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catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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 Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 2:05 am Post subject: Iraq -2014 |
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Washington is considering direct talks with Iran on the security situation in Iraq, a US official has told the BBC.
The move comes as US President Barack Obama weighs up options on action to take in Iraq.
Meanwhile, the US condemned as "horrifying" photos posted online by Sunni militants that appear to show fighters massacring Iraqi soldiers.
In the scenes, the soldiers are shown being led away and lying in trenches before and after their "execution".
The Iraqi military said the pictures were real, but their authenticity has not been independently confirmed.
The BBC's Jim Muir, in northern Iraq, says if the photographs are genuine, it would be by far the biggest single atrocity since the time of the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Their emergence came as the Iraqi government claimed to have "regained the initiative" against an offensive by Sunni rebels led by ISIS - the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.
Extremists captured key cities, including Mosul and Tikrit, last week, but several towns have now been retaken from the rebels.
However the insurgents captured the northern city of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, overnight after a heavy mortar bombardment.
While the US and Iran are old adversaries, both have an interest in curbing the growing threat posed by ISIS and both are considering military support to the Iraqi government, says the BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan in Washington.
The US is said to be considering direct discussions with Tehran which could even take place as early as this week.
The two countries are due to hold the latest round of talks on Iran's nuclear programme in Vienna.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said he will consider co-operation if the US takes action in Iraq.
The USS George HW Bush aircraft carrier is already being deployed to the Gulf, accompanied by two more warships. But Washington says no US troops will be deployed on the ground.
The US has also announced it is increasing security at its embassy in Baghdad and relocating some staff to safer areas.
Meanwhile, there are reports that more than 130 Iranian Revolutionary Guards are in Iraq to provide training and advice.
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ISIS in Iraq
The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has 3,000 to 5,000 fighters, and grew out of an al-Qaeda-linked organisation in Iraq.
Joined in its offensives by other Sunni militant groups, including Saddam-era officers and soldiers, and disaffected Sunni tribal fighters .
ISIS has exploited the standoff between the Iraqi government and the minority Sunni Arab community, which complains that Shia Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is monopolising power.
The organisation is led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an obscure figure regarded as a battlefield commander and tactician. |
Iraq will never ever be the same again, 2003 was the end of Iraq. |
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Old Painless
Joined: 01 Jan 2014
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 2:33 pm Post subject: |
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| This is all the fault of bush. If he hadn't invaded Iraq to begin with, none of this would be happening now. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 3:09 pm Post subject: |
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| Old Painless wrote: |
| This is all the fault of bush. If he hadn't invaded Iraq to begin with, none of this would be happening now. |
Actually, I think it is more a combination of of American "cowboy thinking":
- "Lets go in and finish what we started back in 1991" and
- American military adventurism.
Bush wasn't alone. There is more than enough blame to spread around and more than enough heads to hang it on.
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Old Painless
Joined: 01 Jan 2014
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 4:49 pm Post subject: |
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It was his fault. He's the one that chose that viper, dickhead Rumsfeld and that neo-con mentality.
He stole the election! If my boy Gore would have won the election, we'd never have gone into Iraq.
Obama's no better. The whole lot of them are puppets of the shadow government. Nothing is ever going to solve their sectarian problems. Yet OMG, ISIS is invading Iraq, let's go bail them out. Screw that. |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 12:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Old Painless wrote: |
| This is all the fault of bush. If he hadn't invaded Iraq to begin with, none of this would be happening now. |
It might not be happening NOW, but this whole mess was a long time in the making. Between the export of pop culture and democracy, brutal dictators, and artificial state boundaries set post-WWI, this result was more or less the logical conclusion in the Middle East. |
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maximmm
Joined: 01 Feb 2008
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| Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 4:21 pm Post subject: |
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[quote="Steelrails"]
| Old Painless wrote: |
| This is all the fault of bush. If he hadn't invaded Iraq to begin with, none of this would be happening now. |
http://williamblum.org/books/americas-deadliest-export
America’s Deadliest Export: Democracy
Then again, before America, we had Spain and England exporting their own versions of government - though really, I find the whole term of 'export of democracy' a somewhat funny title, since it often comprises of forceful and bloody enslavement of people. |
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ersatzredux
Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Location: Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
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| Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 7:20 pm Post subject: |
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Let's see here. 30,000 men flee an attack by 800 men? They were taken by surprise were they?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/11/mosul-isis-gunmen-middle-east-states
And then so happen to come into half a billion in funding, tanks, manpads, Humvees etc.- which they immediately and publicly announce they've transferred to Syria?
The group is led by a "shadowy" mystery man, who was supposedly in American custody for 5 years, eh? And yet was released obviously unbroken- in fact behaving in a very sophisticated fashion- almost as if he'd been trained for the role. The perfect cartoon villain evil Muslim in fact.
Right. |
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KimchiNinja
Joined: 01 May 2012
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 7:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Old Painless wrote: |
| This is all the fault of bush. If he hadn't invaded Iraq to begin with, none of this would be happening now. |
Yes but then the USA wouldn't have control of the oil. The instability and death is part of the game. |
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catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 5:57 am Post subject: |
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As Sami Ramadani, a senior lecturer in sociology at London Metropolitan University, wrote in an op-ed for the Guardian, the U.S. played a key role in stoking the sectarian divides that are fueling the current conflict:
The most serious sectarian and ethnic tensions in Iraq's modern history followed the 2003 US-led occupation, which faced massive popular opposition and resistance. The US had its own divide-and-rule policy, promoting Iraqi organisations founded on religion, ethnicity, nationality or sect rather than politics. Many senior officers in the newly formed Iraqi army came from these organisations and Saddam's army. This was exacerbated three years ago, when sectarian groups in Syria were backed by the US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 4:50 pm Post subject: |
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