While Iraq Gets Hot, Obama Hits the Links
As predicted, latest news is coming fast and furiously out of Iraq as the country moves closer to all-out war. According to Live Leak, Iraqi State television reported that the Iraqi air force bombed positions in and around the northern city of Mosul. “Combat helicopters last night and this morning (June 12th) launched 21 air strikes targeting 13 different areas in Ninawa and Salaheddine provinces,” according to ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari.
They made 21 air strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) killing about 100, and destroying four large ISIL camps, the Ministry of Defence claimed. It was also claimed that some of those killed were fighters from Syria.
On the 13th, White House Spokesman Jay Carney told reporters when discussing what Washington is thinking of doing to help Iraqi forces, that air strikes are among the options being considered but insisted, “We are not contemplating ground troops… I want to be clear about that.”
Things change quickly however for this administration as it was reported that between 50 and 100 US Marines and US Army personnel have been sent to Baghdad, and have arrived at the Embassy. According to CNN, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said while some U.S. security personnel will be added to the staff at the Embassy, “other staff members will be temporarily relocated to consular offices in Basra and Irbil and to the Iraq Support Unit in Amman, Jordan… The Embassy will be fully equipped to carry out its national security mission.”
Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said that the relocation of some embassy personnel is being done with commercial, charter and State Department aircraft flights and added that “the U.S. military can airlift people if the State Department asks for that.” As I’ve been reading reports on some of the blogs I frequent, I’m seeing comparisons made with Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War.
Speaking of Vietnam, it was suggested by Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq from 2007 to 2009 that Secretary of State John Kerry should go immediately to Iraq. “We need the secretary of state out there in Baghdad right now… We need the President on the phone to the Iraqi leadership because the reality is the Iraqis are not in a position … they were not in a position when I was there, they are not in a position now, to work out hard compromises on their own.”
Iran warned that “any foreign military intervention in Iraq” would only complicate the crisis, after the US deployed the USS George H.W. Bush in the Gulf. According to Pat Dollard, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Marzieh Afkham was quoted as saying “Iraq has the capacity and necessary preparations for the fight against terrorism and extremism.” President Hassan Rouhani said that Iran may consider cooperating with its arch-foe the United States to fight the Sunni extremist militants in Iraq.
Yet, as Obama played golf, terrorists have been bragging about slaughtering Iraqi soldiers captured during fighting the past couple of days and posting video online. Obama fiddles as the Middle East burns while he could be ordering air strikes against Al Qaida before they get to Baghdad. Why hasn’t he? Other than the fact that these are the same terrorists he helped arm and train in Syria, could there be more reason for him to wait? While the US condemns the violence, Obama considers options about what actions the US will take, and whether or not to form an unlikely alliance with Iran. The BBC reports that the US is said to be considering direct discussions with Tehran which could even take place as early as this week when representatives from both countries meet in Vienna this week for the latest rounds of nuclear program discussions. It’s been reported as I write this, that John Kerry said that the US is open to talks with Iran if the Iranians can help end the violence and take steps that would restore confidence in the Iraqi government. Asked about possible military cooperation with Iran, Kerry said he would “not rule out anything that would be constructive.”
There is so much going on in Iraq, that most eyes are focused there; however there are some interesting developments going on elsewhere right now that can shed some light on why Iran is so eager to offer teaming up with the US. Other nations still in upheaval, Syria, Egypt and Libya have held Iran’s interests. In Syria Iran has been on the side of Assad, since he is Shia Muslim. In Egypt however, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s more secular stance and views against Islamist jihadists puts him in the opposite corner to Iran’s mullahs. According to Gatestone Institute, Iran is planning an offensive against Egypt, and is backing their arch rivals, the Muslim Brotherhood to do it.
“Iran is determined to put an end to Al-Sisi’s rule by training the Libya-based Islamist group known as the Free Egyptian Army [FEA]. The FEA is composed of both Egyptian jihadists who went to fight in Syria during the rule of Egypt’s former President, the Islamist Mohamed Morsi, as well as other Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood militants who fled from Egypt to Libya after Morsi was removed from power.”
According to a Jordan based media outlet, some of the special-forces arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the QUDS Force has arrived in Libya to train the FEA in northwestern Libya. Quds Force officers met with FEA leaders. Lebanese jihadists coming from Syria and led by Abu Fahed Al-Islam also joined the FEA. It’s been reported that Iran is planning an offensive from the west in Libya, but also the south from Sudan as Iran has also deployed Quds Force personnel to Sudan, “to take advantage of the deterioration of the relationship between the Islamist-led Sudanese government and Sisi’s Egypt, and is now training Muslim Brotherhood militants in Sudan.”
Iran has had visions of becoming the dominant force in the Middle East and spreading long awaited and dreamed Caliphate. Iranian leaders are not letting any of the crisis’ go to waste. When Obama and Hillary Clinton helped prop up Mohamad Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader as the President of Egypt, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saw this as a chance for an Islamic awakening, and a chance for the Brotherhood and Iran to work together to bring the rest of the Middle East under control. Now that Morsi has been deposed and imprisoned, the Brotherhood if it wants to survive in Egypt will need help to bring down President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, and the Iranians are more than willing.
What does this have to do with what’s going on in Iraq? According to Aaron Klein at WorldNetDaily, the Obama administration pressured Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to allow battalions of the Quds Force to aid the Iraqi military in its fight against ISIS terrorists. Obama always backs Sunni Muslims, and the terrorists are Sunni. While Iran is Shia, Obama would most likely form an alliance because of Iran’s willingness to ally themselves with the Muslim Brotherhood. Obama has ties to Iran through Valerie Jarrett, his longtime personal advisor. She was born there and has traveled there and it was reported 2 years ago that she was working on secret negotiations with the Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei to develop normalized relations between the U.S. and Iran. It was reported again last November about secret negotiations with Iran, in which Jarrett had been a main player, which is interesting since Jarrett has no experience in foreign policies despite her being born in Iran.
Anyone who has been paying close attention to Obama’s meddling of the Middle East during the so called Arab Spring could see this coming eventually. Even with his support of Sunni terrorists, Muslims always form alliances when it will strengthen their end game- to bring the Middle East under the Caliphate and unite the world under the banner of Islam. In the meantime, Israel and Lebanon look on nervously as terrorists march closer to their tiny states.
This has been a dream of Islamic leaders since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and the terrorists who were armed and trained by Obama and who have been using the war in Syria have now found the way, by retaking all the ground gained by US Forces in Iraq. With all of his manipulations throughout the Middle East and North Africa, they have Obama and his administrations to thank.
We can believe Obama about as far as he can toss a golf club. After promising no boots on the ground, as I write this, it’s been reported that Obama is considering sending a small number of Special Forces in to help the Iraqi government. Three U.S. officials familiar with ongoing discussions said the potential of sending Special Forces to Iraq is high on a list of military options that are being considered. “The president was very clear that we will not be sending U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq,” White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement. “That remains the case and he has asked his national security team to prepare a range of other options that could help support Iraqi security forces.”
Build the fire, throw fuel on it, get it blazing and send in as small of force as he can is the Obama way.
