A cargo plane carrying the first delivery of high-tech German weapons arrived in Erbil today, ready to boost Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the fight against Islamic State militants. "We assure you that we are beside you to tackle this crisis," German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen told Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani at a press conference.  “It is clear that a lot of support has arrived but more is needed,” she added. The minister landed in Erbil shortly after a plane...

Kurdish Peshmerga forces guarding Mosul dam News / Kurdistan Peshmerga Bring Mosul Dam Back Online 22.09.2014 Hoshmand SadiqBasNews, Erbil After retaking control of it in the middle of August, Kurdish Peshmerga forces, have re-activated Mosul Dam. “On Monday Peshmerga forces re-activated Mosul Dam and brought all  employees, engineers and experts back to work,” the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) official in Mosul Saed Mamuzini told BasNews. “The dam now provides water and electricity to local residents. A large number of villagers, refugees and as some other towns around will be benefit,” he added. Mosul Dam is one of the biggest...

Islam has no central or definitive body or figure authorized to define what exactly it is. Opinions about its essence and scope vary widely according to the political or philosophic background of its own interpreters. The current effort to establish an Islamic State, with a designated Caliph, again to take up the mission assigned to Islam, brings to our attention the question: “What is Islam?”The issue of “terror” is a further aspect of this same understanding. Many outside Islam seek to separate “terror” and “Islam” as if they were, in their usage, independent or even opposed ideas. This latter...

US to have three military bases in Kurdistan News / Kurdistan US to Build Three Military Bases in Kurdistan Region 26.09.2014    BasNews, Erbil    Pentagon is planning to build three different military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan region in a near future.   According to Kurdish sources, Washington wants to build more military presence in the region in the wake of recent Islamic State (IS) militants against Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.   BasNews has learned through a close source from the matter, that United States to build three military bases in Erbil and around the Kurdistan Capital.  ...

John Kerry once referred to the nations who George Bush built into Coalition partners for Operation Iraqi Freedom as the "Coalition of the coerced and the bribed" and "window dressing". Marc Thiessen in yesterday's WaPo on "I was against it before I was for it" John "Global Test" Kerry: When John Kerry ran for president in 2004, he dismissed the allies fighting alongside the United States in Iraq as a “trumped-up, so-called coalition of the bribed, the coerced, the bought and the extorted.” Now, as secretary of state, Kerry is going hat-in-hand to many of the same nations he insulted,...

BRITAIN WILL go to war again after politicians today voted overwhelmingly to join airstrikes against the so-called Islamic State terrorist group. RAF jets could now fly bombing missions over Iraq within hours after all three major parties backed action against the brutal regime, which David Cameron called a "clear" threat to Britain. The vote comes amid warnings that the action to defeat the Islamic terrorists could take years. Initially British airstrikes will only take place over Iraq, despite the IS group controlling areas of Syria in its bid to establish an Islamic caliphate across the Middle East. The vote comes...

As President Barack Obama launches air strikes in Syria, anti-war activists are frustrated that he is getting a pass from groups traditionally opposed to military intervention. According to the Washington Post, only 22 anti-war activists protested near the White House this week, and "it was the latest display of how Obama has neutralized the left." Left-wing activist David Swanson, "who voted for Obama in 2008 before switching to the Green Party," told the Post that "if George W. Bush were launching wars with Congress out of town, oh, it would be flooded." But he said liberals give Obama a pass...

On his Fox News show Monday night, Bill O'Reilly suggested using mercenaries to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) instead of U.S. ground forces, which President Obama has repeatedly vowed not to deploy. The use of mercenaries is as old as warfare itself. Alexander the Great used them. King George III hired German mercenaries to fight for the British in the American Revolution. Today mercenaries go by other names, like “contractor." The president is to be commended for assembling a coalition that includes Arab states, but why are our European allies not part of it? Britain hasn't sent planes, though British...

Weeks of U.S. Strikes Fail to Dislodge ISIS in Iraq By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and OMAR AL-JAWOSHY SEPT. 22, 2014 BAGHDAD — After six weeks of American airstrikes, the Iraqi government’s forces have scarcely budged the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State from their hold on more than a quarter of the country, in part because many critical Sunni tribes remain on the sidelines. Although the airstrikes appear to have stopped the extremists’ march toward Baghdad, the Islamic State is still dealing humiliating blows to the Iraqi Army. On Monday, the government acknowledged that it had lost control of the...

In tonight's Talking Points Memo, Bill O'Reilly said he is tired of the phony rhetoric surrounding the ISIS terror threat, tired of hearing the phrase "boots on the ground" and tired of being misled by the Obama administration. 'We Can't Be Waiting for Other Countries': King Says It's in Our 'National Interest' to Hit ISIS in Syria and Iraq 'God, Get Me Home to My Girls': Navy SEAL Shot 27 Times by Al Qaeda Tells His Amazing Survival Story "Here is the truth: Syrian moderates cannot defeat the ISIS terror group," O'Reilly said. "Let me repeat: Even if the USA...

<p>Roughly 500 soldiers from the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division headquarters are headed to the Middle East, with 200 of them to end up in Iraq.</p>

The 1st Infantry Division headquarters will deploy to Iraq soon as the U.S. military steps up its campaign against Islamic State militants, the Pentagon said Thursday. It will be the first division headquarters assigned to Iraq since U.S. forces withdrew from the country at the end of 2011. About 500 soldiers from the Fort Riley, Kan.-based division will be heading for the Middle East next month with about 200 of them going to Iraq, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said. “They’re going to provide command and control of the ongoing advise-and-assist effort in support of Iraqi and peshmerga...

Yesterday, the Senate approved a bill  to arm and train Syrian rebels, who fight against Bashar Assad, so they can eliminate ISIS, which possesses hundreds of millions of dollars, and no shortage of fighters willing to die for them.  I fail to see the wisdom in this action, or what good can come of this.  It appears cowardly, and even immoral to pay others to fight for you. The New York Times penned almost 1,800 words describing and analyzing this vote, and even got the tally wrong in the original version. Correction: September 18, 2014 An earlier version of this article...

s a de-facto declaration of war. The measure, which was introduced several months ago by Senators Lindsey Graham, Bob Casey and Joe Lieberman, supports continuing to pressure Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program. The resolution advocates using methods other than containment to stop Iran, including exerting economic and diplomatic pressure. Senate Joint Resolution 41 “rejects any United States policy that would rely on efforts to contain a nuclear weapons-capable Iran.” Senators expressed their fears regarding Iran’s nuclear capabilities. “We know that Iran would create access for terrorists – access for them – to these nuclear weapons, making the Middle...

Obama speaking about “no boots on the ground”, turning the sacrifice of our heroes into a cliché is a matter formerly called: “Grasping at straws” grasping at straws: to depend on something that is useless; to make a futile attempt at something. 2. trying to find some way to succeed when nothing you choose is likely to work 3. trying to find reasons to feel hopeful about a bad situation Free Dictionary by Farlex Sawgrass (Cladium jamaicense) isn’t a “true” grass. It’s a member of the sedge family, characterized by sharp teeth along the edges of each blade. Obama is...

Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) thinks folks were hearing things during General Martin Dempsey’s testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning. When asked if he thought Dempsey’s comments, that a limited American troop presence could be required in certain circumstances in the fight against ISIS, meant the general was opening the door to ground troops, Levin looked at reporters as if they were a dog that had just been shown a card trick. “No,” Levin said. “He said they’re not needed.” Levin was pressed on Dempsey’s comments, in which the general said that a specific mission, such as the...