The world keeps turning…..the brain keeps working….and in between there is the reality that we are all just marking time…….research gives me brain farts! Time to sit back and groove with the sounds of the past.
Today’s selection is probably the best band that you have never heard of in your search for those great old tunes……The Electric Flag.
There has been a wealth of news about the latest air drops of supplies and weapons to the defenders of Kobane in Syria……Turkey is not happy about them…..ISIS intercepted at least one of the drops…….something that is a seemingly minor occurrence has generated a couple of days of news ……….
But what of the air drops themselves….good or bad?
What do Kobani airdrops mean for regional politics? – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.
Good Day
Things are starting to move at a little quicker pace…..but the question to answer…….. will it be enough?
Item 1–The Coalition has been looking for ground troops to take on ISIS they may have found their agents……
Iraq’s Kurdish regional parliament will hold a session on Wednesday to vote on deploying peshmerga security forces to aid Syrian Kurds battling jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria group, a senior lawmaker said.
“Today, the Kurdistan parliament will hold a session… to give the authorization and allow the president of the region to move forces to the town of Kobane” in Syria, Omid Khoshnaw, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s parliamentary bloc, told AFP.
Good news right? The problem is with these troops heading to Syria who will keep Kurdistan safe? This may not be the best plan at this time.
Item 2–Iraq does not want US troops on the ground but yet they push for the US to expand their scope…..
US officials say that a recent Baghdad visit by top Obama aides, including deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken saw them fielding requests from Iraqi leaders for increased deployments of US troops as “military advisers” on the ground in Iraq.
The exact number of new troops being sought is not disclosed, but it’s also not the end of the story, with Iraq also reportedly pushing for more airstrikes, more weapons, more tanks for the Iraqi military. Just more in general.
Iraq needs to make up our minds for us…….
Item 3–The whole “moderate” rebel thing gets more confusing by the day………
The Syrian opposition force to be recruited by the U.S. military and its coalition partners will be trained to defend territory, rather than to seize it back from the Islamic State, according to senior U.S. and allied officials, some of whom are concerned that the approach is flawed.
Although moderate Syrian fighters are deemed essential to defeating the Islamic State under the Obama administration’s strategy, officials do not believe the newly assembled units will be capable of capturing key towns from militants without the help of forward-deployed U.S. combat teams, which President Obama has so far ruled out. The Syrian rebel force will be tasked instead with trying to prevent the Islamic State from extending its reach beyond the large stretches of territory it already controls.
Sorry to inform my readers….but if you goal is to “degrade and destroy” ISIS….you are not going to do that from a defensive position.
Item 4–Turkey is still whining about the US air drops of weapons and supplies to the defenders of Kobane…….
“I have difficulty understanding why Kobani is so strategic for them, because there are no civilians there, just around 2,000 fighters,” Erdogan added.
From time to time I write and/or report on things happening in my state of Mississippi…..I saw this and wanted to pass it on.
A Mississippian with a gun killing brown people….sounds like the state’s history in a nut shell….
I am conflicted….should I give him props or ask why? I bet there is more to this story than the PR work a local paper gave him……
It is no secret that I think the War on Drugs like the War on Terror is a perfect way for people to get rich….there is NO real plan to win either of the wars….
My previous post is about the waste of money to fight opium production…waste of time and money…..but there is more…..
The Drug War Doesn’t Work Abroad Either by Lucy Steigerwald — Antiwar.com.
While Americans were breathing a sigh of relief over their waning fear of Ebola…..BAM! We have something else to clog the airways with endless hours of trivial bullshit…..the armed attack on Canada’s Parliament building…..the shooting was horrific….what followed afterwards is trivial filler.
But while you were sitting on the edge of your seat there was another news item that will be little reported.
The murder of Iraqi civilians by American mercenaries, oh my bad….American security consultants in 2007…….
.Four former Blackwater security contractors were convicted today in federal court for a 2007 mass shooting in Baghdad that left Iraqi civilians dead, the AP reports. (Some accounts cite an original death toll of 14, but the BBC notes that an Iraqi investigation later raised the total to 17; about the same number were injured.) Nicholas Slatten was found guilty of first-degree murder, while Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard were found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, attempted manslaughter, and gun charges. The defense had claimed its clients were acting in self-defense after insurgents and Iraqi cops shot at them, while prosecutors painted a picture of the guards having a “low regard and deep hostility toward Iraqi civilians,” as the AP describes it.
The defendants were ordered to jail immediately. Slatten faces life in prison and the others long stretches, but all are expected to appeal. On the day of the Sept. 16, 2007, shootings in Nisur Square, Blackwater guards were trying to clear the way for a State Department convoy before shots rang out, Reuters reports. There was “gunfire coming from the left, gunfire coming from the right,” as hundreds of Iraqi people in the square fled, a prosecutor said in closing arguments. The case incited Iraqi outrage and anti-American feelings around the world and made some question what rules government-employed security contractors had to follow overseas, Reuters notes. (Not surprisingly, Blackwater isn’t known as Blackwater anymore.)
I have been a very vocal opponent of these so-called private security companies, which in reality is a bunch of highly paid mercenaries….who act like they are not to be held accountable….that they are above the law.
There should be NO need for private security firms……it is solely to drive large profits to private hands.
These, especially Blackwater, are private armies…I am sure there should be some sort of constitutional thing concern this situation….
Anyway….did anyone see the movie 7 Days in May? Maybe you read the book? If not may I suggest that you do so and see what I am talking about…..okay?
When the world’s problems start to blend into a conglomeration of BS……it is time for a musical break………….
Today’s selection is The Band………….need I say more?
The war against ISIS is not going as we had hope it would go……..now Turkey has entered into the fray…..but is that a good thing or not?
Some do not think Turkey is the ‘good guy’ they want the world to believe…..whatcha think?
Turkey’s Reluctance to Help Against ISIS Should Be a Red Flag by Ivan Eland — Antiwar.com.
Good day and welcome to the briefing………
The battle for Kobane has re-ignited after several days of relative quiet……would appear that ISIS fell back re-evaluated and decided to try it again…….
Item 1–ISIS has made great strives in Anbar…….
While the focus of the US air war on ISIS seems to be Kobani, in northern Syria, ISIS has once again turned its sights to Iraq, with mounting gains in Anbar Province and a new offensive pushing them back into Kurdish territory in the nation’s northwest.
ISIS seized parts of Anbar way back in January, but has grown its territory across the area, and now controls 80 percent of the province, with the other 20 percent virtually constantly being contested.
Baghdad is still the prize and it appears that Kobane may be a way to divide and conquer the Coalition….
Item 2–There is a danger rising that I and others have warned the international community about for years…..Shi’a militias……….
One of the major Shi’ite militias on the rise in Iraq, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, has engaged in a major overnight gunbattle with police in the capital city of Baghdad after it was discovered they kidnapped the cousin of Deputy Premier Roz Nuri Shaways.
Police went to the warehouse and found what they thought was a small extortion gang, but it was quickly reinforced by the militia itself, with large numbers of fighters arriving and a battle quickly erupting. Four police were wounded in clashes, and they had to smash an armored personnel carrier through a militia roadblock for reinforcements.
ISIS in the West………Militias in the South…Baghdad is looking very vunerable from this angle…..
Item 3–US and Iraq are planning what some would call a major offensive against ISIS……
The United States and Iraq are drawing up a campaign plan for offensive operations by Iraqi ground forces to gradually reclaim towns and cities that have been occupied by the Islamic State, according to a senior administration official.
The plan, described as methodical and time-consuming, will not begin in earnest for several months and is designed to ensure that Iraqi forces do not overextend themselves before they are capable of taking and holding territory controlled by the militants.
Without experienced and well trained troops will it be successful?
Item 4–A little publicized battle in Syria illustrates just what the future of an uprising against ISIS would look like……
The little-publicized story of this failed tribal revolt in Abu Hamam, in Syria’s eastern Deir al-Zour province, illuminates the challenges that will confront efforts to persuade those living under Islamic State rule — in Iraq as well as Syria — to join the fight against the jihadist group, something U.S. officials say is essential if the campaign against the militants is to succeed.
The Abu Hamam area has now been abandoned, and many of the bodies remain uncollected, offering a chilling reminder to residents elsewhere of the fate that awaits those who dare rebel.
This event needs to be studied and studied hard if there is ever going to be a success in this situation.
Item 5–Monday the big story was that ISIS was practicing on 3 jets that it had captured…..and now a report is coming out of Syria……..
President Assad’s air force has brought down two fighter jets captured and operated by Isis (Islamic State) in Syria’s northern Aleppo province, leaving the jihadists with just one Soviet-era planes.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported earlier this week that Isis had flown the three jets over Aleppo, citing local witnesses. “They have trainers, Iraqi officers who were pilots before for [former Iraqi president] Saddam Hussein,” the group said.
The jets appeared to be MiG 21 or MiG23 models captured from al-Jarrah Syrian military air base.
This report has not been confirmed……..watch this spot!
That concludes today’s briefing…..I hope you find it informative.
Thanx for your time and attention.
Turn The Page!
There is a constant supply of news on just how badly the US spends its cash……there was the story of all those Nazis that are still drawing Social Security…..and then we had the story of many many government employees that were paid to stay at home for years in some cases…..and there is always a story about a $160 hammer and a $200 toilet seat…..but the Us spends money on programs that are designed to control oir stop some practices….like the opium production in Afghanistan……..
The latest report on the policy of controlling the production of poppies is not all that great…….
Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is at record levels, according to a new report from the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. That’s despite more than a decade of American efforts to knock out the Afghan drug trade—at a cost of roughly $7.6 billion.
SIGAR’s data, which comes from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), shows that Afghan opium cultivation nearly tripled between 1994 and 2013. More than 780 tons of heroin or morphine could be produced with the current crop, whose total value is estimated at nearly $3 billion, up from $2 billion in 2012.
In his report, John F. Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, informs Secretary of State John Kerry, Attorney General Eric Holder, and USAID administrator Rajiv Shah that the levels of opium poppy production don’t exactly square with all the time, money, and effort that have gone into eradicating crop. “The recent record-high level of poppy cultivation calls into question the long-term effectiveness and sustainability of [prior US government and coalition] efforts,” Sopko writes. “Given the severity of the opium problem and its potential to undermine U.S. objectives in Afghanistan, I strongly suggest that your departments consider the trends in opium cultivation and the effectiveness of past counternarcotics efforts when planning future initiatives.”
It is just amazing how our Congress has NO problem asking for cuts that would effect the poor but they seems to not care that more money is being pissed away in this worthless effort
Does anyone else think that our priorities should be making this country strong and a good place to live? Somebody needs to walk into Congress and start shaking trees…..and shake hard enough to dislodge all the rotten fruit.
Thoughts?