Good day…..last week was a short week….the story of the torture report release sucked all the energy out of anything happening in the Middle East….hopefully this week will be a a better week for news out of the Middle East…..but I fear that the trickle we get now will be all we get until something bad happens……
Item 1–Syrian deployment of US Troops gets a bit better….pay wise……
It’s not much of a stretch to consider flying over Syria dangerous duty.
But until a few days ago, the Pentagon didn’t consider air crews flying missions against Islamic State fighters eligible for combat pay.
Missions in Syria began Sept. 21 and continue today with jets pounding tanks, trucks and barracks. The Syrian regime, headed by Bashar al-Assad, has sophisticated air defenses, according to the Pentagon, although they have not targeted American warplanes.
Yet the military’s table of world hot spots, last updated Dec. 31, 2013, didn’t account for bombing in Syria. The memo details, down to latitude and longitude in some cases, regions in which troops qualify for “imminent danger pay.”
Item 2–An old foe of the US is hitting the news again……
Iraqi Shia cleric and head of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada Al-Sadr yesterday ordered his Peace Brigades to prepare within 24 hours for jihad against the Islamic State (ISIS) attacks.
ISIS recently gained control of areas and villages around the city of Samarra.
Iraq’s Al-Sumaria news website reported Assistant Jihadist, Abu Doaa Al-Issawi saying: “Given the exceptional conditions and imminent danger to the sacred city of Samarra from the legions of terrorists, our leader Al-Sadr has ordered the Peace Brigades to prepare within 24 hours for jihad.”
Al-Sadr is expected to release a direct military order in another statement.
Will the order stop with ISIS or will any Sunni be in the cross-hairs…..this is a problem in the making….
Item 3–ISIS continues to consolidate its control over Iraq’s al-Anbar province…….
Islamic State (ISIS) militants seized control of more villages in the Iraqi province of Anbar, while clashes broke out between Iraqi forces and ISIS near the city of Samarra, Iraqi sources revealed.
Sheikh Naeem Al-Ku’oud, one of Anbar’s tribal leaders, said that ISIS took control of 15 villages in the Western Iraqi province.
According to a security source, dozens of Iraqi soldiers, including two senior officials, were killed during clashes near the city of Heet.
The security source has also confirmed that ISIS forces managed to take control of the Doulab area near Heet.
This will continue until someone steps up to take on ISIS on the ground…..and we wait.
Item 4–Breaking news is that airstrikes are not that effective…..but I and others have said that from the beginning….but now someone is trying to make it official…..
60-plus nations nominally in the coalition and over 1,000 airstrikes between Iraq and Syria, the US has thrown myriad data at Congress to try to prove “progress” in the war on ISIS. Yet a closer inspection reveals anything but.
Over 1,000 airstrikes sounds like a lot, but it’s not clear how many actually hit intended targets. McClatchy reported that some of the bombing locations were nearly 100 miles off of the target.
Watching what’s actually happening on the ground sure doesn’t help the case of the war, as ISIS controls virtually all of the territory it did at the start of the US war. They lost a few border villages and gained some others.
I have calling for a better plan…….
Item 5–Troops are needed on the ground to win this thing….but what Army will step forward?
Written in World Affairs…….
The 35th Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in Doha this week set an important milestone: the decision to create both a joint naval force and a common counter-terrorist body. This is surprising because military alliances mean little in the Arab world: in spite of several attempts to foster greater cooperation, defence remains a national affair – although 71% of Arabs, according to opinion polls, support the establishment of a joint force alongside national militaries.
Now, not one but two extensive proposals for military cooperation have been floated over the last twelve months in the Gulf: one which would see the creation of a joint command in the Gulf, and another which would form a military alliance encompassing certain Gulf states, Jordan, Egypt, and Morocco. So far, these ideas have been met with cautious optimism, as the list of failed attempts at Arab collective security is almost as long as the list of violent conflicts in the region. But if either of these proposals succeeds, it would have arguably positive – and certainly transformational – repercussions for regional stability. Has the time for joint Arab militaries come at last?
Item 6–Unlimited funds for war?
The new Omnibus spending bill, with its $1.1 trillion in myriad funded, passed the House in a 219-206 vote, and as usual buried some $64 billion in discretionary military spending in the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO).
The OCO not only allows Congress to inflate the Pentagon budget annually, but gives the president a virtual blank check for any war he wants to start over the course of the year, since the spending can be shifted to wars that Congress isn’t officially funding yet
Thanx for your time and attention……..
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