Saturday, June 18, 2016

Documentary to catch on Netflix

Gore Vidal was an important voice that we lost.

If you have Netflix you can stream the documentary GORE VIDAL: THE UNITED STATES OF AMNESIA.

It'll give you a nice overview of Gore's life as an artist and a critic.

In the documentary, he states, "Sex is politics, you know.  And it has always has been used for that.  Largely it's used as a means of keeping people in line. The dream of every society is total control."




"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Thursday, June 16, 2016.  Chaos and violence continue, the 'liberation' of Falluja continues -- with all the problems and persecutions that entails, a Kurdish leader talks of splitting Iraq into three regions, US troops are said to be on the ground assisting in combat in Nineveh Province, and much more.



ALSUMARIA notes that the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan announced that US forces were backing Iraqi forces on the ground in Nineveh Province.  The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is one of the three main political parties in the KRG (the other two being the KDP and Goran).  It was created in 1975 and the head of it remains Jalal Talabai who served as President of Iraq from 2005 to December 2012.  He continued to hold office through 2014 but, in December of 2012, he suffered a stroke.   The incident took place late on December 17, 2012 (see the December 18, 2012 snapshot) and resulted in Jalal being admitted to Baghdad's Medical Center Hospital.    Thursday, December 20,2012, he was moved to Germany where he remained for approximately a year and a half, returning in July of 2014.


During the time he was in Germany, the Talabani family insisted Jalal was fine while refusing to allow people to visit him -- including the then-Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi.

When the first wave of rumors that Talabani had either died or was permanently  incapacitated, took hold in May, Jalal was posed for a series of photos that appear to indicate his body was present but that was all.

jalal



 The photos were compared to the film Weekend At Bernie's in Arabic social media.  (In the 1989 film, Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman play two men who drag the corpse of their boss, Bernie, around and pretend he's alive.)


The Talabani family was down playing his condition.  By doing so, they allowed him to remain as president when he actually should have been removed from office because he was unable to carry out the duties of the president.



Meanwhile, the US Defense Dept announced today:


Strikes in Iraq
Bomber, ground-attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft and rocket artillery conducted 20 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:

-- Near Baghdadi, two strikes destroyed an ISIL bunker and suppressed an ISIL tactical unit.

-- Near Huwayjah, a strike struck an ISIL oil compound.

-- Near Beiji, a strike destroyed an ISIL mortar system.

-- Near Fallujah, three strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed 10 ISIL fighting positions, two ISIL heavy machine guns, an ISIL light machine gun, an ISIL vehicle bomb, two ISIL rocket-propelled grenade systems and an ISIL recoilless rifle and denied ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Haditha, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Kisik, a strike struck an ISIL foreign fighter weapons storage facility.

-- Near Mosul, three strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed two ISIL vehicles.

-- Near Qayyarah, five strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and an ISIL vehicle bomb-making facility and destroyed four ISIL assembly areas, two ISIL mortar systems, five ISIL vehicles, two ISIL tunnel systems, two ISIL bunkers and an ISIL command-and-control node.

-- Near Ramadi, a strike struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL staging area, an ISIL weapons cache, an ISIL rocket propelled grenade system and an ISIL light machine gun.

-- Near Sultan Abdallah, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed eight ISIL rocket systems and an ISIL assembly area and suppressed a separate ISIL tactical unit.


Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.


In other violence, ALSUMARIA  reports 1 Iraqi soldier was shot dead in Yusufiya, a bombing in a Yousufiya cafe left an undisclosed number of people dead and wounded, a woman's headless corpse was discovered dumped in Basra, a Tuz Khurmatu shooting left one man and woman injured, a clash in the orchards of Mukhisa village (Diyala Province) left 2 Iraqi soldiers dead and three more injured, and the corpse of 1 Peshmerga was discovered in Kirkuk.


The liberation or 'liberation' of Falluja continues.


Iraqi forces seen in al-Khadrah, al-Resala & al-Yarmouk districts in Thursday










And beyond the military maneuvers, what does 'liberation' look like?





  1. Shia Militias crimes عاجل فديو جديد مسرب يظهر قيام الحشد الشيعي الارهابي يعذب النازحين السنه العراقيين بوحشية



Iraqi Sunni civilians displaced from Fallujah tortured by Shia Militias



Iraqi Sunni civilians victims of Shia Militias airstrikes on



الخبيث المخرج العراقي اوس بمسلسل الصق بالسني و بالزي الخليجي وجعل من الخليج ضحيه علما انهم مترفين!



Shia Militias crimes اتحدى ان يذكر العراقيين السنه الذين يحرقهم الحشد الشيعي الارهابي بالشوارع




Graphic pic Iraqi Sunnis civilians arrested ,Burned & killed by Shia militias without guilt in




Shia Militias crimes عاجل من الفلوجه للقلوب القوية فقط الحشد الشيعي يقطع رؤوس اطفال اهل السنه علنا



now Iraqi Sunni child killed by Shia Militias airstrikes on Painful OMG







AFP notes, "Fallujah and the areas around it are Sunni Muslim while the paramilitary forces fighting alongside the government are dominated by Shia militias, some of which are supported by Tehran.
Their involvement in the operation had raised fears the battle would see collective revenge against Sunni civilians and allegations of torture have mounted in recent days."  Suadad al-Salhy (MIDDLE EAST EYE) adds:


Salama al-Khafaji, a member of the federal panel, told Middle East Eye that the 17 dead were among 20 people trying to reach a crossing point in Sijar.
"A fighter from Hashd [Arabic name for Shia-dominated militias fighting near Fallujah] blocked their way and shot them. He surprised them and shot dead 17. The rest fled and survived."


How else does 'liberation' look?


The Norwegian Refugee Council released the following:

                         
The situation for children, women and men fleeing Fallujah is desperate as humanitarian organisations are running out of food and water. “We have a humanitarian disaster inside Fallujah and another unfolding disaster in the camps," said Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).


"Thousands fleeing the cross-fire after months of besiegement and near starvation deserve relief and care, but our relief supplies will soon be exhausted. The humanitarian community needs immediate funding to avoid a completely avoidable disaster on our watch,” said Jan Egeland, NRC's Secretary General.
A total of 5,317 families have managed to flee to displacement camps in Anbar, Iraq, since 21 May.
The route out of Fallujah is still extremely dangerous and NRC has recently confirmed reports of a father killed and more people injured by an explosive device just a few meters away from Al Salam intersection—the only route through which people trapped inside Fallujah’s city centre have managed to flee in the last days.
More than 200 families are reportedly still stranded in the area waiting to be transported by Iraqi Security Forces to displacement camps.
For those reaching the camps the situation is also dire. NRC is now able to provide just about 3 liters of drinking water per person per day in displacement camps—well below the minimum humanitarian standard of 10 liters.
With temperatures expected to reach 50 degrees Celsius, this is an alarming situation that might lead to consumption of unsafe water, with serious public health consequences particularly for children, the elderly and people with chronic illnesses.
“Make no mistake: There is absolutely nothing safe for civilians fleeing Fallujah. No safe exits, no safe passage, no safe haven without risking their lives. They risk being shot at, killed by explosive devices on the roads, or drowning while crossing the river. On top of that those who flee IS-controlled areas and manage to make it to safety will soon find out there is very little we can offer them: we are running out of food, drinking water and medical services,” said Egeland.
NRC Emergency Coordinator, Diana Tonea, underlined the needs for people seeking shelter in the camps where we work: “Our emergency food parcels for the newly arrived are expected to last for just another two days for around 15,000 individuals,” Tonea said.
Egeland said: “The current funding is running out as we are overwhelmed by the needs created by this crisis. We cannot let down innocent Iraqi women, children and men just at the moment when they escape from extreme hunger, brutal fighting and despair. This is a moment of truth for international solidarity with Iraqis who have been facing chronic displacement and untold suffering.”
For further comments and information, please contact Karl Schembri, Regional Media Advisor (currently in Baghdad).
Phone number: +964 7733 499 387
Skype: karl.schembri




Well today the United Nations issued the following:


   
16 June 2016 – The low level of immunity coupled with poor hygiene conditions raises the risk of disease outbreaks, such as measles, in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, where more than 42,000 people have been displaced since the beginning of military operations in May.
“The health situation inside and around Fallujah is deeply worrying,” said Ala Alwan, Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean of the World Health Organization (WHO) on his visit to Baghdad. “We are concerned about the low immunity status of children as no immunization services have been possible for the past two years,” he explained.
Additionally, it is estimated that hundreds of pregnant women are trapped in Fallujah and are in urgent need of reproductive health services, Dr. Alwan noted.
To detect and respond to any potential disease outbreaks, WHO is operating 13 early warning sites in Al-Anbar governorate and has provided health care providers with training on disease reporting and tablets to document and report possible outbreaks.
Given the projected increase in humanitarian health needs in and around Fallujah, the challenge is immense, said Dr. Alwan.
He met with high-level Iraqi officials to discuss the health needs of displaced persons, as well as those who remain trapped inside Fallujah, 60 km west of Baghdad.
“The situation is extremely difficult and complex. Additional resources are required to provide urgent health assistance to thousands of families. WHO is disappointed by the inadequate levels of funding for the health sector, which is a major impediment to the response,” Dr. Alwan concluded.
WHO has established a new primary health care centre with a local partner in Amiriyat Al Fallujah to serve the internally displaced population, including the nearly 3,250 families, or 19 500 persons, living in five camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and five informal settlements around the Bzibiz area.
WHO has also supported the Ministry of Health and partners in distributing 15 tonnes of medicines, medical supplies and emergency kits to the civilians moving out of Fallujah to IDP camps in Ramadi, Khalidiya, and Amiriyat Al Fallujah areas. These shipments include a wide range of life-saving medicines for acute and chronic diseases, trauma kits and surgical supplies.
WHO also continues to operate eight mobile medical clinics to provide urgently needed health services in Al-Anbar governorate; three of which were deployed to provide these services in Al Fallujah IDP camps.



On the topic of refugees, ALSUMARIA notes MP Nayef al-Shammari (hails from Nineveh Province) announced today that 4 Iraqi refugees had died in a Syrian refugee camp.



The US-installed prime minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi can't/won't protect the civilians of Falluja or the refugees or basically anyone.


In fact, lately, he can't even provide the most basic of basic services.  ALSUMARIA notes that the government in Babil Province is objecting to being granted only 13 hours a day of electricity -- this as dozens in al-Obeidi (east of Baghdad) took to the streets to protest plans to cut off their water.


As Haider's many failures continue to breed political unrest, RUDAW reports:

Iraq should be divided into three parts after the Islamic State (ISIS) militants are driven out of the country, said the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Security Council in an interview.

Masrour Barzani, who is also the son of KRG President Masoud Barzani, told Reuters during an interview that the lack of trust between Shias, Sunnis and Kurds is so very big that in order to bring back stability and peace to Iraq, the three parts must split or coexist in a confederation system.

"Federation hasn't worked, so it has to be either confederation or full separation," Barzani said. "If we have three confederated states, we will have equal three capitals, so one is not above the other."




The issue was raised at today's US State Dept press briefing moderated by spokesperson John Kirby:


QUESTION: Masrour Barzani, the head of the KRG’s national security council, and the son of KRG President Masoud Barzani, has said that he believes Iraq should be divided into three separate entities once Islamic State is defeated. And he speaks partly about confederation, where there would be three capitals: one for the Shias, one for the Sunnis, and one for the Kurds, equal to one another, or just outright separation. Do you have any – think I know your views on this, but do you have any comment on this idea?


MR KIRBY: I would just restate our views on this, in that – that have not changed. We continue to support an Iraq that’s federal, democratic, pluralistic, and unified. Been no change.

QUESTION: Could I follow up on that?

MR KIRBY: Sure.

QUESTION: Because a year ago, I asked Mr. Barzani this very question. And he basically gave a very logical explanation as to why. I mean, the population does not speak Arabic; they basically function as an entity. I am certainly familiar with Kurdistan; I spent a lot of time there and so on. So why not support that kind of effort? It is likely to mitigate conflict rather than exacerbate it.


MR KIRBY: Well, again, Said, nothing’s changed about our position and what we support going forward – as I said, a federal, democratic, pluralistic, and unified Iraq. And that’s been our policy; it’s going to remain our policy. And I don’t really – since I don’t see that policy changing, I find little value in sort of arguing the opposite case in terms of why wouldn’t we change the policy. We believe that this – that our view here of a unified Iraq going forward, the policy that we’ve espoused, is the best policy for the region, quite frankly.


QUESTION: But is it true that since 1991 at least, Kurdistan has really functioned as almost an independent country, with your help and with your aid? So why this – I guess I don’t – incoherent policy in this very regard? I mean, on the one hand, you are supporting; you helped the Kurds form their almost semi-independence and autonomy, and on the other deny them that right.


MR KIRBY: It started by helping them survive the atrocities put upon them by Saddam Hussein in the late ’80s and early ’90s. And as we – you fast forward to where we are now in the fight against [the Islamic State], even the assistance that flows to the Peshmerga in the north goes through Baghdad. So we don’t just say these words; we live by them and we work with these words as a foundation in terms of even the fight against [the Islamic State].
It’s not about denying anybody anything. It’s about trying to help Iraq – especially right now – defeat this very deadly threat and continue to make the kinds of political, economic, even military reforms that they are in the effort of doing right now and helping them do that successfully. Because that’s what we believe will make for a strong, unified Iraq going forward, and we believe that a strong, pluralistic, unified Iraq is good for the region as well.


QUESTION: Is your concern that maybe this division will also be replicated in the south, where you have this mega Shia region that is independent and closely tied to Iran, with very rich oil revenues and so on?



MR KIRBY: No. We believe that – we believe the approach that we’re taking’s the right approach, period. And we’re not ascribing it as some sort of litmus test to one region of Iraq or the other. We want a whole, unified Iraq. Okay?


"We believe."

Strange, isn't it, that after all this time, the US government still doesn't give a damn what the Iraqi people might want, only what the US government wants.

(That's not a call for splitting Iraq into three portions.  That's noting that such a decision should be a decision of the Iraqi people, not of the US government.)











Thursday, June 16, 2016

The passion of the neocons

This is from a piece by Dan Wright:

"Information Clearing House" - "Off Guardian" -  Here we go again. Earlier this year, some were surprised to see Project For The New American Century (PNAC) co-founder and longtime DC fixture Robert Kagan endorse former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president.
They shouldn’t have been. As is now clear from a policy paper [PDF] published last month, the neoconservatives are going all-in on Hillary Clinton being the best vessel for American power in the years ahead.
The paper, titled “Expanding American Power,” was published by the Center for a New American Security, a Democratic Party-friendly think tank co-founded and led by former Undersecretary of Defense Michèle Flournoy. Flournoy served in the Obama Administration under Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and is widely considered to be the frontrunner for the next secretary of defense, should Hillary Clinton become president.

The introduction to Expanding American Power is written by the aforementioned Robert Kagan and former Clinton Administration State Department official James Rubin. The paper itself was prepared in consultation with various defense and national security intellectuals over the course of six dinners. Among the officials includes those who signed on to PNAC letters calling for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, such as Elliot Abrams, Robert Zoellick, Craig Kennedy, Martin Indyk, Dennis Ross, and Flournoy herself, who signed on to a PNAC letter in 2005 calling for more ground troops in Iraq.


I forget, who is Robert Kagan married to?

Actually, I don't forget.

It was a point C.I. made in 2004 with "When NPR Fails You, Who You Gonna' Call? Not the ..."

Victoria Nuland is Kagan's wife.

Victoria Nuland is who Hillary Clinton brought into the State Department in 2009.  Despite Nuland having been Dick Cheney's right hand.

Hillary and the Kagans are all over each other.


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Wednesday, June 15, 2016.  Chaos and violence continue, Donald Trump serves as a distraction, the Sunnis continue to be persecuted, and much more.


The faux outrage continues regarding GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump comments regarding theft in Iraq and US troops.   We addressed it this morning in "Did the sacred cow moo?" and noted this non-story was sucking up all the oxygen in the room on the topic of Iraq.  It continues to do so.

Again, it's faux outrage.

It's not a conversation.

It's partisan spin and crap, it's marketing, don't mistake for truth or thought.

Two exceptions?

Thomas E. Ricks (FOREIGN POLICY) who opens his piece with, "Bottom line: Trump is right, some soldiers did steal money in Iraq. Not only from baskets of cash for compensation, but from Iraqis carrying their own cash."  And at the Libertarian outlet REASON, Ed Krayewski explores the topic and notes:

But this is a little bit of a manifestation of Trump Derangement Syndrome. After he made his comments, the Trump campaign insisted Trump was referring to Iraq soldiers. In the speech he didn't specify. But that's irrelevant. The fact is that U.S. soldiers and contractors, indisputably, stole money, up to billions of dollars. Democrats like to fashion themselves anti-war, especially when talking about Republicans and especially when Democrats are not in power. But President Obama made his perceived military toughness ("Osama bin Laden is dead") a cornerstone of the 2012 re-election and Democrats have not been shy to wrap themselves with the flag in a similar manner as Republicans in the service of a partisan, sectarian agenda.



The truth is U.S. soldiers were convicted of $50 million worth of crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Were Trump's comments about U.S. soldiers (and they appeared that way at least to me when reading the initial comments), there would be nothing controversial or inaccurate about them. And it's no more a controversial or inaccurate statement applied to Iraq soldiers, who also participated in thefts of money and equipment.



Near the end of last month, Drew Griffin (CNN) reported:



Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald downplayed Monday the time it takes for veterans to receive medical treatment by comparing the "experience" of waiting for health care to Disneyland guests waiting for a ride.
"When you go to Disney, do they measure the number of hours you wait in line? Or what's important?" McDonald told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Washington. "What's important is what's your satisfaction with the experience?"
American Legion National Commander Dale Barnett excoriated McDonald: "The American Legion agrees that the VA secretary's analogy between Disneyland and VA wait times was an unfortunate comparison because people don't die while waiting to go on Space Mountain." 


It was a deeply stupid comparison and ill thought out remark, especially for someone who worked at Procter & Gamble for 33 years, retiring as Chairman of the Board.

The day after making his Disneyland comparison, McDonald issued this statement:


On Monday, I made some remarks on how we’re working to improve Veterans' satisfaction with the care they receive from VA. It was never my intention to suggest that I don't take our mission of serving Veterans very seriously. 
In fact, improving access to care is my number one priority and the priority I have set for the entire department. For the last two years, the huge majority of VA employees have worked tirelessly to improve the timeliness of the care and benefits we provide to Veterans. 
As I've told Veterans Service Organizations, Members of Congress, and myriad other groups of Veterans stakeholders, our goal is to ensure VA becomes the Number 1 customer-service organization in government. 
To do that, we are following many of the best practices of private sector health care providers and exceptional customer-service organizations. 
At VA we take our mission of caring for those who "shall have borne the battle" very seriously; we have the best and most noble mission in government. 
If my comments Monday led any Veterans to believe that I, or the dedicated workforce I am privileged to lead, don't take that noble mission seriously, I deeply regret that. Nothing could be further from the truth. 
 As we approach the Memorial Day holiday and pay tribute to the sacrifices of courageous men and women who placed the interests of others above their own, we at the VA remain focused on our mission to care for those who bravely served our Nation.



Stupid comments aren't the end of the world.


The outrage in response to McDonald's comments, however, was not solely over the comments.

It had to do with the VA itself and the continued wait times and the continued backlog.

McDonald made a bad analogy and did so at a time when promises are not being met to veterans.

His bad analogy came as many veterans were still outraged over wait times and the backlog.  And over the many scandals such as the hiring scandal last fall which led to the resignation of Allison Hickey, undersecretary of benefits at the VA.

And the outrage increases with the growing realization that Hickey and the 'reforms' she touted was mere paper pushing and shell games to put a positive spin on a lack of real progress.


Following up on those issues, or Barack Obama's failed promise to endless veterans homelessness, might serve some real purpose.  The continued nonsense over Trump's remarks is about trying to game an election -- nothing else.


Today, the US Defense Dept announced:

Strikes in Iraq
Bomber, attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 20 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:

-- Near Baghdadi, a strike destroyed an ISIL homemade explosives cache.

-- Near Bashir, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL command-and-control node and two ISIL assembly areas.

-- Near Fallujah, two strikes struck two ISIL tactical units and destroyed 11 ISIL fighting positions, two ISIL heavy machine guns and six ISIL light machine guns and denied ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Mosul, six strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and foreign fighter support facilities including an ISIL operations center, two ISIL headquarters and an ISIL weapons factory and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Qayyarah, six strikes struck four separate ISIL tactical units and an ISIL communications facility and destroyed an ISIL fighting position, four ISIL assembly areas, five ISIL mortar systems, an ISIL mortar position, nine ISIL boats, eight ISIL rocket rails, an ISIL rocket system, an ISIL weapons cache, an ISIL ammunition cache and an ISIL vehicle bomb and suppressed a separate ISIL tactical unit and denied ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Ramadi, a strike struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL boat.

-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike destroyed three ISIL rocket rails and three ISIL rocket systems and denied ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Tal Afar, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.



Let's note the section entitled "U.S. Policy Response to the Islamic State" from the Congressional Research Service most recent "Iraq: Politics and Governance" report (March of this year) by Kenneth Katzman and Carla E. Humud:




The gains by the Islamic State in Iraq in mid-2014 posed a threat to the territorial and political integrity of Iraq, and caused the Obama Administration to resume an active military role in Iraq. President Obama stated on September 10, 2014 , that U.S. policy is "to degrade and ultimately defeat the Islamic State." That statement represented an escalation of the U.S. response well beyond the responses undertaken as the ISIL challenge increased in late 2013. From late 2013 until the ISIL capture of Mosul in June 2014, the United States took several actions: 

* Delivered and sold additional weaponry . The Defense Department supplied Iraq with several hundred HELLFIRE air-to-surface missiles for use against ISIL training camps. 
* Additional Training . The Department of Defense increased bilateral and regional training opport unities for Iraqi counterterrorism (CTS) units to help burnish ISF counter insurgency skills. By June 2014, U.S. Special Operations Forces had conducted two sessions of training for Iraqi CT forces in Jordan. 
* After the Islamic State's capture of Mosul in June 2014 , the U.S. response broadened significantly into a multifaceted strategy to try to degrade and ultimately defeat the Islamic State .

The military component of the strategy, conducted in partnership with several dozen other countries playing various roles, is termed "Operation Inherent Resolve."

* Advice and Training . The United States has deployed over 3,500 U.S. military personnel to train and advise the ISF, peshmerga forces, and Sunni tribal fighters. 
* Air Strikes . Since August 8, 2014, U.S. military action in Iraq has included airstrikes on Islamic State positions and infrastructure. 
* Weapons Resupply . Since mid-2014, the United States has delivered to Iraq significant quantities of additional weapons, HELLFIRE missiles , and the F-16s previously purchased. In addition to support for the ISF, the Administration has supplied weaponry and ammunition to the peshmerga of the KRG, via the Iraqi government. Under the Arms Export Control Act, all U.S. foreign military sales (FMS) go to central governments, not sub-national forces. However, Section 1223 of the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act ( P.L. 114 - 92 ) grants the President authority to provide arms directly to the peshmerga and to Sunni security tribal security forces if the President reports that Iraq has failed to increase inclusiveness of ethnic and sectarian minorities in governance and in security institutions. The legislation appeared intended to address KRG complaints that their efforts against the Islamic State suffers from Baghdad's slow passage to the KRG of U.S-supplied weaponry although numerous sources say the flow to the peshmerga has improved substantially since late 2015. KRG officials continue to assert that they have a deficiency of heavy weapons --particularly those that can stop suicide attacks from long range. 
* Military Aid. The Administration is providing substantial amounts of military aid to help the Iraqi government counter the Islamic State threat. For FY2015, over $1.6 billion in  "Overseas Contingency Operation (OCO)" funding for an "Iraq Train and Equip Fund" has been provided. For FY2016, the Administration is providing $715 million for those purposes, supplemented by a request for $250 million in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) for Iraq. That amount is provided in the FY2016 Consolidated Appropriation ( P.L. 114 - 113 ). For FY2017, the Administration has requested $620 million in Train and Equip funds as well as $150 million in FMF - OCO. 




"The military component of the strategy," it reads.

But search in vain through all the pages of the report for any other component of the so-called strategy.


June 14, 2014, Barack insists the only solution to Iraq's crises is a political solution.

And yet every bit of US energy has been channeled solely through the military.


Nothing has been done to address the conditions that aided the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq.


In other words, the persecution of the Sunnis continues.



Here family killed This is the case of the Sunnis in On the hands Here for 13 years
 
 
 




Iraqi Sunni woman her Children arrested & tortured by Shia militias without guilt or charge in

 
 
 


:Names of dozens of missing persons who disappeared at hands of Hashd factions in al-Azrakiya in NW Fallujah