What They Won't tell You About the Boulder Massacre

 

 

 

  The hideous massacre that took place in Boulder, Colorado shocked America...and of course became a great tool for those seeking to disarm the American people and destroy the Second Amendment. They're not turning the White House and the Capitol Building into an armed military camp for nothing.

As usual, the media and politicians from President Biden on down are using this tragedy that claimed the lives of 10 people to attempt to get what they want...a disarmed and servile populace. They're using meaningless code words like 'assault weapons", which as anyone who knows anything about the kind of firearms sold to the civilian public is ridiculous. In fact, AR doesn't stand for 'Assault Rifle'. It stands for Armalite Rifle, because that's the company that made them. No army uses them as 'assault weapons.'

Another thing they're not telling you as that every one of the 10 victims, six of whom were women had something in common...all of them were white.

The victims were all shot down in a local grocery store. Now why would all of the ones who were shot be white? Coincidence?

Not really. Since 2015, the City of Boulder, targeted by a city council initiative to “combat Whiteness” has been forcing its city employees as well as residents who signed up for  Black Lives Matter “anti-racism training”starting as far back as 2019. Anyone who has seen what this kind of training consists of knows it is hostile to whites and especially to Jews. Not only that, but recently, students at the University of Colorado Boulder were 'invited/ to take part in a webinar titled “Difficult Dialogues: Unpacking Whiteness

Another thing the city of Boulder did, starting in 2015  was to import a large amount of Syrian refugees.The Boulder City Council then continued to hold votes to allow even more Syrian refugees.

While some of them may be wonderful friends and neighbors, there has also been an increase in crime.

One of the culprits was the founder of Boulder’s largest Syrian refugee charity. After the usual rigamarole in court,he finally  pleaded guilty to felony charges of embezzling more than $130,000 from his own organization in 2018. But the city continued to push for what they referred to as 'racial change'. Articles in the local papers lamented the city’s “crushingly white majority population,” and activists expressed horror about the city’s relatively small proportion of foreign-born residents. 

Another, of course is Syrian refugee Ahmed Al Issa, who constantly complained about white people and made threatening remarks about them, as well as hateful social media posts about whites. This is the man who shot down ten people in cold blood at the King Soopers Market.

Based on his Facebook page and other social media posts, Ahmed had obviously taken some of the BLM courses...although of course, the media won't allow that to come to light.

 Al Issa was apparently a real hothead. He claimed that his classmates had called him 'racial names' and made fun of him. None of his classmates or teachers when questioned would corroborate that. In fact, they said that it was Al Sissa who was the hot head. 

One of his classmates, Dayton Marvel who was on the wrestling team with him also told the Denver Post that in Al Issa’s senior year, “during the wrestle-offs to see who makes varsity, he actually lost his match and quit the team and yelled out in the wrestling room that he was  going to kill everybody.”

“Nobody believed him. We were just all kind of freaked out by it, but nobody did anything about it,” said Marvel. “He would talk about him being Muslim and how if anybody did anything he would file a hate crime and say they were making it up,” 

Another interesting fact about  Al Issa is his origin in a city in Syria called Rakka. It may have escaped everyone's memory, but it was the capitol of the Caliphate of the Islamic State, also known as  ISIS. Not only that,  but Rakka had been previously taken over by the Al Nusra Front, an  Al Qaeda ally, and by Ahrar al-Sham, which was allied also with ISIS.

 In 2017, Ahmed Al Issa assaulted a fellow student claiming that he had made fun of his identity, something witnesses said was not true. For that the 'poor, mistreated Syrian immigrant' got off with a misdemeanor, probation and community service. After all these sign posts, the system, instead of jailing him or perhaps deporting someone who was obviously a walking time bomb simply let it go without the action that should have taken place. And Ten Americans paid with their lives for that. Sounds a lot like the Boston terrorist attack, doesn't it? Someone the authorities knew was trouble they simply looked the other way and more Americans paid for it with their lives.

This is not to suggest that all Muslims act this way. I can testify to that personally.But the ones who do and show real signs of  simmering violence and hatred aren't being deported or even watched and investigated to see if they should be.

Instead, the  claims of Islamophobia are now being spun as mental illness.

That's the  explanation for why a Syrian Muslim immigrant whose family comes from the capital of ISIS would shoot up an American supermarket? That, of course and a lack of gun control, right?

There's strict gun control in a number  of cities, like New York and Chicago...worked really good there, hasn't it? Anyone with any common sense knows it hasn't worked anywhere. What the kind of 'gun control', or more properly gun confiscation does do is to take away the Constitutional right of law abiding Americans to protect themselves and their families. People like Ahmad al Assa will always find a way to get firearms. And for the uninformed, making a simple but usable firearm isn't impossible with some knowledge, the right tools and a secure place to do the work.

The real solution is to avoid allowing unvetted migrants from entering our country. Some of you may remember that President Trump suspended the entry into America of migrants from several Muslim countries with lots of terrorists. Syria was one of them.  Joe Biden received great applause when he rescinded that ban from the sort of media lackeys who are know trying to cover up what this can lead to, something the Brits, the Swedes, the French and the Germans have already found out.

So now you know what they won't tell you about the Boulder Massacre. 

And you might remember another leader who used violence as an excuse to disarm his people. Adolf Hitler was just as pleased with his idea of the burning of the Reichstag as our current leader in his own way about the Boulder Massacre...because it could serve their real  purpose. Joe Biden isn't Hitler, but he and his puppet masters want the same kind of control, just like every other leader who wants that.

Rob Miller writes for Joshuapundit. His articles have appeared in The Jerusalem Post, The Washington Examiner, American Thinker, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The San Francisco Chronicle, Real Clear Politics, The Times Of Israel, Breitbart.Com, Yediot and other publications.

 

 

 

 

Why John McCain Should Learn To Keep His Mouth Shut...For His Own Good

 

Senator John McCain of Arizona was recently taken ill with a fairly serious form of brain cancer, glioblastoma. There's only a ten percent chance of surviving more than a few years. Ordinarily, as much as I disagree with his politics and dislike his record in office, my normal policy would be to simply wish him luck on his recovery and leave it at that. Those sentiments still apply, but really, John McCain should learn to keep his mouth shut. For his own good.

Senator McCain has always been a sucker for press attention and apparently the 80-year-old wasn't too ill to cooperate with the drive by media by hitting out at President Trump. It's particular pernicious since he was personally involved in the matter at hand, albeit in a ludicrous way.

Today, President Trump formally ended a CIA program started by President Barack Hussein Obama
in 2013. It was a covert operation that by passed Congress to arm, train and support supposed moderate Syrian rebels in what was then called the Free Syrian Army against Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.

McCain went nuts over this. After calling out the president in terms the usual suspects in the media just ate up, McCain said "If these reports are true, the administration is playing right into the hands of Vladimir Putin."

That right in the hands bit is particularly funny coming from McCain, but first a little background.

The Free Syrian Army were never 'moderate.' The movement was filled with Salafists, Islamists and jihadis of the most radical persuasion. One of the main components was al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusrah, an officially designated terrorist group. Other elements were part of the the Muslim Brotherhood.

The CIA operation also involved collusion with Qatar and President Obama's BFF, Turkey's Tayyip Erdoğan. There was  a documentary made by PBS ( hardly a right wing, anti-Obama platform) entitled " Syria: Arming the Rebels" that actually showed jihadis training, holding up U.S. weapons and supplies and describe their journey from the Syrian battlefield to meet with their American handlers in Turkey and then being shipped to Qatar. Once there, they're instructed in sophisticated combat techniques, including one course on “how to finish off soldiers still alive after an ambush.”

As PBS noted "it appears the Obama administration is allowing select groups of rebels to receive US-made anti-tank missiles."

Those 'select groups' became ISIS, and the Obama Administration spent $287 million equipping and training them before congress found out, after which Obama's Secretary of State John Kerry asked Congress for an additional half a billion dollars to essentially fund what became ISIS. Now you know how ISIS got so strong so fast. You see, ISIS started in Syria, not Iraq, with the Free Syrian Army.Iraq came later.

One of the Senators trying to push increased funding for them was none other than John McCain. In one unintentionally hilarious episode McCain met with some of the leaders of those 'moderate rebels.'

 

Let's see, left to right we have Abu Mosa, al-Qaeda operative and later ISIS press officer; Peeking over Mosa's shoulder in ISIS Calipha Abu Baker al-Baghdadi; McCain; 'General' Salim Idris, who headed up a small window dressing organization called the Syrian Military Council that had nothing to do with the Free Syrian Army or any real military action;  Mohammed Noor, a member of al-Nusrah and ISIS officer who kidnapped three hostages who were later beheaded in ISIS videos,;and Malik Massouwi, another al-Nusrah member and ISIS commander. So yes, the Obama Administration helped create and fund ISIS.

McCain went to Turkey and slipped just over the border to the Syrian border town of Bab-al-Salam to press the flesh with his pals.

Later on, having built up one terrorist army and seen it go out of control and become ISIS, President Obama found another group of 'moderates' to support along with Qatar and Turkey, Jaish-al-Fatah, the Army of Conquest.

 

So, who are these guys in Jaish-al-Fatah, the new moderates in Syria? Why, the two main components are Ahrar ash-Sham, an officially designated terrorist group and our old friends the al-Qaeda offshoot al-Nusrah, of course. These are the guys Obama (and yes, Senator McCain) screamed bloody murder about Putin targeting with air strikes.

Considering that they were hunkered down right next to Lebanon's border in large chunks of Idlib province including the provincial capitol, Putin targeting them certainly made sense strategically.

Trump finally pulling the plug on these jihadis also certainly made sense.And you can't call it aiding and abetting terrorism, a federal crime some other people I could mention could plausibly be charged with.

One group of real moderates Trump has been backing lately with great success is the Kurds. Under Obama's reign, the Kurds got just enough support to keep them going, but President Trump has increased support for the Kurds and their heroic Persh Mergah quite a bit. And as WAPO columnist David Ignatius had to sorrowfully admit, the Kurds cheer wildly whenever our president's name is mentioned. They know they finally have a real friend in the White House. And Ignatius also had a few things to say about our president's decisiveness. So much for Senator McCain's nonsense about 'no ISIS strategy:



So Senator McCain, for obvious reasons ought to learn for once to keep his mouth shut.

I wish him a full recovery and a nice retirement from public life. Maybe there's a savings and loan he can do commercials for on TV, just so he could enjoy a nice buzz from being on camera. In Spanish. I'm certain he could work out something with Univision, his chief donor.

The UK Left: 'Europe Needs To Just Get Used to Attacks Like Manchester"

Apparently children are just meant to be sacrificed for the greater goal of multiculti according to Britain's Left. Can't do anything about it you know, just like the weather.

Katty Kay is a well known BBC anchorwoman, and she pretty much said exactly that in an interview with far Left MSNBC personality Mike Brzezinsky.

Here's a partial transcript:


MIKA BRZEZINSKI, MORNING JOE: Katty Kay, your reaction and also tell us about this part of the country.

KATTY KAY, BBC: Manchester is about three hours northeast of Britain. It's Britain's second biggest city. It has, of course, as do most British cities, a large immigrant, and large Muslim population. It is the kind of place where Ariana Grande would go and play up in the north of the country.

And now the investigation will try to be on whether this person acted alone or whether there is some kind of cell behind it. It's particularly awful, this one, because it was girls. My daughter is 11. Her greatest wish in life is to go to an Ariana Grande concert. Ariana Grande is coming to play in Washington, D.C. in September and she really wants tickets for it. And those are the kinds of kids that were at this concert. It was families. And the heartbreaking news that we're getting from the Manchester police this morning, the statements they're putting out of mothers they found who are still looking for their daughters and daughters they found still looking for their mothers and they can't find the rest of their families.

And I think that's what's making -- Europe is getting used to attacks like this, Mika. We have to because we are never going to be able to totally wipe this out. As ISIS gets squeezed in Syria and Iraq, we're going to see more of these kinds of attacks takes place in Europe. And Europe is starting to get used to that. None of us are used to having children targeted in this way, young girls targeted in this way.

Here's the full interview:



This, by the way, is pretty much what French President Macron said, that attacks like Bataclan and Nice were simply the price to pay for 'a truly multicultural society.'

This woman has already surrendered. She's prepared to become a dhimmi, a 'protected person' with no real rights except what her overlords decree. Perhaps someone ought to clue her in as to how many girls like her daughter fare in a number of Muslim dominated countries like Egypt and Pakistan. Non-Muslim girls there are routinely kidnapped, 'converted' to Islam and 'married' to their kidnappers, after which they are not even allowed contact with their families except on the whim of their new owner.

Her nonsense about the cause being pressure on ISIS in places like Iraq and Syria is ridiculous. Perhaps if the UK and other European countries weren't letting these people in, things like this just might not happen. You think? Even a child who touches a hot stove and gets burned has the brains to figure out that it's a bad idea to repeat the behavior.

And that goes for native born jihadis too. There's no reason not to have them face a deportation tribunal.And no reason not to subject jihadist Mosques and Imams to surveillance.

Salman Abedi, the suicide bomber who was actually set off the nail bomb at the Manchester auditorium, wasn't from Iraq or Syria. He was British born, and actually a so-called 'known wolf' who was already on the radar of British police with known ties to Islamist terrorism. Yet there the was, free as a bird.

Did I mention the weather earlier? Well there's little control over that. But what happened at Manchester could have been controlled and avoided, provided Britain's government wants it so.

The British Left in general is pretty much taking the same position Katty Kay is. Because there's a national election coming up in a week or two in which Labour is already trailing badly. So the spin is necessary.

And Katty Kay isn't alone here. The far Left Guardian is equally spinning the narrative, but in a more subtle, evil way. Prominent columnist George Monbiot's shtick is that we have to submerge our outrage and remember what he calls our common humanity:

The terrorists want to drive us apart, to sow suspicion and fear, to oblige us to replace liberty with security and answer them with bombs and bullets of our own. For a terrorist organisation any of this, if implemented, would mean mission accomplished. So we should do the opposite. We defy them by proving that this is not what we are. And the proof is everywhere. [...]

This is why terrorism happens: those who perpetrate it know that an attack on one is an attack on all. People are killed or injured in order to maximise the distress suffered by a far greater number – and to induce us, blinded by outrage, to forget our humanity and to lash out. This then cultivates a political environment in which terrorists prosper: a nation dominated by fear, a cycle of revenge, and the escalation of conflict.

Altruism and empathy are what binds us together, and what defines us. We should let no one distract us from this central fact of our nature: neither terrorists nor those who, in response to them, demand that we slam our doors in the faces of an entire community or an entire religion.

What a fine, humanitarian human being! Ummm, except when it comes to Jews and especially Israel. He's a prominent supporter of BDS and a pal to Labour's anti-semitic leader Jeremy Cobyn. He also was a founder of George Galloway's Hamas and Hezbollah friendly Respect Party.

Obviously, nail bombs in pizza parlors that kill and maim Jewish children aren't something to condemn at all for Mr. Monbiot. After all, it's the Jew's fault isn't it? Always is.

If the European Left has its way, Europe's people will simply be limited to the options Mohammed told his followers to give them in Qur'an 9:5, also known as 'The verse of the Sword'; to become corpses, Muslims,or tribute paying slaves.

The Brits, the French, all of the free people of Europe are going to have to decide whether what they believe in is worth fighting for.

Turkey Invades Syria - To Attack The Kurds, Not ISIS

Turkey's leader Tayyip Erdoğan has devoted some impassioned rhetoric to fighting ISIS, but until now that pretty much summed up Turkey's contribution...which makes sense if you think about it as I pointed out previously.

Actually, Turkey's relationship with the Caliphate has been relatively benign. Among other things, Erdoğan has allowed the purchase of ISIS oil by various Turkish middlemen, helping the terrorist army fund its operations. In some cases, those middle men include members of  Erdoğan's family. And through it all,  our 'NATO ally' Turkey has played a major role in allowing foreign fighters, weapons and oil to flow across the border.

What  Erdoğan has concentrated his military on is not ISIS but the Kurds, a U.S. ally and so far the most effective force on the ground battling ISIS.

On August 24th the Turkish military invaded Northern Syria. They used a contingent of 1,500 Turkish sponsored "Syrian rebels", aka Islamist jihadis from all over the world, accompanied by some Turkish special forces and twenty tanks to capture the city Jarablus at the Turkish-Syrian border. There's no question that this was pre-arranged in advance. ISIS moved all of its fighters and their families out of the city, and not a single shot was fired. After the 'victory' the Turkish flag was raised.

 Erdoğan's announced rationale is to get rid of "any terror activity on our borders."  He's also made it plain that he considers the Kurdish forces 'terrorists' and the equivalent of ISIS, even though the Kurds have been the ones actually fighting ISIS with the most success. He also issued an ultimatum to the Kurds to withdraw all of their forces and civilians below the Euphrates River.

Obviously, if keeping 'terrorists' away from his border was Erdoğan's chief concern, that could be accomplished by better border security on the Turkish side. A look at the map shows his real objective..to carve out a nice slice of Northern Syria and destroy the Kurds:


 

The Kurdish forces (labeled SDF by the U.S.) had previously advanced to the west and liberated the predominantly Kurdish city of Manbij from the Islamic State with the aid of U.S. air cover. And a new SDF Military Council was announced. But the man slated to head that  was assassinated a scant three hours  after the introductory press conference, with a fair amount of evidence pointing towards Turkish involvement in the murder.

Today, the Turkish military attacked Manbij, indiscriminately bombing and shelling civilians.The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 40 civilians were killed in strikes on two areas. That's probably a very low figure. According to al-Arabiyah, SDF spokesman Shervan Darwish said the airstrikes and shelling started overnight and continued Sunday along the front line, killing many civilians in Beir Khoussa and nearby areas. He said the bombing also targeted Amarneh village. He said 50 Turkish tanks were taking part in the offensive.

Keep two things in mind here. First, if Erdoğan's 'Operation Euphrates' is successful, the Kurds are pushed into ISIS held territory without the defensive protective shield of the Euphrates River. And second, remember that these are U.S. backed allies we're talking about that our 'ally' Turkey is attacking in force and attempting to push to an indefensible position.

Wouldn't you expect the Obama Administration to intervene?

Of course they won't. They're simply standing aside and allowing Erdoğan's armies to do whatever they want to the Kurds. In fact, while all this has been going on, Obama's VP Joe Biden was making penitence in Ankara to Erdoğan. As a sign of massive disrespect to America and the Obama regime, Biden was met at the airport by -wait for it- the deputy mayor of Ankara.

This disgusting exhibition isn't just limited to Obama. For 30 years, successive administrations, the Bushes, Clinton and now Obama have betrayed the Kurds, one of our few real allies in the region, usually in favor of Turkey. Obama and his minions seem to be paying no attention to the fact that Turkey is already working on an alliance with Iran and Russia, with Erdoğan establishing a direct line of communication from Ankara to Syria's Bashar Assad and Turkish MiT Secret Service director Hakan Fidan visiting Damascus to discuss 'mutual cooperation.'

President Barack Hussein Obama has proven once again that actually being a U.S. ally is not only worthless but potentially lethal. Unfortunately, the Kurds have found that out again the hard way. But don't believe for a minute this won't have serious repercussions on America in the future.

A Wedding In Turkey Bombed, 50 Dead - Whodunnit?

There was a particularly horrendous event in Gazientep, Turkey last night when a suicide bomb took th elives of 50 people at a wedding party and injured over 100 more. The suicide bomber involved was a young boy aged between 12-14 and the bomb was detonated electronically, probably by a throw away cell phone.

The screen shot above was from a video posted by one of the guests, who happened to have their phone out and pointed in the direction of the explosion at the exact moment of the blast. The video's available on Live Leak, but I see no reason to post it here.

The Turkish government was quick to blame ISIS. According to Turkey's leader Tayyip Erdoğan. "all the evidence points to ISIS."

What that evidence consists of hasn't been shared, nor, if things go as usual in today's Turkey, will it ever be.

But was it ISIS who pulled this off?

Certainly they're more than capable of it. But were they the ones who did this bombing? Let's look at a few interesting facts.






Since the attempted coup in Turkey, Erdoğan has responded brutally, using it as an excuse to remove or imprison as 'traitors' anyone questioning his virtually dictatorial rule. Think of this as Erdoğan's 'Night of the Long Knives.'  Judges, opposition political activists, businessmen and  journalists as well as military and police have been arrested, harshly interrogated and held for weeks without trial. Anyone whom has criticized or questioned the practices of   Erdoğan and his loyal AKP stooges in any degree  is being put out of the way on charges of 'treason.'

A major target has been anyone associated with Pennsylvania-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.  Gulen is a former ally of Erdoğan and the AKP who broke with him over corruption charges and Erdoğan's increasingly undemocratic practices. Erdoğan has been quite vocal about calling Gulen and his followers 'terrorists' and is blaming them for the attempted coup, something Gulen denies being any part of. Erdoğan has been hammering the Obama Administration to extradite Gulen, saying there is 'no difference between Gulen and ISIS.' 

A visit by Obama's Secretary of State to Turkey reportedly had Erdoğan's demand for Gulen's extradition as a major topic of discussion.

Another interesting thing to look at is how Erdoğan linked Gulen not just to ISIS but to the Kurdish PKK (The Kurdistan Worker's Party ) and PYD (The Democratic Union Party), claiming all of them are allied in a conspiracy to invade Turkey.

It's fairly obvious that, in my opinion, theories that Erdoğan pulled off the coup himself are (so far at least) without substance. But it is obvious that at the very least, he was fully aware of it in advance and allowed it to occur as an excuse to consolidate power and take out his political opposition. After all, Erdoğan himself has referred to the attempted coup as 'a gift from Allah'

So where does all this fit together? It begins to make sense when you find out that this was the wedding of a Kurdish member of The Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), who is in political opposition to Erdoğan and his AKP. According to the UK's Daily Mail, the wedding party was for one of its members, and the groom was injured.

Oddly enough, a lot of the terrorist attacks in Turkey seem to exclusively target Kurds. The deadliest was last October, when suicide bombers killed more than 100 people at a rally of pro-Kurdish and labor activists (read, Erdoğan's political opponents) in Ankara.

Another little detail to include in the mix. Turkey has not been fighting ISIS at all with its own military. They've merely been allowing U.S. airstrikes originating from the base America leases at Incirlik for a hefty baksheesh. Actually, Turkey's relationship with the Caliphate has been relatively benign. Among other things, Erdoğan has allowed the purchase of ISIS oil by various Turkish middlemen, helping the terrorist army fund its operations. And our 'NATO ally' Turkey has played a major role in allowing foreign fighters, weapons and oil to flow across the border, with Erdoğan only making a show of stopping the flow when it suits his interests.

While fighting ISIS may not be on Turkey's agenda, the Turkish military activity in Syria has actually been helping ISIS. It has exclusively focused on targeting the Kurdish militias, so far the most effective force on the ground battling ISIS. Erdoğan has always had designs on grabbing a slice of northern Syria for Turkey since the civil war started, but even more than that he wants to prevent an independent Kurdish enclave in Syria. Or anywhere else, for that matter. So in spite of the narrative about 'ISIS trying to increase ethnic tensions' the compliant Turkish press and Erdoğan's political stooges keep pushing,the truth is that both Turkey and ISIS are not only making a lot of money together, but essentially cooperating in fighting a mutual enemy, the Kurds.

Let's recap, shall we?

We have a horrendous bombing at the wedding celebration of some Erdoğan's political enemies at a time when he's cracking down brutally on any and all opposition. And at a time when he's pressuring the Obama Administration to extradite Fethullah Gulen to Turkey, a political rival he's branded as a terrorist and an ally of ISIS, there a convenient bombing that has the double benefit of terrorizing killing off some of his political opponents and providing added 'evidence' that Gulen is a terrorist that should be extradited back to the tender mercies of Erdoğan and what passes for Turkish justice.

For ISIS, the benefits of taking out some Kurds in Turkish territory pales when you factor in the risk factor of angering Erdoğan into a crackdown and losing a valuable market for their oil..unless they knew Erdoğan was in on it and signed off on the attack.

Again, ISIS is fully capable of this atrocity, but the facts on the ground point to Erdoğan being involved. Either he was fully aware ISIS was going to pull this off or the MİT (Turkish Secret Police) did this one on Erdogan's orders.

The Real Story On The Battle For Ramadi And Why It Matters

 

The latest headlines about the key battle between ISIS and the Iraqi Army are talking about the 'liberation' of the ISIS held city of Ramadi...including the map above, which I include for reference purposes. The truth is something rather different.

It only took 600 ISIS fighters to capture Ramadi from a much larger army of fully armed and equipped Iraqi troops when the predominately Sunni city fell to ISIS last May. The current battle underlines how disparate the two forces are. Ramadi has been held for months against the attacks of large forces of US equipped Iraqi troops by a fairly small number of ISIS fighters. The way the current battle for the city is shaping up tells us quite a bit.

 

There are an estimated 300 ISIS fighters who are in Ramadi pitted against 10,000 Iraqi troops and Iran-armed militia forces aided by US air cover. So far, the best the Iraqis have been able to do is to 'liberate' about half of the city. The well publicized flag raising occurred in the city's government compound, and while that plus a few major neighborhoods are now liberated, even the Iraqi military is quietly admitting that about half the city, much of which is now a heavily damaged ghost town is still under ISIS control. Even more telling, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Belawi, one of the chief Iraqi commanders admitted that the ISIS troops whom were dug in at the government compound pulled out in good order and escaped rather than being killed or captured.
 

Since there's nothing much left to plunder in Ramadi and a lot of the population left when the US led airstrikes began, this suggests to me that what ISIS had planned here is a delaying action, with a small number of troops ordered to hold off the Iraqi forces and inflict the maximum amount of Iraqi casualties as they retreat in force. If that's what ISIS has planned, they seem to have succeeded so far.

That doesn't mean that this isn't a setback for ISIS, merely that it's not quite the dramatic victory it's being painted as. One could argue that Russia's Vladimir Putin is doing far more damage to ISIS by targeting its oil shipments and refineries, where a fair amount of ISIS's wealth derives from.

What the battle really underlines is how poorly the Shi'ite army the American taxpayer spent billions of dollars to train and equip performs, even when they outnumber the enemy by better than ten to one and are much better armed and equipped.How the Iraqi army will perform when the fighting moves up to Ninevah and Mosul is anyone's guess.

Another point worth mentioning is that the Shi'ite dictatorship we put into place in Iraq has little or no respect or gratitude for American efforts on their behalf. The Shi'ite Iraqi government made a point of not mentioning the key role US airstrikes played in whatever progress they have been able to make against ISIS. The Iraqis would not have taken Ramadi without our air power.

This attitude is something I saw coming a long time ago. Americans should perhaps keep this in mind the next time anyone starts blathering about 'nation building' or 'Arab democracy.'

'What Thy Right Hand Possesses' - The Rape of Kayla Mueller

 

According to people loosely identified by ABC as 'counter terrorism officials' American captive Kayla Mueller was repeatedly tortured and made a sex slave by the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Mueller's family confirmed to ABC News that government officials have told them that their daughter, who would have turned 27 today, was the victim of repeated sexual assaults by al-Baghdadi.

"We were told Kayla was tortured, that she was the property of al-Baghdadi. We were told that in June by the government," Kayla's parents, Carl and Marsha Mueller, told ABC News today.

Al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi who calls himself "Caliph" as ruler of the Islamic State, personally brought the enslaved 26-year-old humanitarian aid worker from Prescott, Arizona, to be imprisoned inside the home of Abu Sayyaf, a Tunisian in charge of oil and gas revenue for the group, counter-terrorism officials have told ABC News over the past several months.

"Baghdadi was at the house of Sayyaf. He delivered Kayla Mueller, live and in person," one of several counter-terrorism officials briefed on the case told ABC News.

These counter-terrorism officials claim they got this information from debriefings of at least least two Yezedi teenage girls who were also held as sex slaves in the Sayyaf compound as well as from the interrogation of Abu Sayyaf's wife Umm Sayyaf, who was captured in a U.S. raid. Kayla Mueller was reportedly killed by a Jordanian air strike last February.

 

The first thing that occurs to me is that it was incredibly cruel for the Obama Administration to tell Ms. Mueller's family these horrific details. Does any parent ever want to know that their abducted child died in pain and torment? Isn't it enough to know that they'll never see their loved one again?

I have a feeling the release of this news via ABC in this fashion is not coincidental. As I write this, President Barack Hussein Obama is arming and training a Syrian force known as 'The Army of Conquest' to fight ISIS and then Assad. The Army of Conquest (Jaish al Fata) is primarily composed of jihadis drawn from al Nusra and other Islamist groups, and the strategy Obama is pursuing is exactly how ISIS got started, as a part of the Free Syrian Army that this president  armed and trained in connivance with Qatar and Turkey without the knowledge of congress. Having built up one terrorist army and seen it go out of control and become ISIS, President Obama is now building up a second one to fight the first..ignoring the possibility that ISIS and Jaish al Fata might decide to join forces against Assad and the infidels. It might very well be that releasing a news story of this kind is designed to encourage the American people to pick sides and to embrace the Iran deal, with Hezboallah and Iran considered our new 'allies.' The Ayatollah Khameinei has said repeatedly that while Iran might fight ISIS on its own accord at a time of its choosing, the Iranians and their allies are definitely not going to operate in any sort of alliance with the  Great Satan. This, even though we're still arming Hezbollah and they're showing off their American weapons to the American advisers they're sharing bases with in Iraq.

If this seems like an insane 3 ring circus with the Obama Administration arming and training both sides of this conflict and no clear direction or strategy in mind, you get no argument from me. You can't make this stuff up.

Another thing to consider...while as usual the Obama Administration is carefully steering away from even mentioning the word 'Islam' it is worth knowing that this behavior is religiously sanctified by sharia and  the Qu'ran,  in verse 33.50 ("O Prophet! We have made lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers; and those (slaves) whom thy right hand possesses out of the prisoners of war whom Allah has assigned to thee" Pikthal translation) as well as 23.5-6. 4.24 and numerous other places.

This is not to say that all Muslims are rapists of non-Muslim women or that non-Muslims never rape captive women. But only in Islam is it religiously sanctified. The Bible actually forbids such practices and was the first recorded document to give women in that situation any rights at all, as laid out in Leviticus. But based on the Qu'ran, what happened to Ms. Mueller, a captive, is fully in accord with sharia. Mohammed himself took many sex slaves.

President Obama is bringing a lot of Muslims into America via diversity visas and refugee asylum programs similar to Europe's from countries like Syria, Somalia, Pakistan and other countries where sharia law based on the Qu'ran is practiced and the traditional cultures are built around these beliefs, including honor killings and FGM ( female genital mutilation).

Ironically enough, Kayla Mueller, who was something of a career activist actually worked for a while with the pro-terrorism International Solidarity Movement, whom supports the Palestinian Authority and Hamas where these practices occur with distressing regularity.

At last count, something like 800,000 Muslims have entered the US under these programs since Barack Obama took office and the screening has been fairly minimal. As I write this, another surge of refugees to America is being planned for Syrian Muslims by the Obama Administration with screening done not by our FBI but by the UN.

Europe has seen major problems develop by importing huge amounts of Muslims, many of whom are not at all compatible with European culture, are disproportionately on public assistance, want to impose sharia in their new home countries, and strongly resist assimilation. Crime among Muslim refugees in Europe is rampant, especially rapes involving Muslim males and non-Muslim females. For example, Stockholm, Sweden, once relatively crime free for a city its size has experienced a 300% increase in crime since it began importing substantial numbers of Muslim refugees into the country. Rapes have increased to the point where Sweden is one of the rape capitols of the world, with the second highest number of rapes per capita of any country on earth.

The vast majority of these rapes are committed by Muslim immigrants or their teenage sons whom may hardly think of these infidel women as anything more than 'what thy right hand possesses.'

Whether we want to change America in this fashion is a conversation the Obama Administration refuses to even consider, but I think it's a conversation we deserve to have as a nation, and sooner rather than later.

All human beings are equal, but cultures are not.As Kayla Mueller discovered too late, she wasn't in Arizona anymore.

Syria Splits Apart As Assad Digs In Against ISIS

 

While a lot of attention is being paid to ISIS's successes in Iraq, few people have been watching the changes going on in Syria.

As I predicted just shy of three years ago, Syria, a made up country to begin with appears to be fracturing pretty much along the lines I saw back then.

Assad's hold on Syria depended on two things - how long the carnage could continue on one side or the other before it reached the point of no return and how long the Russians, Hezbollah and Iran would continue to support him. That point has apparently been reached with a quarter of a million deaths and the reduction of Assad's army from its beginning strength at 300,000 to something like 175,000 men from Assad's regular army, pro-regime Syrian militias and foreign fighters mostly from Hezbollah and Iran.

He simply no longer has the forces necessary to hold all of Syria. And his allies are gradually moving on.

The latest gain for ISIS was their successful offensive on the ancient city of Palmyra in Eastern Syria,which gave them a strategic path to assaults on the regime's key cities of Homs and Hama. If they're successful, they would literally cut off Damascus from the rest of Assad's territory.

The victory by Isis was celebrated Old School style:

Islamic State militants have executed at least 400 mostly women and children in Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra

Eye-witnesses have reported the streets are strewn with bodies – the latest victims of the Islamic State’s unrelenting savagery – on the same day photographs of captured Syrian soldiers have emerged.

It follows the killing of nearly 300 pro-government troops two days after they captured the city, now symbolised by a black ISIS flag flying above an ancient citadel.

As an added bonus, ISIS freed a large number of jihadis held in Palmyra's notorious Tadmur Prison.

What Assad is hoping for now is that he has enough troops to hold on to his strategic corridor in North and west Syria..Damascus, Homs and Hama and the coast areas of Latakia and Tartus, key cities where the majority of Alawites, Assad's Shi'ite oriented sect live.

What he's doing is attempting a strategic withdrawal into territory his forces are better able to hold,something his allies are likely insisting on because their own commitments are becoming strained.

For the Russians, supplying Assad with the tools of the trade has become an expensive proposition, one Russia has increasing difficulty meeting. Putin is still selling Assad ammunition and other supplies, but the Russians have cut way back on the more expensive toys like attack helicopters and are taking a wait and see attitude.

As Hezbollah's casualties have increased in Syria, its leader Sheik Nasrallah has come under massive pressure to cut back on the number of troops being sent to Syria from Lebanon. Hezbollah troops are still fighting in Qalamoun along the Lebanese border,one of the few areas where the Assad regime is taking the offensive, but massive casualties incurred during Assad's failed offensive in February on Aleppo have taken their toll.

This all puts a great deal of pressure on Iran. Aside from the financial cost, the strategic cost is huge. As Assad is forced into a defensive redoubt, the Shi'te bloc Iran thought it was creating from Tehran to Beirut is increasingly unlikely, especially with the pressure ISIS is putting on Iran's Shi'ite allies in Iraq. They will undoubtedly have to commit a lot more resources, human and otherwise just to keep Assad holding on.

For Basher Assad, his task will be to hold on to Damascus, the highways between Damascus and Beruit and Damascus and Homs, as well as the coast cities like Latakia and Tartous. With his reduced supply lines and less territory to defend, Assad has a decent shot at hanging on, especially since his part of Syria would contain about half of the country's population.

And the rest? The Kurds, at least the ones in the enclave just across the border from Iraqi Kurdistan will likely link up, as will the ISIS held areas within those two countries, providing Assad manages to hold on. One wild card in the deck is al-Nusrah, officially an ISIS ally, but my sources tell me they're making noises about a mini-emirate of their own in the territory they hold in the North around Idlib.So we could even see a three way shootout.

 And if Assad can't hold, especially Damascus, we're looking at a major bloodbath, even by Syria's standards. And Iran and Hezbollah maybe faced with either being split by ISIS or committing to a major war.

Oh, by the way, both al-Nusrah and ISIS are now essentially on Jordan's northern border, and Israel's Golan.

UPDATE: ISIS, following up on their victory in Palmyra made a classic strategic move with an assault in Aleppo Province on the small town of Sawran, which they now control.

From Sawran, ISIS is within striking distance of the small city of Azaz on the Turkish border. Azaz is now held by the al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra and their militia allies from Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham and Liwaa Al-Tawheed. They also hold much of Aleppo, Syria's second largest city and its commercial hub.

If ISIS takes Azaz, they control not only the main border crossing from Turkey but al-Nusra's life line into Aleppo for supplies, arms and fighters. ISIS would control Aleppo, and it would be only a matter of time until they take the city.

This was a smart move for ISIS. The al-Nusrah forces have not recovered yet from Assad's unsuccessful assault on Aleppo, and neither have Assad's forces,whom are busy consolidating their lines anyway. So rather than drive directly from Palmyra towards Homs and Hama, ISIS is eliminating a rival (I doubt we'll hear anymore about a separate al-Nusrah emirate), setting the stage to take Aleppo and then hit Assad from two points - in the southeast from Palmyra toward Homs and Hama and from Aleppo in the northeast.

These are the people our dysfunctional president laughed off as 'the jay vee team' in between golf games.

Ramadi Falls To ISIS In A Major Victory - And Why It's Important

On Sunday, Islamic State forces captured Ramadi, routing the Iraqi army, many of whom literally fled from the scene, those that could. Over 500 Iraqi soldiers died in the assault, and the debacle came so quickly that substantial pockets of Iraqi troops were trapped there after taking heavy casualties. They aren't expected to hold out very long and I've already received reports that some of them have already been captured and executed by ISIS.

Hundreds of civilians fled along with the Iraqi troops.






ISIS is using some fairly innovative tactics against fixed defensive points like Ramadi. First they seek to control the ingress and egress via outlying areas, to prevent or delay reinforcement and resupply. The next step in Ramadi was to break the defensive line using car and truck bombs, after which ISIS fighters stormed into the breach.

Many Americans may recall hearing the name Ramadi before, and some might recall that quite a few American lives were spent in securing it. Here's why Ramadi matters.

Look at the map above. Ramadi controls all of the traffic on the Euphrates River. It is only 68 miles (110 Kilometers) from Baghdad and opens the road to that city from the west, just as Fallujah, which ISIS also holds does from the east paving the way for a two-pronged assault. Also, ISIS captured the town of Jubbah in this new offensive, next door to Iraq’s biggest air base at Al-Ansar. That's where US soldiers, AKA advisers are trying to train Iraqi troops to fight ISIS, which so far hasn't been particularly successful.

ISIS has also surrounded the oil-producing town of Baiji near Ramadi, where a small Iraqi army force of a few hundred soldiers is trying to hold out. It's probably only a matter of tie until they're forced to surrender or are wiped out.

Our Secretary of State John Kerry announced from a news conference in Seoul, South Korea that as far as he was concerned Ramadi was " a target of opportunity" for ISIS rather than a carefully planed strategic offensive.

"I am convinced that as the forces are redeployed and as the days flow in the weeks ahead that's going to change, as overall (they) have been driven back ... I am absolutely confident in the days ahead that will be reversed."

Let's examine that.

Exactly what forces is Secretary Kerry talking about? True, the Iraqi government announced that "major military reinforcements" were being deployed to halt the advance of ISIS. The problem is that between Ramadi, the recent 'victory' in Tikrit (about which more later) and an attempted counterattack on Fallujah that went horribly wrong, the Iraqi army has very little strength to 'deploy' between ISIS and Baghdad right now. They're a badly defeated army that is incapable of an offensive against Islamic State right now. The only thing keeping ISIS away from Baghdad is a series of 19 U.S, airstrikes near Ramadi over the past 48 hours.

 Iraq's almost completely Shi'ite army has very little motivation to risk lives taking back Sunni dominated Anbar. The army purged almost all of its Sunni officers and men once the Americans left and the Iran oriented Shi'ite dictatorship we installed there took over.The careful relationship the Americans nurtured (okay, bought) with the Sunni tribes in Anwar via the Awakening Movement is long gone. If they're not actively fighting with ISIS, they're mostly supporting it, and they aren't going to believe any horse manure about being full partners in a Shi'ite dominated state a second time.

There are the Americans, who President Obama has seen to it have been kept out of combat. He has little choice in the matter, even if he had the inclination. George Soros and the Democrat National Committee have recreated the Democrats as a far Left anti-war party, and Barack Obama was their candidate. He was the one whom constantly talked about 'Bush's War' and how wrong it all was, and how he was going to end it. And when it finally did end he bragged about that as his 'achievement as well.'*

At this point, it would be politically devastating for him to involve U.S. boots on the ground, especially with elections coming up soon and every Democrat candidate having made explicit statements opposing the Iraq war.

So that leaves one other force available - Iran and Iran's proxy Shi'ite militias in Iraq like Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

They're more than willing to mix it up with ISIS, but there are problems.

The few times they've gotten involved, like Tikrit, they have treated the Sunni civilians viciously. Rapes, plundering and murder of Sunni civilians were the Shi'ite victory parade in Tikrit, to the point where the Iraqi government and the Obama Administration had to order them to leave. The Iraqi army is incapable of recovering control and holding Tikrit without them, and as we've seen, ISIS had other objectives to go after. So right now, the town is in total anarchy, with various armed gangs, some of them ISIS sympathizers, battling each other over territory.

However, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi may have little choice. As I write this, Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan is in Baghdad, and it may be that the Shiite militias form a defensive line with the Iraqi Army to keep ISIS at bay with the help of U.S. airstrikes until the Iraqi army recovers. I expect this to heat up into a long, drawn out sectarian war.

*(President Obama, in spite of his constant chest thumping had nothing to do with ending the war in Iraq, or for that matter, seeing to it that any U.S. forces remained in Iraq. The Bush Administration had already set out all the details of our withdrawal in the disposition of forces agreement with the Iraqi government under Maliki before George W. Bush left office, and they insisted that we leave. All Barack Obama had to do was make sure the script was followed...and take credit for it all, of course.


Both Maliki and the Shi'ite bloc led by Moqtadeh al-Sadr who put him in power were always in bed with Iran. As I predicted a long time ago, in the end it was 'thanks for your time and money, infidels. Now get out.'

Not one Iraqi government official bothered to attend the ceremony where our flag was lowered for the last time as our military left Iraq. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions about whether the price we paid to rescue them from Saddam was worth it. Certainly the $25 billion we spent to build them an army obviously wasn't)

Guess Who Else Just Refused To Help Obama Fight ISIS?

 

This is getting embarrassing.

The Obama Administration sent out a request to - wait for it - Iran for help in fighting ISIS through the Iraqi ambassador.

And Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei's reply?

 

No, no way, not interested in the least.

That actually surprised me at first, since at first glance the U.S. taking out ISIS would appear to aid Iran in their own ambition...putting together a nuclear armed Shi'ite bloc including Iraq, Syria. Lebanon and Iran. But Khamenei is obviously weighing the president's non-strategy and probable failure against cooperating with the Great Satan and decided it was better to bow out. I can understand that, from Khamenei's viewpoint.

The Iranians can now simply sit back, eat popcorn and enjoy the show, (and incidentally, keep the centrifuges running on their rogue nuclear weapons program)while the U.S. spends its time, blood and treasure.

As I pointed out, President Obama has no coalition at this point. The only country who has agreed to come in with any concrete and useful help are our dear friends in Oz, who always seem to be willing to stand by our side no matter what, G-d bless 'em. PM Tony Abbot has stated that Australia will send 600 advisers of their own to help fight ISIS.

Given this president's no win plan, I'm not sure how wise this is, but it's an absolutely wonderful gesture. And as anyone who served with them in 'Nam, AfPak or Iraq knows, the Diggers are superb fighting men who punch far above their weight in numbers. They will cause some serious mayhem among the jihadis.

But so far, that's pretty much it.

Some 'coalition!'

Obama's Loose Lips Sink Ships - And Kill Potential Allies

 

My friend Commander Jennifer D. Dyer (ret) has a great piece on the Obama Administration's non-strategy that will definitely reward your attention. Among other things, it details exactly how the president's preferred strategy collapsed between his turgid speech  last Wednesday and today..because ISIS was listening and took action..emphasis mine:

ISIS is busy neutralizing the Syrian factions that might make common cause with the United States.  On Thursday, Breitbart London reported that several dozen leaders of Syrian rebel factions opposed to ISIS, who were gathered at a meeting in northwestern Syria, were killed in a massive explosion on Wednesday.

Huffington Post on Friday evening summarized reports that ISIS has signed a non-aggression deal with a separate group of rebel factions in Syria, nominally so that all of the factions can continue to fight the Assad regime.

According to the Dubai-based Arabic news site Orient News, one of the signatories to the agreement is the Syrian Revolutionary Front (SRF), a group that has received U.S. support and has been touted as a likely partner for a U.S. strategy to oppose ISIS in Syria.

The SRF has been losing ground in recent weeks, suffering a major blow when one of its top commanders was killed at the end of August.  At the same time, the SRF was reported to be fighting alongside al-Qaeda-affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra in southern Syria, including the battle for the crossing point with Israel in the Golan over which the rebel factions claimed control on 27 August.

Now it appears that the non-aggression pact with ISIS was brokered by Jabhat al-Nusra.(ed note: an ISIS ally)  None of this comes as a surprise to those who’ve been following along with Patrick Poole at PJ Media.  On 3 September, Poole outlined the continuing cooperation of factions in the Free Syrian Army with ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra – cooperation that has resulted in a flow of U.S.-supplied weaponry to the latter two armies.  On 9 September, he expounded on a report from the Los Angeles Times that one of the “vetted moderate” groups, Harakat Hazm, is quite open about fighting alongside Jabhat al-Nusra.

The U.S. has already given this group anti-tank missiles.  Appended to Poole’s analysis is the tweeted text of an alliance agreement concluded by “vetted moderate” faction Harakat Hazm and other similar groups with Jabhat al-Nusra.  The text was tweeted on 8 July.

It’s not just credible, it’s highly bloody likely that some of the rebel factions – including U.S. client SRF – have indeed made a pact with ISIS.  The fact that it won’t be worth a bucket of warm spit ought to serve not as an encouragement to U.S. delusions of a meaningful alliance in Syria, but as a warning.[....]

In fact, ISIS hasn’t sat still.  Once Obama made his speech on Wednesday, the option of mounting coordinated attacks on ISIS’s strategic rear in Syria immediately became a major threat posed by the U.S.  If we could do it effectively, we could force ISIS to defend its rear: shift resources away from the campaign in Iraq, and perhaps even rework its overall strategy.

So ISIS promptly took out nearly 50 opposition rebel leaders and signed its non-aggression agreement with America’s potential partners in Syria.

Remember that ISIS doesn’t have to show good faith over time with any of those Syrian factions.  It just has to preempt their cooperation with the United States.  The mechanism for that is straightforward.  We’re an easy read – ponderous making decisions, easily spooked, committed to at least perfunctory public transparency – and our president is a slow learner.

If ISIS can prevent anyone in Syria from cooperating with the U.S., ISIS can concentrate its effort in Iraq, where our forces on the ground will be: small, scattered, un-concentrated, embedded with local groups which may not all be fighting for the same objectives.  Remember this also: Obama is determined not to overlay an obtrusively coherent U.S. framework on this operation.  Kurds fighting in northern Iraq and Sunnis fighting along the Euphrates in Anbar – each with a separate ill-defined connection to the struggling Shia-majority government in Baghdad – will have the lead.

Even in Vietnam and Somalia, I don’t think we’ve ever backed into anything with our hindquarters flapping quite so egregiously in the breeze.  Military success doesn’t just happen.  It’s as much a matter of political will, and a coherent strategy and operational plan, as it is of training, expertise, and weapons superiority at the tactical level.  Assuming we do go ahead with the plan-deficient, few-boots non-war the Obama administration has been proclaiming for the last 72 hours, I am very concerned that American troops could find themselves vulnerable under fire and fighting for their lives within weeks.

I would actually feel better at this point if we weren’t enlarging our footprint in Irbil at all, but instead planned to just keeping flying strike-fighters from Kuwait and Qatar.  There are sound operational reasons to be gravely concerned about Obama’s decision to dismiss the advice of his military leaders and go with a toxic brew of half-measure objectives and exposed deployment situations.

The rapid, cynical, homicidal initiative shown by ISIS in seeking to neutralize Obama’s Syria option is a pretty good indicator of what we’ll be up against.  Pundits and officials who are vocally criticizing the president are not just showing partisan sour grapes.  This is real, and it’s bad.

Commander Dyer also  makes the point that the troops we do have in the region are going to be in very small concentrations, particularly in the vulnerable Kurdish capitol of Erbil. We going to be basing both troops and fighter planes there because, as I reported before,  our Turkish  'ally' won't let us use bases in their country to attack ISIS, even ones we pay a handsome fee to lease, most notably Incirlik, a mere 100 miles from the front. So much for all that appeasement .



 
Moreover, as Commander Dyer points out,  putting together an airbase in Erbil, this close to the front with ISIS makes the planes vulnerable to any heat seeking missiles, of which ISIS has plenty.It's one thing once they're up in the air, but very different when it comes to landing and takeoff.

The bottom line, of course, is is that there is no real strategy, except a political one. President Obama isn't trying to destroy ISIS, he merely wants to rescue his poll numbers by launching a few airstrikes and giving the appearance of doing something so he can kick the can down the road for his successor.

 

Of course having opened his mouth in prime time on national television, the president has pretty much destroyed any chance of  real cooperation with any Syrian  opposition. The ones whom ISIS thought might be a problem are dead, and the others are neutralized, especially after they saw what happened to the others.

Read the rest of Commander Dyer's piece here..

Obama's 'Strategy' - Arming Jihadis, Random Airstrikes, No Congressional Oversight

President Obama is set to reveal his strategy on prime time tomorrow. Based on what's being reported so far, it's not only as bad as I predicted, it's even worse.

The president apparently hasn't learned from the mistakes he made previously. After covertly arming ISIS without consulting congress and creating the current mess, he now wants congress to exacerbate his folly by including a last minute authorization to arm 'Syrian rebels' in a must-pass spending bill that comes before the House tomorrow..with no oversight from congress on who gets the $5 billion he wants or how it gets spent.

By the way, this is yet another one of those continuing resolutions. The word 'budget' appears to be extinct, at least when it comes to the Obama Administration and the Democrat controlled senate.

Being President Obama, he has also tacked on partisan amendments to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank and an Internet tax measure. something hugely unpopular with most Republicans and even some Democrats, and for for good reason. That way, if the Republican controlled House refuses to pass this CR, or insists on more oversight and details, the president and his part can accuse them of 'obstructing the fight against terrorism' and spin this to blame them for his ineptness.

So we're talking about $5 billion dollars to 'fight terrorism', a blank check with no oversight, and no guarantees on how funds and/or arms won't simply go to jihadis again. That's especially relevant given this administration's previous fiascoes in that area. Listen to this Democrat, who's all ready to give the president what he wants no questions asked:

 

“We don’t know what the details are, so we can’t say what is in it and what isn’t,” said Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, who said the fund could be used to fight ISIS in Iraq or even Syria if that’s what the president decides to do. “I think that kind of flexibility is useful.”

You can't make this stuff up.That money, according to the way the White House CR is now written could literally go to anyone, anywhere.It could go to al-Qaeda allied militias, or to Iran allied Shi'ite militias like Moqtadah al_Sadr's Mahdi Army. It could go to Hamas, or to Hezbollah. It could even go to domestic campaign funding, or covertly to elections in say, Israel to help elect far Left candidates to the Knesset who will do the Administration's bidding and surrender to the Arabs whom identify themselves as Palestinians.

With this president, anything is possible.

And to show you how ridiculous this is, President Obama is talking about arming the Syrian rebels on the one hand while engaging with our new allies, Iran in 'security cooperation' and 'coordinated action' on the other. Has no one explained to him that Iran is allied with Syria's Basher Assad?

And speaking of Iran, have you noticed that  nothing's being said lately about their illegal nuclear weapons program or their failure to cooperate with inspections by the IAEA?

Meanwhile, the president took pains to inform congress that even though he wants the money, he can attack Islamic State without consulting them. and do pretty much what he wants, as the Washington Examiner reports:

President Obama told congressional leaders in a meeting Tuesday that he has the authority to launch broader attacks against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, downplaying the prospect of a Capitol Hill vote on his military plan ahead of his prime-time address to the nation Wednesday night.

Obama “told the leaders that he has the authority he needs to take action against [the Islamic State] in accordance with the mission he will lay out in his address tomorrow,” the White House said in a readout of the meeting that included Obama, Vice President Joe Biden; House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.; Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif

.
This has the potential to turn into even a bigger catastrophe than the president's illegal war in Libya.

It's about time congress assumed some responsibility for what's going on. They need to find a credible spokesperson (Ted Cruz, Rand Paul or Duncan Hunter Jr. would be good choices) to explain to the American people exactly what's going on, why they're refusing to fund another illegal Obama war and what they need from this president in the way of oversight in order to even consider authorizing the funding...which includes, by the way, a clean resolution without the partisan add ons.

Islamic State isn't the JayVee  Mr.President, you are. And not even in the starting lineup at that.

When Will Barack Obama Say Something About The Genocide Of Christians?

 


The lives of Christians in the Middle East are becoming a horror story, at least everywhere but in Israel.

In Syria, the Christians have been almost entirely driven out. Murders, rapes, kidnappings and forced conversions abound. Some have fled to Jordan, others to Lebanon where they have taken refuge with what's left of the local Maronite population.

 

“We are facing real genocide, but all the world has been silent, especially what we call the ‘First World,’” said Syriac Catholic Bishop Barnaba Yousif Habash, based in New Jersey, who has written President Barack Obama and visited both the State Department and Capitol Hill, pleading for U.S. action.

Now, Bishop Habash said during an Aug. 5 interview with the Register, “I don’t trust anyone in the American administration. I don’t have any expectations that they will help.”

Syria's Christians have been mainly targeted by Islamic State (formerly known as ISIS) as well as the other Sunni factions. The Christians are being murdered using arms from Libya or from Qatar via Turkey that Islamic State and the other rebels got courtesy of the Obama Administration. President Obama has been supplying arms and training to ISIS and the al-Qaeda affiliates covertly for quite some time now, while lying about it numerous times publicly and without bothering to clear it with congress

In Iraq, the news is even worse.Over 1500 civilians were slaughtered yesterday by Islamic State. Qaraqosh, the largest Christian town in northern Iraq’s Nineveh province was attacked by Islamic State, and all of its 60,000 residents who could manage to get away fled to Erbil in Kurdistan.

 

The Kurdish Persh Merga had managed to hold out against IS so far and literally begged the Obama Administration for arms to defend themselves. The response was that Washington was 'considering it' but they got no arms or aid because of President Obama's relationship with Turkey's Erdoğan and because the Obama Administration was concerned about upsetting the Maliki government in Iraq.

To add insult to injury, a $100 million cargo of Kurdish oil in a tanker off the Texas coast that would have provided the money to the Kurds to buy arms was ordered seized by U.S authorities which honored a demand from the Baghdad government who claimed the oil belonged to them. The Obama Administration supported this on the grounds that helping the Kurds might result in a break up of Iraq.

According to one of my sources Israel, who has a long standing relationship with the Kurds and supports an independent Kurdistan would be willing to help, but have no way to get any arms to the landlocked country. They helped arm and train the Persh Merga during the No Fly Zone era, but that was when Turkey had a very different relationship with Israel and could be used as a transit point. That's no longer possible.

 

The latest I hear is that Islamic State managed to push the Persh Merga back with the aid of all those gently used U.S. weapons the Iraqi Army dropped when it ran away and are advancing on Erbil,the capitol.Islamic State considers the Kurds 'apostates' because of their moderate Sunni beliefs but more importantly, this gives IS easy access between Iraq's second city of Mosul, which they overran on June 10, and the Syrian border. Even more importantly, IS gained control of Mosul Dam, Iraq's largest and the Ain Zalah oil field.Control of the dam would allow Islamic State to flood major cities or cut off significant water supplies and electricity.

Even worse is what is happening to the Yazidis, an ancient people whose religion mixes elements of Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam. IS considers them devil worshipers and infidels. The largest community of them lived in Ninevah and when that was overrun by IS about 200,000 Yazidis and some Christians fled for Erbil, but about 40,000 people are now trapped on Mount Sinjar and surrounded by th Islamic State.The Washington Post today is quoting a UNICEF spokesperson as saying “There are children dying on the mountain, on the roads. There is no water, there is no vegetation, they are completely cut off and surrounded by Islamic State. It’s a disaster, a total disaster.”

 

The ones who were captured by Islamic State in Sinjar, Tal Affar and Zummar are even worse off. Here is a description from a report by Christiana Patto of the Assyrian Aid Society of Iraq:

Yesterday 45 children died of thirst. Some families throw their children from the top of Sinjar mountain in order not to see them die from hunger or thirst, or not to be taken by the terrorists. 1500 men were killed in front of their wives and families, 50 old men died also from thirst and illness. More than 70 girl and women including Christians were taken, raped and being captured and sold. More than 100 families are captured in Tel afar airport. There is about 50 Christian families in Sinjar. The terrorists were able to control the Syriac church there and cover the Cross with their black banner. Till now we do not know anything about those Christian families.

Others are apparently being help as prisoners and human shields by IS in Tel Afar.

And President Obama? Silence, although our UN Ambassador did make a statement:

I condemn in the strongest possible terms the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) recent attacks on Sinjar and Tal Afar in Ninewa province that have reportedly led to the displacement of tens of thousands of people, many from vulnerable minority communities, deepening Iraq’s already acute humanitarian crisis. ISIL’s reported abuse, kidnapping, torture and executions of Iraq’s religious and ethnic minorities and its systematic destruction of religious and cultural sites are appalling.

The United States supports the Iraqi Security Forces and Peshmerga Forces working to defend these areas against ISIL. We urge all parties to the conflict to allow safe access to the United Nations and its partners so they can deliver lifesaving humanitarian assistance, including to those Iraqi families reportedly encircled by ISIL on Mount Sinjar. The United States is committed to helping the people of Iraq as they confront the security and humanitarian challenges in their fight against ISIL. Iraq’s leaders must move swiftly to form a new, fully inclusive government that takes into account the rights, aspirations and legitimate concerns of all of Iraq’s communities. All Iraqis must come together to ensure that Iraq gets back on the path to a peaceful future and to prevent ISIL from obliterating Iraq’s vibrant diversity.

Just compare this language with some of the rhetoric the president and the ObamaState department have used to describe Israel defending itsaelf.

The Iraqi Army that cost $25 billion of your tax dollars to create is doing nothing, people are fleeing Erbil ahead of the Islamic State's US equipped armies and the Obama regime is still backing the corrupt and inept Maliki government! No arms for the Kurds and no US military support to stop the jihad of Islamic State. The answer is to wait for Maliki to form that magical 'new and inclusive government.'

 Maliki whose been essentially a 'caretaker'  since a fraudulent and inconclusive election in April has continued to defy any notion of doing anything like that and the Obama regime continues to support him for some reason, while Islamic State just gets stronger. So, stalemate.

Just compare this with the Obama team's quick action,pledges of vast amounts of money and support and florid language and outrageous demands on behalf of Hamas. Or the president's unilateral war on behalf of jihadis in Benghazi, Libya.

None of this, by the way came out of nowhere. President Obama and his team were fully aware of what was likely to happen. They just had other concerns,like partisan politics, fundraising and flooding America with illegal aliens:

Three weeks ago, a group of leaders from the opposition Free Syrian Army warned U.S. officials that a strategic city along the Iraqi border was about to fall to ISIS. It was the latest in a long series of increasingly anxious cries for help. The rebels never heard back from the Americans.

Five days ago, the predictions came true. Free Syrian Army units in the city of Der al Zour handed over their territory to the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham, following weeks of desperate requests for help to international officials, including a direct appeal in a private meeting with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power.

“[The U.S. officials] showed an understanding of the situation but there was no movement at all,” the commander of the FSA battalion near Der al Zour told The Daily Beast in an interview. “There’s no clear American position in that part of Syria. We told the Americans we are going to fight ISIS and ISIS is close to us, but they did nothing.” [...]

For several weeks prior, FSA leaders had tried to sound the alarm. If Der al Zour fell to ISIS, the extremist group would have control of the transportation routes from their stronghold in Raqqa, Syria to their new territories in northern Iraq. The area is also rich in oil and gas resources and was the last FSA stronghold along the rapidly disappearing Iraq-Syria border.

About six weeks ago, a group of representatives of the FSA and the Syrian Opposition Coalition went to Jordan, and met with the international committee coordinating aid to the FSA based there. They presented a detailed urgent request for money, food, and weapons to be sent to the FSA in and around Der al Zour. Three weeks ago, just days after Mosul fell to ISIS, a group of FSA and SOC officials met with Power in Turkey and briefed her about the impending disaster on the Syrian side of the border. But after the meeting: nothing.

Again, the FSA are not exactly free of Islamists themselves, but the point is that the president and his team knew all about what was going on, and did nothing about it. They still haven't.

President Obama makes a very big deal about being a Christian. So do his followers. But whether it's Pakistan, Nigeria, Iraq, Sudan, Egypt, Syria or Darfur, President Obama has done nothing concrete to stop the jihad against Christians by Muslims.

In fact, if you actually look at his foreign policy, he appears to be aiding and abetting it.

The hard question, the one no one seems to want to ask is why.

Kerry Signals That Joint Military Action With Iran In Iraq Is Imminent

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry today  left the door wide open on joint military action with Iran in Iraq and as much as said it's practically a done deal.

“We’re open to discussions if there is something constructive that can be contributed by Iran, if Iran is prepared to do something that is going to respect the integrity and sovereignty of Iraq and ability of the government to reform,” Kerry said.

And military cooperation?

“At this moment, I think we need to go step-by-step and see what in fact might be a reality. But I would not rule out anything that would be constructive in providing real stability, a respect for the constitution, a respect for the election process and a respect for the ability of the Iraqi people to form a government that represents all the interests of Iraq,” he said. “We are open to any constructive process here that would minimize the violence.”

Yes, Iran and the Maliki's Iran-friendly government can certainly be counted on not to go tribal again.

Kerry, in fact, is already laying the ground for a 'go' on  air strikes and drone attacks that will be coordinated with Iran once the president finishes yet another golf holiday in Rancho Mirage.



Air strikes “are not the whole answer, but they may well be one of the options that are important to be able to stem the tide and stop the movement of people who are moving around in open convoys and trucks and terrorizing people,” Kerry said. “When you have people murdering, assassinating in these mass massacres, you have to stop that and you do what you need to do if you need to try to stop it from the air or otherwise.”

Of course, what Kerry isn't saying in so many words is that in order to do that, you have to coordinate those air strikes with the boots on the ground. Which means we'll be abandoning ISIS, whom the Obama Administration trained and armed to fight Syria's Basher Assad and moving over to the Shi'ite side with teammates like the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Moqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army, and Hezbollah, all of whom have lots of American blood on their hands..and incidentally, contributing to keeping Assad in power, chemical weapons and all.

In other words, what Kerry and President Obama are preparing to do is to have the U.S. pick sides in a sectarian civil war, something I seem to recall a certain Massachusetts Democrat senator and presidential candidate having an absolute hissy fit about back when President George W. Bush did it.

There's absolutely no reason for us to do so.Iraq, a made up country, is now merely reverting to it's natural divisions, and the Sunnis and Shi'ites will fight each other to a standstill, just as Saddam Hussein and the Ayatollahs did for 8 years back in the 1980's, weakening them both. That's definitely to our benefit, especially if Iran gets heavily involved. A war by Iran right now against ISIS and the Sunnis in Iraq with only Iran's minimal air power involved could last a long time without a decisive result for either side.

And the argument that Iraq will become 'a failed state' and a base for terrorist attacks on America? If you look around the region, most of what you see is failed states,. In fact, President Obama created one himself, in Libya.Any of these states can easily become a base for terrorist activity. And speaking of terrorist threats, the last time you checked was the Obama Regime really doing anything about Iran, a major state supporter of terrorism that was complicit in 9/11 and is on the verge of developing nuclear weapons?

If we're talking security risks to America, Iran is a far bigger clear and present danger than ISIS.Yet President Obama and his team are not only pretty much ignoring their illegal nuclear weapons program, they're actually talking about helping them secure a Shiite bloc to strengthen Iran's poisonous regime.

You literally couldn't make this stuff up.

 

UPDATE: The Latest On Iraq

 

Things are not looking up so far for Maliki and the Iraqi government.

The New York Times has reported that Iraqi PM Nuri al=Maliki made an appeal to President Obama for military strikes on ISIS - and was turned down flat.

The White House is content so far to watch al-Qaeda take over Iraq. Aside from how its prog base would scream and yell, congress is not really in the mood to allow yet another Obama war without their approval, especially since it's now known that the president and his team have been covertly funding, arming and training ISIS and other jihadi groups fighting in Syria for at least 2 years. The locals are certainly aware of it.



If Obama does intervene, we'd be involved in the ludicrous spectacle of sending our forces in to fight jihadis their commander-in chief armed and trained, along with help from Qatar, the Saudis and the other GCE countries. And we'd also be helping Assad, the Iranians and Putin! That would not bode well for the Democrats in the midterms.

The Brits likewise have made it clear that the Iraqis are on their own as far as the UK is concerned. Maliki's government is at the point of arming raw civilians as a militia and sending them to the front lines. THis does not look like it's going to end well,based on who's turning out:

 

Maliki seems to be losing whatever authority he had fairly quickly.

He called an emergency meeting of the Iraqi parliament on whether or not to declare a national state of emergency, but failed to even get another members of Iraq's parliament to attend to make up the required quorum . Only 128 of 325 MPs showed up to the meeting to vote,which sounds an awful lot like 'the tribe has spoken.'

It's now been officially confirmed a day after I first reported it that the Kurds have indeed occupied and taken Kirkuk for their own.The reports say that the units are Kurdish Persh Merga,but one of my Notorious Lil' Birdies on the scene says that it's a mixture of Persh Merga from Irbil and fully equipped Kurdish members of the 2nd and 3rd Iraqi Army divisions, formerly stationed in Nineveh and the 4th division, formerly hunkered down in Salahadin. Apparently, as I surmised, they simply voted with their feet, decided not to shed blood for Maliki and rather than head south towards Baghdad they headed Northeast to Kirkuk and Kurdistan, which could very well mean that there is an arrangement between the Kurds and ISIS, since ISIS has yet to attack or invade any territory in either Iraq or Syria held by their fellow Sunnis,the Kurds.

A deal could make sense for both ISIS and the Kurds, who have no love for Maliki or the corrupt Shi'ite kleptocracy he presides over. ISIS doesn't want the Kurds allied with their enemies, while the Kurds want Kirkuk back and a market for their oil. The Kurds have the oil fields, but the pipelines all run through ISIS held territory. If a deal's been made, it works for both of them and this could be the birth of an independent Kurdistan carved out of the Kurdish territories in Iraq and Syria.

As I also predicted, Iran is making a fair amount of noise about their Shi'ite colony possibly going under new management:

In his broadcast, live on state television, he said, "This is an extremist, terrorist group that is acting savagely." Al Jazeera described him as agitated. It has been reported that a unit of the Quds force, Iran's elite special forces, has already been sent to Iraq.


Speaking of which, while ISIS has definitely been mounting executions and insuring that Sharia rules th eday, so far they haven't made al-Qaeda's mistake and engaged in wholesale butchery of the civilian population. Most of the executions have been confined to policemen, Iraqi troops and Iraqi government officials. There are no wholesale rapes and abduction of young girls, no gratuitous brutality, no kidnappings for ransom and no blatant thievery or looting, as we saw with al-Qaeda in Iraq. For now, ISIS appears content to maintain order, especially among Iraq's Sunnis.

 

I think that what we'll see is the Shi'ites consolidating their forces and making a stand to keep the Baghdad-Karbala-Basra corridor in their hands, together with the Southern oilfields and the Persian Gulf pipeline. Baghdad could very well become a war zone and a stalemate, with the dividing line being where the Shi'ite and Sunni areas meet.

So far, the Iraqi forces seems to have slowed ISIS's advance at Samarra,just north of Baghdad using aircraft. Samarra, you may recall, is home to the Golden Mosque, al Askaria, one of the holiest shrines in Shi'ite Islam. The dome of that mosque was destroyed by al-Qaeda in February of 2006. ISIS has promised to raze the mosque to the ground if the Iraqi Army doesn't withdraw.

Meanwhile, ISIS has leapfrogged the Iraqi defenses, making raids on towns along the rods between Samarra and Baghdad, only a few miles away.This make sense tactically. Aside from making sure that any reinforcements and supplies coming from Baghdad to Samarra's defenders have difficulty getting through, it will also make a retreat from Samarra if it becomes necessary will have to fight its way through to safety.

Stay tuned...