US sending missiles, drones to Iraq to battle al-Qaida

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: Times of India

WASHINGTON: The United States is quietly rushing dozens of Hellfire missiles and low-tech surveillance drones to Iraq to help government forces combat an explosion of violence by a Qaida-backed insurgency that is gaining territory in both western Iraq and neighboring Syria.

The move follows an appeal for help in battling the extremist group by the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who met with President Obama in Washington last month.

But some military experts question whether the patchwork response will be sufficient to reverse the sharp downturn in security that already led to the deaths of more than 8,000 Iraqis this year, 952 of them Iraqi security force members, according to the United Nations, the highest level of violence since 2008.

Al-Qaida's regional affiliate, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, has become a potent force in northern and western Iraq. Riding in armed convoys, the group has intimidated towns, assassinated local officials, and in an episode last week, used suicide bombers and hidden explosives to kill the commander of the Iraqi Army's Seventh Division and more than a dozen of his officers and soldiers as they raided a Qaida training camp near Rutbah.

Read more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/US-sending-missiles-drones-to-Iraq-to-battle-al-Qaida/articleshow/27986657.cms

[chuckstevens]

1. Gee, that's a Good Plan!

What's the worst that could happen? We kill more innocent Iraqis?

[ConcernedCanuk]

2. If I remember correctly,

.
.
.

The last time the USA helped the leader of Iraq with military weaponry,

they hunted him down later and were instrumental in having him hanged . . .

FOR USING AFOREMENTIONED WEAPONRY.





CC

[hrmjustin]

3. We never learn.

[DeSwiss]

17. Some of us do.

- Just not enough.......

[TwilightGardener]

4. For all who want to criticize, what's your solution?

Send back US troops, see if some kids from Kansas or Tennessee can solve things? I don't see any other way to help get the violence under control, from our end of things. Money and weapons are about the only tools we have in this situation.

[Jesus Malverde]

5. Partition Iraq.

The following map was prepared by Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters. It was published in the Armed Forces Journal in June 2006

Free Kurdistan, Sunni Iraq, Arab Shia State

[karynnj]

6. Only Iraq should consider partitioning Iraq

Most of the problems in the region lie on borders drawn by the colonial power. This could well be a solution - people like VP Biden were in favor of it in 2006. However, Biden's resolution did NOT draw lines - it simply called for a conference (of Iraqis) that could consider partition. It passed ONLY when Biden moved from explicitly calling for partition.

[Jesus Malverde]

9. I'm down for any strategy that doesn't give us ethnic cleansing like Yugoslavia...nt

[TwilightGardener]

7. No. It's arrogance to think we should divide up countries and set artificial borders--

and it often doesn't work out very well, historically.

[Jesus Malverde]

10. I guess what we need is person who can unify these disparate religions...

Last edited Thu Dec 26, 2013, 05:47 PM - Edit history (1)

Under a common secular banner.

Use the incredible oil wealth of this state to create strong national institutions.

These institutions would focus on a socialist arab nationalist party that transcends religion....

In history there is no going back., The current status quo is at best, a maliki dictatorship and at its worst a failed state.

I agree it is arrogant to suggest partition, it's probably just as arrogant to suggest sticking to the old colonial demarcations.

[Comrade Grumpy]

12. Hey, that guy sounds familiar!

Only last time, we hung him.

[bvar22]

14. It is also extreme arrogance (and as far as I'm concerned Insanity) to believe that...

...we can BOMB them into PEACE.

[Scuba]

8. Funny, I don't feel safer. Strengthening Social Security would make me feel safer.

[Purveyor]

11. Iraq was a much better place under Saddam and we, citizens of these United States, should hang

their heads in shame over what we have done TO Iraq and have allowed these war crimes to go unanswered.

Shame, shame, shame...

[Jesus Malverde]

13. The looting and destruction of mesopotamian cultural relics and sites.

Is one of the biggest tragedies in this whole adventure.

[bvar22]

15. Putting the whole outrage on the Country's Credit Card,

and then coming back and insisting that we need to cut Social Programs for our Working Class & Poor to PAY for it all
is right up there.

[Enthusiast]

24. +1 a significant amount!

[zeemike]

18. Yes but some people made lots and lots of money from that war.

And where billions are at stake there is no shame that will stop them.
Look at it from their point of view, we now have a permanent state of war, and a permanent marked for bombs and missiles.
Why do you hate capitalism?...the question kind of answers itself.

[hollowdweller]

16. The Middle East Has A Choice To Make

The more the west and the autocratic dictators are removed the hotter the sectarian war becomes.

When we were in the middle east a lot and were supporting the dictators that kept a lid on things we were getting all the heat.

As the dictators have fallen and the US has been more hands off the more the sectarian war has heated up. In all countries.

Maybe they are just cowed by their suprerior firepower.

Maybe they are afraid they will go to hell if they don't support them.

However Sunni and Shiite are really not a lot farther apart than some branches of Christianity, but man they want to kill each other.

The Al Quaida Sunni guys REALLY want to kill the shiites.

OK so a LOT of the dictators are gone but the people are going to have to step up and end the sectarianisim. We can't do it for them and for everybody who flees and goes to another sane country, well that's 1 less there to stop the madness.

The entire middle east is becoming like Lebanon was for so long.

The best thing we can do is stay out of it and focus all our efforts on energy independance. As long as you can make better money as a fighter paid in oil dollars than making anything useful over there it will continue!

[7962]

23. You pretty much said it all.

What happens over there makes as much sense as if Methodists wanted to kill Presbyterians here.
Saddam controlled the country, even though it wasnt by the best means. And we had him pretty much under control with the no fly zones, etc. We could've stopped him if he really WAS trying to get nukes or whatever.
And the same with Mubarek. Egypt is a mess now. Syria, etc. They'll all go the same route if the head despot gets thrown out.

[DeSwiss]

19. Sounds just like the kinda plan you'd expect......

...from a Nobel Peace Prize winner, init?

- Plenty of Hellfire........

K&R

[Dustlawyer]

20. "We have to keep selling these things to keep our profits/bonuses up!" As long as someone keeps

buying them we don't care what happens!

[Hubert Flottz]

21. The Eastern World It Is Explodin'

Bush's hornet's nest that he and Cheney stirred up in the Middle East has destabilized the entire part to the globe.

I predicted, right here on DU, when Bush invaded Afghanistan, that the neocon's "preemptive war on Terra" would spread across many borders and turn the Middle East into a murderous seething cauldron, which America wouldn't be able to extract our military from. This road that the neocons set us on, is the same road that bled the other "Superpower" to death, only times about ten.

[Phlem]

22. I thought we were done in Iraq?

And all you fricken turds that say we are I say BULLSHIT!



-p