Islamists taking over Iraq

[YankeeFan]

Mosul and Tikrit are gone. ISIS in now only 70 miles from Baghdad:

Sunni militants who overran the northern Iraqi city of Mosul as government forces crumbled in disarray extended their reach in a lightning advance on Wednesday, pressing south toward Baghdad. They occupied facilities in the strategic oil refining town of Baiji and seized the city of Tikrit with little resistance, security officials and residents said.

By late Wednesday there were unconfirmed reports that the Sunni militants, many aligned with the radical Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, were battling loyalist forces at the northern entrance to the city of Samarra, about 70 miles north of Baghdad. The city is known for a sacred Shiite shrine that was bombed in 2006, during the height of the American-led occupation, touching off bitter sectarian mayhem between the Sunni minority and Shiite majority.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/world/middleeast/iraq.html?hpw&rref=world&_r=0

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

I suggest we let Iran worry about this problem, as it now theirs.

 

[FileNotFound]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

Can somebody explain to me again why the U.S. was in Iraq, ever?

 

[Stoney]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

Can somebody explain to me again why the U.S. was in Iraq, ever?

WMDs!!!!! They're everywhere over there and pointed right at us!!

There is no good explanation. By far the biggest foreign policy blunder in our nation's history. And if/when Islamists do end up taking over Iraq it will have backfired on us as comprehensively as it possibly could backfire.

 

[Boom_70]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

Can somebody explain to me again why the U.S. was in Iraq, ever?

WMDs!!!!! They're everywhere over there and pointed right at us!!

There is no good explanation. By far the biggest foreign policy blunder in our nation's history. And if/when Islamists do end up taking over Iraq it will have backfired on us as comprehensively as it possibly could backfire.

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program."
--President Bill Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998

 

[Starman]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

Can somebody explain to me again why the U.S. was in Iraq, ever?

WMDs!!!!! They're everywhere over there and pointed right at us!!

There is no good explanation. By far the biggest foreign policy blunder in our nation's history. And if/when Islamists do end up taking over Iraq it will have backfired on us as comprehensively as it possibly could backfire.

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program."
--President Bill Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998

How astonishing it occurred to Clinton in Feb. 1998 that Saddam Hussein might be a bad guy. Had any previous presidents had any problems with him?

 

[YankeeFan]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

The co-lead story (along with the Cantor saga) on the Times website right now, but the thread will end up getting locked because people want to rehash the invasion of 11 years ago, that was launched with widespread, bi-partisan support.

God forbid we talk about what is happening now.

Afghanistan will likely suffer the same fate.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

Can somebody explain to me again why the U.S. was in Iraq, ever?

WMDs!!!!! They're everywhere over there and pointed right at us!!

There is no good explanation. By far the biggest foreign policy blunder in our nation's history. And if/when Islamists do end up taking over Iraq it will have backfired on us as comprehensively as it possibly could backfire.

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program."
--President Bill Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998

Except the UN weapons inspectors went in and said that Saddam had gotten rid of his WMDs. But that wasn't good enough for a certain president and his VP, because, after all, Saddam attacked us on 9/11. Or that we should go in anyways and we would be greeted as liberators with candy and flowers and unicorns.

 

[YankeeFan]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

We get it Baron. You were smarter than everyone else.

Any comment on the current situation?

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

The co-lead story (along with the Cantor saga) on the Times website right now, but the thread will end up getting locked because people want to rehash the invasion of 11 years ago, that was launched with widespread, bi-partisan support.

God forbid we talk about what is happening now.

Afghanistan will likely suffer the same fate.

And why again, was it launched with semi-bipartisan support?

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

We get it Baron. You were smarter than everyone else.

Any comment on the current situation? E

Didn't take a genius to figure out that the country was bitterly divided by sects and that they wouldn't magically just get together and sing Kumbaya just because we got rid of their leader.

As far as the current situation, I say, yeah, it sucks that 4,849 of our brave men and women died so that another country, which didn't attack us, could end up in civil war.

 

[YankeeFan]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

LOL.

Maybe when Baghdad falls people will be interested.

With any luck, we'll get some good video of the last US helicopter leaving the Green Zone with people trying to grab on as it takes off.

 

[Starman]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

LOL.

Maybe when Baghdad falls people will be interested.

With any luck, we'll get some good video of the last US helicopter leaving the Green Zone with people trying to grab on as it takes off.

So what do you want, the U.S. to send a few battalions back in?

 

[YankeeFan]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

So what do you want, the U.S. to send a few battalions back in?

No need.

Susan Rice is on it:

Spencer Ackerman ‏@attackerman 38m

US & Iraq "working together to roll back aggression" from ISIS, says @AmbassadorRice.

 

[Stoney]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

LOL.

Maybe when Baghdad falls people will be interested.

With any luck, we'll get some good video of the last US helicopter leaving the Green Zone with people trying to grab on as it takes off.

So what do you want, the U.S. to send a few battalions back in?

Seriously. What exactly do you propose we do about it, YF? Re-invade Iraq all over again? Good luck selling that to the American people.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

We started a war for no good reason. We lost it. We should be but won't be ashamed of ourselves, but at least for now, and I suspect for some time to come, the country isn't up for wars, so there's that.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

LOL.

Maybe when Baghdad falls people will be interested.

With any luck, we'll get some good video of the last US helicopter leaving the Green Zone with people trying to grab on as it takes off.

So what do you want, the U.S. to send a few battalions back in?

Seriously. What exactly do you propose we do about it, YF? Re-invade Iraq all over again? Good luck selling that to the American people.

He'll come up with a few slogans and catchphrases and ideas based upon some vague notions of FREEDOM!

 

[Riptide]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

I don't lose any sleep worrying about Baghdad.

We have bigger problems here.

 

[YankeeFan]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

Seriously. What exactly do you propose we do about it, YF? Re-invade Iraq all over again? Good luck selling that to the American people.

You guys are funny. I didn't suggest any such thing.

Now, I'd like to think that when something like this happens:

Citizens in Baiji, a city of 200,000 about 110 miles south of Mosul, awoke Wednesday to find that government checkpoints had been abandoned and that insurgents, arriving in a column of 60 vehicles, were taking control of parts of the city without firing a shot, the security officials said.

That the troops we were going to have "right over the border" in Kuwait, or a drone, would blow the convoy -- and the militants -- to smithereens, but I think we all know that was never going to happen, despite the reassurances we were given:

Next year, after the withdrawal is complete, officials said, the United States and Iraq are likely to resume negotiations for a small American force that would train Iraqi officers, manage border tensions with the Kurds and help with counterterrorism.

Indeed, the basic theme of Mr. Biden’s visit is that the United States is not leaving Iraq behind. In addition to a diplomatic presence here, America will maintain a military footprint throughout the Persian Gulf region.

http://nyti.ms/Uu5WTJ


But, it's also funny, how like a lot of things that go wrong under President Obama, you guys always ask what we should do "now", as if the way the way out foreign policy has been run for the past five and a half years has nothing to do with where we are now.

But, hey, either way, I figured it was news, and worth discussing.

Islamists have taken over a huge part of Iraq, and are poised to take over more. They'll now have a base from which to operate. They've secured a huge cache of weapons. They've seized cash and gold according to accounts, and areas of oil production are threatened, which will likely hit all of us.

This is a pretty big deal. The Iraqi forces folded, apparently handing over their weapons, and changing out of their uniforms.

Ans, since it's a Sunni movement, the chance of Iran becoming involved, to help the Shiite majority, is high.

The entire region is a disaster.

 

[Big Circus]

Re: Islamist taking over Iraq

LOL.

Maybe when Baghdad falls people will be interested.

With any luck, we'll get some good video of the last US helicopter leaving the Green Zone with people trying to grab on as it takes off.

So what do you want, the U.S. to send a few battalions back in?

Seriously. What exactly do you propose we do about it, YF? Re-invade Iraq all over again? Good luck selling that to the American people.

Well, it's just one Islamist who's taking over, per the thread title. Should be easy to stop.