A Must Read

I got home from the bar and fell into bed soon after Saturday night bled into Sunday morning. I didn’t wake up until three police officers barged into my apartment, barking their presence at my door. They sped down the hallway to my bedroom, their service pistols drawn and leveled at me.

This is from a good opinion piece from the Washington Post and Alex Horton a member of the Defense Council at the Truman National Security Project who served as an infantryman in Iraq with the Army's 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

Do we have a Strategy Now?

Photo: USMC

Last year President Obama said:

President Obama said Thursday that "we don't have a strategy yet" when it comes to removing the threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the Middle East. CBS

My question is do we have a strategy now?  What is it? and What is it accomplishing?  Apparently given the fall of Ramadi  Sunday, very little.

Now I'm not picking on our President... It's an honest question.  What is our strategy in regards to ISIS?  Now I've heard said that it is to "systematically degrade ISIS/ISIL", not to nitpick but that's a goal, not a strategy.  "Degrade and Defeat"? Again not a strategy but a goal.

Please feel free to enlighten me if you think me wrong, but I haven't seen anything coming out of the government that even hints at a coherent strategy for defeating ISIS.  I'm apparently not the only one, back in February CNN asked Where's Obama's ISIS strategy?

US News says that the Public Doubts Obama's ISIS Strategy.  I'll go one further and say I doubt he has one.

The first question to ask is do we care?  Do we care if Syria and/or Iraq or a majority of their territories fall to ISIS?

The next question if the answer to the question above is yes, is well what are we going to do about it?

You can't negotiate with rabid dogs

ISIS released a video yesterday purporting to be the beheading of American journalist James Wright Foley along with the threat of a similar fate awaiting missing journalist Steven Joel Sotloff with the following comment:

‘The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision.’

The law of armed conflict is an anachronism, based on mutually agreed upon principles by consenting civilized parties, when one one party completely disregards jus in bello it is absurd to expect other parties to be hamstrung by it.

First, the United States ought to recognize Kurdistan as it exists outside the borders of Turkey.

Second, the United States ought to recognize the Shia state of Iraq as it exists in the southern and southeastern territory controlled by the Iraqi government.

Third, all surrounding nations are to be notified of our intent of recognizing the Islamic State of Iraq as it exists as controlled territory at the end of ninety days.

Fourth, at the end of ninety days we recognize the Islamic State of Iraq and declare war on it, demanding their unconditional surrender.

After that, any violation of international law committed by the Islamic State of Iraq shall be met with military reprisal.  First any identifiable military equipment goes, then the airports, power plants, dams, bridges, railroads, highways... treat them as we treated the axis in WWII.

Of course as the odds have it, Obama's decision will be no decision at all, it will be inaction and meaningless words.  The Islamic State of Iraq is betting that we lack the will to do anything, and also as the odds have it, they're probably right.

You can't negotiate with rabid dogs, all you can do is put them down.

Update: US officials confirm
              ISIS exterminates entire Yazidi village 

Lectured by the French

Laurent Fabius Photo: Mattho69

Wow, Obama sure can piss everybody off...

I know it's the holiday period in our western countries, but when people are dying, you must come back from vacation.

~ French Foreign Minister and Socialist Laurent Fabius

Apparently he's out of Cheeks.

Photo: Casa Rosada

Tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians fled an advance by the insurgents into the country's Christian heartland in the north. WSJ


Islamic State jihadists who took over large areas of northern Iraq overnight have forced thousands of Christians to flee and occupied churches, removing crosses and destroying manuscripts. Telegraph


"His Holiness addresses an urgent appeal to the international community to take action to end the humanitarian tragedy now underway, to act to protect those affected or threatened by violence and to provide aid, especially for the most urgent needs of the many who have been forced to flee and who depend on the solidarity of others," the Vatican said in a statement. Reuters

Iraq Falling

Fallujah... Mosul... Tikrit...

ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (or the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant), a group kicked out of Al-Qaeda for being too extreme (so extreme Al-Qaeda was fighting alongside moderates in Syria against them) is marching across Iraq and is now just 95 miles outside of Baghdad. 

Having taken the Turkish Consulate in Mosul, they now hold some 80 Turks hostage.  Turkey has called for an emergency meeting of NATO. The Turkish Foreign Minister threatens military action if any Turks are harmed, and Iraq is "open to US airstrikes" (Open or requesting?... The NYT is reporting that the Iraqi Prime Minister secretly requested airstrikes from the Obama administration on militant staging areas.)

Should we care? Do we have any obligation to assist?

What are your thoughts?

Footloose in Iraq

News from Baghdad that "young men in tight T-shirts and skinny jeans are being beaten to death with cement blocks and dumped in the streets” is now coming to light in the West.

We took out Saddam Hussein, the Arab firewall containing the Persians, and the Iraqis are celebrating their freedom by bombing Christians out of their churches and killing gays.

AP News and the New York Times report that gays, emos, and others who do not conform the the Islamist straightjacket are being targeted and killed.

"We warn in the strongest terms to every male and female debauchee," the Shiite militia hit list says. "If you do not stop this dirty act within four days, then the punishment of God will fall on you at the hands of Mujahideen." (AP News)

A cynic observes the constant chaos in the Middle East, interrupted only by tyranny, and observes that some people just need a dictator. I also wonder who is crazier, the people who live there, or westerners who crash in thinking they can make a difference?

When Self-Expression is Lethal

If Hollywood were not stilted and braindead, it would have remade “Footloose” in Iraq, focusing on its Emo community. To be gay, Christian, or emo, are all genuine human rights, and their expression springs from the human soul. Those dead young men were only trying to live their lives as they saw fit. They were not harming anyone but the haters who are so insecure in their faith that they must murder all nonconformist threats to it...

But over the past month, threatening letters began appearing in Shiite neighborhoods across Baghdad, residents said.

One of the fliers, scanned and posted online, addresses dozens of gay men by name and nickname. It warns people identified as Japanese Haider, Allawi the Bra, Mohammed the Flower and others: Reform your behavior, stop being gay, or face deadly consequences. 
“Your fate will be death if you don’t quit doing this,” one leaflet warns. “Punishment will be tougher and tougher, you gays. Don’t be like the people of Lot.”

Another flier circulating around the Zayouna neighborhood appears addressed to emo youths. It tells them to cut their hair, not to wear the clothing of devil worshipers, and not to listen to metal, emo or rap music. And if they refuse, “God’s punishment will be come down upon you,” the letter says. (NY Times)

It took them killing gays for the New York Times to wake up. Yes, they reported on Christian killings, but it took the killing of gays to change the tone and tenor of their reporting.  Regardless, I am glad the press is reporting this.  It is a gruesome human rights violation.

At what point will liberals realize that the Islamist fetish is not compatible with the gay one?

At some point, and perhaps this is one of them, they will have to drop one for the other. The choice is clear: Being gay is a legitimate exercise of ones rights; being a self-proclaimed Flaming Sword of God who murders others is a grotesque stain upon humanity.  I understand the gossamer optimism at the first whiff of the Arab Spring, but Islamists (as opposed to everyday Muslims) lurk, and too many people too easily fall under their sway.

This and other sad episodes remind us of the sad fact that we cannot change other societies, and we should stop trying. The soldier who snapped and murdered those Afghans shows us that such chimeric pursuits can end up killing our own souls. 

MSR Tampa: The Road Home

Navistar - Fletch, Seth and Me

Getting out of Iraq may be more challenging than getting in

American commanders say one of the gravest threats to the 46,000 troops here is that they could become easy targets for insurgents when they begin their final withdrawal this summer and head for the border along a 160-mile stretch of road cutting through the desert into Kuwait. (NY Times)

For the last of the OIF Mohicans, MSR Tampa is the Road Home

I’ve driven up and down MSR Tampa a few times.  It is the main supply route that runs from our bases in Kuwait up through Baghdad and on to points north.  You drive from Ali Al Salim up to Navistar where you wait for your convoy to get assembled.  Once the convoy is all formed up, you cross the Iraqi border and head north.

Drive through Safwan, past shabby dwellings so close to the road you could reach out and touch the scowling faces as you drive by.  Pass by Basra and on up to Ali Base, the Ziggurats and Ur.  A few more hours and you're in Baghdad.

It was a dangerous road when I drove it various times back in 2005.  Much of my job was doing comm projects to improve security.  Units in trouble often could not make radio contact for backup or a dustoff, which is a very scary situation.  Just Google MSR Tampa and you'll read the stories and see the pictures and video memories of our troops who have fought and lost buddies on that road.

Fortunately for me, I have no harrowing tales to tell, and I was surprised at the discipline of the gunners.  We were all armed, but most of us are drivers or passengers helping the driver spot trouble and navigate.  The convoys had security people whose only job was to look out for trouble.  My first trip, south of Ali, an old Chevy Impala came screaming out of the barren fields and noisily bounced onto the convoy route.  I thought for sure he was a bomber, but no, he was just another crazy Iraqi driver, clueless to how lucky he was we have disciplined soldiers.

On another trip, we got the usual cars getting too close, despite signs in Arabic telling them to stay back.  All of a sudden, an impatient little Toyota crosses the hardscrabble median between the divided highway and goes screaming the wrong way in the opposite lane just to pass us.  Meanwhile, oncoming cars heading in the right direction are parting like the Red Sea to let him through.  I guess this was routine for them.

Anyway, I pray we can get our guys out of there safely, and I also pray the Iraqis have learned something and that they can make a go of what we fought to give them.