Saturday, March 31, 2018

DEATH WISH

This made me laugh:

  • Here's the thing about trans (or gay) ppl in the military: I could spend a lot of time getting into you whether or not I should defend the right to be in an imperialist machine. But bottom line? Your choices remove you from the realm of my priorities. Deal with your own shit.





    Deal with your own.  :D

    Okay, so I saw DEATH WISH.


    We weren't in the mood for a lot of the new releases so we hopped back to something released earlier this month.

    This was an action film, not a work of art.

    As an action film, it succeeds and has surprisingly strong acting -- not just Bruce Willis but also Elizabeth Shue and Vincent D'Onofrio.

    I felt it was not just entertaining but also an improvement over the original which is very slow and also developed poorly -- I'm talking about the film's look.  It's too dark and bland.  A problem with a lot of 70s films (especially if they were made cheaply).  A film like KLUTE, for example, uses dark shading for emotional effect.  And in it's non-dark moments the colors shine -- think Bree's blue dress.  But a film like DEATHWISH is so washed out it could have been a FILMWAYS movie of the 70s.


    If you're looking to read about a classic film, hop over to WSWS and check out Joanne Laurier's piece on VERTIGO:


    In celebration of the 60th anniversary of its release, Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Vertigo was presented recently in cinemas nationwide in the US by Fathom Events, Turner Classic Movies and Universal Pictures.
    The 1958 classic psychological thriller was based on the 1954 novel Dentre les morts (Among the Dead) by French crime writers Pierre Boileau and Pierre Ayraud (whose pen name was Thomas Narcejac).
    The movie was not a box office success, despite being a glamorous, big-budget effort directed by the “master of suspense,” and featuring one of Hollywood’s most beloved actors (James Stewart), along with budding sex symbol Kim Novak. Its darkness and obsessiveness may have seemed odd to audiences at a time when American affluence and power were supposedly at their height. Vertigo has its apparent flaws, including an implausible murder plot, certain trite or banal elements, and an uneven performance from Novak, but it has endured and proven to be one of the most troubling American films of the postwar period. This is a conundrum worth investigating.


    Going out with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

    Friday, March 30, 2018.  So many enable the current war and occupation of Iraq.


    The key to understanding Gary Younge is to remember he lies frequently.  When he writes for THE GUARDIAN (writing often reproduced in THE NATION), he's one way.  When he's writing for a Socialist publication, he's another way.  He can tailor himself to fit any outlet.  He did so this week at THE GUARDIAN where he made two key points about the Iraq War:

    First, because many are still living with the consequences. Amnesia is the privilege of the powerful. The powerless do not have the luxury of moving on, because their nations have been flattened, economies ruined and sectarian divisions deepened and weaponised as a result of a war that was prosecuted in their name.
    Second, it was the greatest foreign policy error of a generation or more, in which most of the political class and the media class were entirely complicit. We cannot walk away – because it has changed who we are, and so wherever we go, this dark shadow follows us.

    It was really hard for him to get there because he had to provide links and he was writing for a UK audience.  This meant noting some of Tony Blair's claims (lies) in the lead up to the war.  It also means he can't note the Downing St. Memos that document so much about how Tony and Bully Boy Bush worked it out ahead of time.  In the US, much was made about the corporate media ignoring the memo but the reality is that they weren't the only ones.  The blessed GUARDIAN, to this day, has never mentioned them.  (THE TIMES OF LONDON is the British paper that first reported on them.)  That's because you can't call out Labour too harshly in the New Labour outlet that THE GUARDIAN is.

    Now you can write any truth about the United States in THE GUARDIAN and Ajay Singh Chaudhary gets a few in:


    Although Trump still has plenty of time to catch up (and I fear he will), his crimes do not come close to the crimes against humanity committed by members of our ruling class from political leadership to the media in our lifetime. I won’t list names here because it would be too inflammatory, but there are dozens, hundreds, who would be facing tribunals if they were not American.
    They not only walk free but are rewarded for their complicity in one of the key moments that is the short walk to now. Watching the sickening rehabilitation of political and media figures of this period – and for some the simple continuity – is also a reminder of the partial utility of that term “totalitarian”.
    No matter how much they destroy, how many lines they cross, whom they murder en masse, their respectability is unaffected, their leadership de rigueur. This was not the failure of the rule of law: this is the rule of law in a system in which any attempt to transform power or even challenge it has been silenced.
    This was not because “norms” or the constitution were violated; this was the absolute functioning of norms and the constitution. This was the America that some tell me was already great.

    But you cannot tell the truth about the UK government in THE GUARDIAN -- which is why Gary's links in his article to opposition go to GUARDIAN articles published . . . after the war had started.

    From Gary, let's go to another whore of Babylon, Jane Arraf (NPR at this moment):

    In 2014, tens of thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority, facing genocide from ISIS, escaped to the mountain from the town of Sinjar and surrounding villages in northern Iraq.
    The United States said it entered the war against ISIS partly to protect Yazidis trapped on the mountain with no food and water.
    Four years later, several thousand of them remain there. Destitute and living in tents, they are still too afraid to come down.


    True Barack story, in late 2015 as the Yazidis were still refusing attempts to 'rescue' them by getting them off the mountain, then-President Barack Obama wondered "what the f**k do they want?"  A very good question.  But not one that should have surprised him or anyone else.

    In real time, in 2014, with this situation, we were quite clear.  We said don't send in US troops.  We said do air drops of packages so that they didn't starve.

    That's what should have been done.

    The US forces and the Kurds both provided every opportunity for the Yazidis to get off Mount Sinjar.  Not for one day, not for one week, not for one month, not even for one year.  Over and over they provided that opportunity.  The Yazdis wouldn't -- and still won't -- leave.

    "I'm trapped!  I'm trapped! Rescue me!"

    Save yourself.

    Seriously.

    Are you a kitten caught in a tree?



    I am not a pretty girl
    That is not what I do
    I ain't no damsel in distress
    And I don't need to be rescued, so
    So put me down, punk
    Wouldn't you prefer a maiden fair?
    Isn't there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere?
    [. . .]
    And what if there are no damsels in distress?
    What if I knew that, and I called your bluff?
    Don't you think every kitten
    Figures out how to get down
    Whether or not you ever show up?



    The Yazidis don't figure it out because they don't want anything but to start more wars.  I don't know if that has to do with their worship or what.

    But they have certainly been vocal about how the Kurds abandoned them!  Left them on Mt. Sinjar!  They are trapped!

    No, you had you chances to come down but you refused to.  That's on you.  And everyone knows the Yazidis will use the same sentences to gripe about the US just as soon as they figure they've drained the US out of all the sympathy they can get.

    The Yazidis are victims of their own making.

    PIX 11 reports:

    A native son of Carmel, Indiana, who served with New York City's fire department and died in Iraq received a send-off punctuated by crisp military precision, appreciation and moments of joy.
    Capt. Christopher "Tripp" Zanetis was celebrated at New York University by Mayor Bill de Blasio, fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro and many others after a solemn ceremony in nearby Washington Square Park on Thursday.
    On Long Island, a funeral was held for Staff Sgt. Dashan Briggs, another of the four New York Air National Guardsmen killed in a March 15 helicopter crash. Funerals will be held Saturday on Long Island for Master Sgt. Christopher Raguso, another fire department veteran, and on April 6 in Tampa, Florida, for Capt. Andreas O'Keeffe.
    NEW YORK DAILY NEWS notes:

    Amid the chaos of 9/11, as the fires burned at Ground Zero, volunteer Christopher Zanetis worked alongside the FDNY members searching in the rubble for their lost brothers.
    Three years later, he joined their ranks. And in 2008, the heroic Zanetis became a member of the Air National Guard.
    The 37-year-old FDNY fire marshal and U.S. Air Force major, who was killed March 15 in a helicopter crash in Iraq, was honored Thursday for a life driven by service for city and country at an emotional Greenwich Village sendoff.
    The “Celebration of Life” began at his old East Village firehouse and continued in Washington Square Park, where his his brown wood casket arrived beneath its massive marble arch.
    From LONG ISLAND NEWS 12:


    Funeral services were held today for Tech. Sgt. Dashan Briggs, of Port Jeff Station – one of four members of the Air National Guard's 106th Rescue Wing who died earlier this month in a chopper crash in Iraq.
    Friends spoke Thursday about how giving he was, how great he was as a father, and how honored they were to have served with him.

    Would those service members have died were it not for the Yazidi spokespersons (and the neocon p.r. firm in the US)?  Maybe not.

    They refused to be rescued after their spokespeople insisted they needed to be rescued.  They should accept the fact that many have tired of their little-boy-who-cried-wolf ploys.

    Again, we didn't play heartless here.  We said if they're trapped, drop food on the mountain for them.  But instead it was send more US troops into Iraq.  Where they remain.

    Melissa Steininger (WTAJ) reports:

    The men and women salute in honor of their country at the Punxsutawney Community Center Wednesday morning. 
    The same group will soon put their lives on the line. They're the 665 Engineer Utilities Detachment and they will be deployed to Iraq at the end of the week.  


    The Iraq War never ends. Remember what Anthony H. Cordesman (CSIS) argued earlier this year:

    The United States, its allies, and international organizations are just beginning to come to grips with the civil dimensions of "failed state" wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, the Sudans, Syria, and Yemen. In each case, it is clear that the civil dimension of the war will ultimately be as important as the military one.
    Any meaningful form of "victory" requires far more than defeating the current extremist threat in military terms, and reaching some temporary compromise between the major factions that divide the country. The current insurgent and other security threats exist largely because of the deep divisions within the state, the past and current failures of the government to deal with such internal divisions, and the chronic failure to meet the economic, security, and social needs of much of the nation's population.
    In practical terms, these failures make a given host government, other contending factions, and competing outside powers as much of a threat to each nation’s stability and future as Islamic extremists and other hostile forces. Regardless of the scale of any defeat of extremists, the other internal tensions and divisions with each country also threaten to make any such “victory” a prelude to new forms of civil war, and/or an enduring failure to cope with security, stability, recovery, and development.
    Any real form of victory requires a different approach to stability operations and civil-military affairs. In each case, the country the U.S. is seeking to aid failed to make the necessary economic progress and reforms to meet the needs of its people – and sharply growing population – long before the fighting began. The growth of these problems over a period of decades helped trigger the sectarian, ethnic, and other divisions that made such states vulnerable to extremism and civil conflict, and made it impossible for the government to respond effectively to crises and wars.
    These issues are analyzed in depth in a new study by the Burke Chair at CSIS entitled Iraqi After ISIS: The Other Half of Victory, which is available on the CSIS web site at https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/publication/180109_iraq_other_half_cordesman_civilian.pdf?8SEsjcRdOq.sakyQJ_PN3RKfCGlBCgs4It is being circulated in working draft form in order to seek comments, directions and additional data, which should be sent to Anthony H. Cordesman atacordesman@gmail.com.
    The study shows that the economy and infrastructure of Iraq and the other countries involved in "failed state" wars have now been further crippled by years of war. As a result, each conflict has changed the country to the point where it creates a need to establish a new structure of governance and economy that reflects major shifts in the population, the balance of power in each state, and its real-world post-conflict opportunities for development.
    The cumulative result is to make "stability operations" a key part of grand strategy. Defeating a given mix of terrorists or insurgents requires aid and assistance efforts that look beyond the fighting and the short-term priorities of conflict termination. Negotiations and new political arrangements, emergency humanitarian aid, and recovery aid are all critical steps towards lasting stability.

    This is about occupation.  "Stability."  It's not ending.

    The following community sites updated:



  • Thursday, March 29, 2018

    5 Biggest money losers of 2017

    What were 2017's biggest money losers at the box office?

    According to DEADLINE, these are the five biggest money losers.

    5) GEOSTORM


    4) Matt Damon's THE WALL

    3) THE PROMISE

    2) MONSTER TRUCKS

    1) KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD

    Matt Damon can't carry a film.

    That was obvious with BOURNE where each film did better at the box office.  As C.I. wrote once, that indicated that people had to get over their unwillingness to see a Matt Damon film.

    I really think it's over for Matt.  He doesn't really have much to offer.  He had so many flops -- so many big flops.  SURBURBICAN, for example.  DOWNSIZING, is another example.

    He just can't be a lead in a film.  Studios have to gamble too much money and it doesn't really pay off.


    Going out with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


    Thursday, March 29, 2018.  The feel good nonsense or the reality of death and destruction?


    RT reports:

    The US-led coalition fighting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) on Wednesday admitted to killing at least 855 civilians in airstrikes in Iraq and Syria in the past four years. “To date, based on information available, CJTF-OIR assesses at least 855 civilians have been unintentionally killed by coalition strikes since the start of Operation Inherent Resolve,” the US Central Command said in its monthly civilian casualty report. The coalition conducted a total of 29,225 strikes between August 2014 and the end of February 2018, and during this period the total number of reports of possible civilian casualties was 2,135. The total number of credible reports of civilian casualties during this time period was 224, according to the statement. It said that 522 reports are still open.

    That's what they are now admitting to.  You can be sure the actual count of civilians killed in airstrikes is much higher.




    All across the nation, people are protesting against "violence," and yet not one demonstration about the government's violence in , , , , , . Millions have died since 2003 and it doesn't even register on the outrage meter.









    Not that I think the gun violence march in America was irrelevant but the children of Iraq, Syria, and Palestine would like to be safe
    in school and at home.
    Where are the marches for these children? Why is the world so silent when it comes to them?







    Yes, we're back to the issue of does violence only matter when effects White kids in the US?  Do the lives of Iraqis -- including Iraqi children -- not matter at all?

    Ajamu Baraka (BLACK AGENDA REPORT) observes:



    So, it was a good week for both bourgeois parties. The Democrats didn’t get called out for their collaboration with Trump and the Republicans on the budget. The Trump folks have more ammunition to use to mobilize their supporters in opposition to what they will frame as efforts to violate the constitution and take away their guns and give more power to a repressive government. Even the intelligence agencies benefited from the week’s events with attention being shifted away from the FBI scandal that is threatening to blow the cover off of official criminal activity to undermine the electoral process, not by the Russians, but unelected forces in the U.S. state.

    But for those of us from the colonized Black and Brown zones of non-being, we can never allow ourselves to be distracted by the diversionary and accommodationist politics of the latest carefully crafted spectacle, especially one that purports to be advancing a superior moral politics.

    We must always remind ourselves that some can march with the confidence that “their” government might be trusted with regulating weapons and protecting their lives but that the protection of our fundamental human rights rest with our ability to defend our collective rights, and no one else.

    Through our painful lived experiences, we understand and must live by the insight provided by our dear brother, James Baldwin, who counseled us that we must be vigilant when our oppressors speak of morality and the sanctity of life:

    “The “civilized” have created the wretched, quite coldly and deliberately, and do not intend to change the status quo; are responsible for their slaughter and enslavement; rain down bombs on defenseless children whenever and wherever they decide that their “vital interests” are menaced, and think nothing of torturing a man to death; these people are not to be taken seriously when they speak of the “sanctity” of human life, or the conscience of civilized world.”

    Distraction can be deadly, let’s us get and stay woke.
    Saturday's look-at-me-look-at-me tantrum accomplished nothing and was never going to accomplish anything while rubbing elbows with the likes of Senator Dianne Feinstein and others.  It was an effort to release some steam from the system, a moment to distract from reality.  When elements of Congress and the press stroke themselves to stroke the event, you know it was meaningless.  As Glen Ford (BAR) points out:


    There is “movement” afoot in the U.S., but it does not “arc towards justice.” Ever since Trump’s electoral victory, the collective national consciousness has been smothered in a maddening fog of manic, industrial-scale propaganda, spewed non-stop by corporate communications conglomerates working hand-in-glove with the most aggressive elements of the surveillance-intelligence “community” and the bi-partisan War Party. We are enveloped in a toxic miasma of Russia-hate that, by sheer weight and repetition, has infested every aspect of American political thought, distorting and subverting even the most progressive-minded “movements” struggling to find a way towards human dignity under late stage capitalism in a profoundly racist country. Voices for peace and social justice are asphyxiated in the pestilential plume -- unless they find their own air.

    Damn right, there is a conspiracy -- possibly the loudest one in history! -- megaphoned by a billionaire-owned media screaming “War, War, War” day and night, fouling the public mind with pure reactionary malice. The duopoly contest has devolved into a dance of death between Donald Trump’s raw white supremacist nationalism and Democratic Party corporate imperial warmongering. Only fools claim there is space for progressive maneuver in the interstices between such forces.



    We've been "Down So Long" Jewel notes but doing for-show and feel-good fauxtests won't change a thing ("Down So Long" first appears on Jewel's SPIRIT).

    The realities of faux 'protest' and real protest were addressed when Ann Garrison interviewed Riva Enteen (BAR):


    AG: Some March for Our Lives supporters are likely to get defensive and ask whether you're refusing to support their cause. What would you say to them?



    RE: Of course we support the cause of protecting lives, but there is an exceptionalism to believing it only applies to American lives and especially white lives. In a promotional video that Democracy Now played repeatedly during their broadcast of the Washington, DC March for Our Lives, former US soldiers said that they’d learned how to put assault rifles to good purpose in US wars, but didn’t want them aimed at US citizens.

    Isn’t it time to stop aiming those guns—and our missiles, fighter jets, and drones—at the rest of the world? My mother was a member of Women Strike for Peace, founded in 1961 with the slogan “Stop the Arms Race, Not the Human Race,” and that has never been more true.

    Women, the givers of life, are confronting the Pentagon in Washington, DC, October 20-21. We hope that all peace-loving people will consider this a chance to make a stand for peace. There will be local antiwar actions springing up, as they did during Occupy, so keep your ear to the ground, and watch for updates on our websiteand our Facebook page .
    The action in DC is the Women's March on the Pentagon.  This is the event Cindy Sheehan is one of the organizers of and that we've been noting here:


    An Open Invitation:
    Women's March on the Pentagon
    UPDATED ENDORSER'S LIST:
    CLICK HERE
    ***

    UPCOMING LOCAL ORGANIZING MEETINGS FOR
    THE MARCH
    (CINDY WILL BE LEADING):
    NATIONAL ORGANIZING CONFERENCE CALL
    WED, MARCH 21 (COMPLETED)
      CLICK HERE FOR SUMMARY AND RECORDING OF CALL
    *
    April 5th in Washington DC

    CLICK HERE FOR WDC MEETING INFO
    *
    April 9th in Boston  
    *

    April 12th in Long Island
     

    APRIL 13TH: LANCASTER, PA



     



    JUNE: CHICAGO, IL


     contact Cindy Sheehan for

    more info, to organize a meeting/action
    in your area or ??
    CindySheehan@MarchonPentagon.com












    TAX DEDUCTIBLE 


     People are dying.  Don't expect kids raised on media fawning to tell you that.  Certainly don't expect the corporate media to tell you that.  All the corporate media does is lie.



    Iraq has defeated IS and avoided the wave of Shia-on-Sunni violence that many thought would follow









    Things are great in Iraq!

    If you forget the fact that people are protesting in the streets because there are so few jobs.  Or that the medical situation in Iraq is actually worse now than at any point in the history of this wave of the Iraq War.  The brain drain got a big kick in the last six months but no one bothers to notice that -- the flight of needed professional from Iraq.  There are enough beds for the orphans but Iraq did open a cat hotel this year so I guess that's the 'great' that THE ECONOMIST sees taking place.


    B-b-b-but ISIS is defeated!  Except they are not.  ANADOLU AGENCY reports that yesterday saw 5 Iraqi soldiers killed when ISIS ambushed them at "a fake checkpoint on the road linking Mosul and the Tal Afar district."


    But the corporate press can't stop their waves of Operation Happy Talk.  It's been going on for years now and it's never turned out to be true.  Hayder al-ABadi, for example, has promised to get the trains running.  When I saw that a few days ago, I rolled my eyes as I remembered when we were sold that lie -- in THE NEW YORK TIMES, among other places.  The trains were working, running and doing great!  It took Deborah Haynes (TIMES OF LONDON) to expose that as a lie.  But here we are, about twelve years later and they're trying to re-sell that failed talking point.



    The following community sites updated:


















  • Wednesday, March 28, 2018

    ROSEANNE

    ABC aired two episodes of ROSEANNE last night.

    I loved it.

    It was hilarious -- both episodes.

    It was great to see the old characters and I like the kid who plays Darlene's son, Mark.

    He's exploring and he's a cool kid. 

    He has good chemistry with everyone.  At one point, Roseanne said, "Kind of scary talking to your old grandma." She was hugging him and he waited then said, "I'm not afraid of you." "Give it time," she told him.

    Darlene's had to move back in because she lost her job.  She's got two kids.  I assume by David but the father's split whomever he was.

    Her daughter's probably interesting but Mark really does grab the attention.

    Where's Becky's Mark?  David's brother hasn't been noted really.  We do know that Becky's husband died and I'm assuming that was Mark.  And since he passed, that might be why Darlene (and David?) named their child Mark.  (Mark who married Becky was David's brother.)

    Both episodes were really funny.  And, yes, Roseanne voted for Trump.  Jackie supported Hillary.  They have trouble getting along but bury it.  I wish our country could.

    It's a really funny show.  Catch it and I've tried to avoid spoilers.

    Going out with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


    Wednesday, March 28, 2018.  As elections approach in Iraq, ISIS makes it clear that they have not been vanquished.


    Anthony H. Cordesman (CSIS) has argued:

    The United States, its allies, and international organizations are just beginning to come to grips with the civil dimensions of "failed state" wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, the Sudans, Syria, and Yemen. In each case, it is clear that the civil dimension of the war will ultimately be as important as the military one.
    Any meaningful form of "victory" requires far more than defeating the current extremist threat in military terms, and reaching some temporary compromise between the major factions that divide the country. The current insurgent and other security threats exist largely because of the deep divisions within the state, the past and current failures of the government to deal with such internal divisions, and the chronic failure to meet the economic, security, and social needs of much of the nation's population.
    In practical terms, these failures make a given host government, other contending factions, and competing outside powers as much of a threat to each nation’s stability and future as Islamic extremists and other hostile forces. Regardless of the scale of any defeat of extremists, the other internal tensions and divisions with each country also threaten to make any such “victory” a prelude to new forms of civil war, and/or an enduring failure to cope with security, stability, recovery, and development.
    Any real form of victory requires a different approach to stability operations and civil-military affairs. In each case, the country the U.S. is seeking to aid failed to make the necessary economic progress and reforms to meet the needs of its people – and sharply growing population – long before the fighting began. The growth of these problems over a period of decades helped trigger the sectarian, ethnic, and other divisions that made such states vulnerable to extremism and civil conflict, and made it impossible for the government to respond effectively to crises and wars.
    These issues are analyzed in depth in a new study by the Burke Chair at CSIS entitled Iraqi After ISIS: The Other Half of Victory, which is available on the CSIS web site at https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/publication/180109_iraq_other_half_cordesman_civilian.pdf?8SEsjcRdOq.sakyQJ_PN3RKfCGlBCgs4It is being circulated in working draft form in order to seek comments, directions and additional data, which should be sent to Anthony H. Cordesman atacordesman@gmail.com.
    The study shows that the economy and infrastructure of Iraq and the other countries involved in "failed state" wars have now been further crippled by years of war. As a result, each conflict has changed the country to the point where it creates a need to establish a new structure of governance and economy that reflects major shifts in the population, the balance of power in each state, and its real-world post-conflict opportunities for development.
    The cumulative result is to make "stability operations" a key part of grand strategy. Defeating a given mix of terrorists or insurgents requires aid and assistance efforts that look beyond the fighting and the short-term priorities of conflict termination. Negotiations and new political arrangements, emergency humanitarian aid, and recovery aid are all critical steps towards lasting stability.

    Is that really the answer or is just a way to prolong the war and occupation even more?  In his report (PDF format, here), he argues "success will require years of patient effort."

    15 years isn't enough?

    Apparently not.

    Apparently for the War Hawks, the Iraq War must last 100 years -- the way John McCain was saying when he was running for president in 2008.

    Now in 2008, McCain was ridiculed and called out for that statement.

    Today, do most Americans even pay attention?


    May 12th, Iraq is set to hold parliamentary elections and no one's been bothered by the fact that Ramadan takes place from May 15th to June 14th.   Past elections in Iraq have resulted in many delays -- in the case of the 2010 parliamentary elections, many months -- to settle.  If the post-election process goes even 1/4 as poorly as it did in 2010, Ramadan will only compound that.  Holding the election three days before Ramadan was very poor planning.

    Hayder al-Abadi staked his future on the premature claim that he vanquished ISIS in Iraq.  That, of course, hasn't proven to be the case.  Amnesty International's Donatella Rovera notes:



    150-200 security forces members killed in attacks across in recent months. The monster is rearing its ugly head again, as elections approach and security cooperation between Iraq and is affected by tensions since referendum










    And she's not the only one noting reality.




    is still really active in Iraq.
    Yesterday, militants captured many Iraqi soldiers (using fake checkpoint).
    Part 1










    ISIS was supposed to be Hayder's big claim to fame.

    Nouri al-Maliki was ousted by Barack Obama in 2014 because ISIS had seized Mosul and other spots.  Otherwise, the US would have kept installing Nouri every four years as Bully Boy Bush and Barack had already done.  It's that 'stability' that Cordesman is arguing for.  Forget that Nouri was running secret prisons and torture sites, forget that this had been exposed in the press, forget that he was disappearing people, forget that he was having the military use tanks to circle the homes of members of Parliament that he didn't like, none of that mattered.  Nor did his attacks on journalism and journalists.  His forces kidnapped reporters who covered the protests.  Even after both NPR and THE WASHINGTON POST reported that, Nouri was still given a pass by Barack.

    The passes would have continued were it not for the rise of ISIS.

    Hayder was installed by Barack to to get rid of ISIS.

    He hasn't.

    Christopher Reuter (DER SPIEGEL) reports:



    The days are clear and bright. As long as you have a wide-open view, it's safe, they insist. As long as you can see the contours of the rows of trees at the edge of the village, the bushes between the last fields and the edge of the desert.

    But in wintertime, the days are short. As soon as darkness falls following a brief dusk and all outlines, colors and movements are swallowed up by the uniform blackness -- that is when the fear begins. That's what the residents of Gharib say, and urgently request that you start your journey in time, that you leave their village, that you leave the region.

    Because at night, the horror returns.

    Sometimes, the villagers say, the dogs sound the alarm. On occasion, tracks can be seen the next morning. And frequently, it is possible to hear the voices of the men who return at night to taunt, to threaten and to kill those who have officially been freed of the yoke of Islamic State (IS).

    In early October, the Iraqi army rolled through the terrorist group's last significant stronghold in the country, the Hawija district, located southwest of Kirkuk. After just a couple of days and a few brief skirmishes, the government declared that IS had been defeated, driven away. Destroyed.

    But that wasn't true then and it still isn't true today. At least not for the more than 100 villages in the fertile region, crisscrossed with rivers and irrigation canals. Even though the Hawija battle was supposed to be a fight that IS stood no chance of winning. Mosul had been retaken by the Iraqi army in the summer after months of bitter fighting, as was the city of Tal Afar. Aside from a couple of desert areas, Hawija was all that IS had left -- the same region where the series of IS triumphs, which began quietly at first, got its start back in 2013.

    In addition, Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Susannah George (AP) report:



    Iraq declared victory over IS in December after driving the militants from the last territory under their control, but in recent months the group has resumed insurgent-style attacks in northern Iraq.

    Iraqi security officials say between 150 and 200 members of the security forces have been killed in IS attacks across the country in the past few months. The security officials, and the policeman in the taxi, spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media.


    “There are empty spaces between the federal forces and the peshmerga,” said Kirkuk Gov. Rakan al-Jibouri, referring to the Kurdish forces who have been locked in a months-long standoff with Baghdad.

    He said he has repeatedly asked the central government for additional forces to secure the area, but has been ignored. “This issue is not taken sufficiently seriously despite the many incidents,” he said.
    Nope, ISIS isn't gone.


    Hayder hasn't been very effective eliminating corruption either. MEM reported last week, "Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar Al-Abadi yesterday ordered an immediate investigation into allegations that fake jobs in the public sector were being offered to citizens by political parties in order to win votes in the country’s upcoming general elections."

    Christopher M. Blanchard (CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE) notes:

    Prime Minister Abadi has announced his plan to lead a coalition of mostly Shia parties and independent Sunni figures under the framework of his Victory (Nasr) Alliance. In launching his own coalition, Abadi is competing with Vice President and former prime minister Nouri al Maliki, who, like Abadi, is a leading member of the Dawa Party. Maliki’s State of Law alliance has been critical of Abadi’s leadership, and some State of Law members are vocal opponents of Iraq’s security partnership with the United States. Several former leaders of the Popular Mobilization Force (PMF) militias organized to help fight the Islamic State are participating in the elections as candidates under the rubric of the Fatah Alliance (see textbox below).
    Other prominent Iraqi figures have organized coalitions and lists to contest the election, including a largely Sunni list led by Vice President Osama al Nujayfi and the National Alliance jointly led by Vice President Iyad Allawi, COR Speaker Salim al Juburi, and former deputy Prime Minister Salih al Mutlaq. Among Shia leaders, Ammar al Hakim’s Wisdom (Hikma) movement has formally withdrawn from the Prime Minister’s coalition, but Hakim reportedly intends to coordinate with Abadi during government formation negotiations after the election. Shia cleric Muqtada al Sadr is directing his followers to support the multiparty, anti-corruption oriented Sa’irun coalition. Sadr has criticized the participation of PMF leaders in the election and is campaigning on a populist reform and anti-corruption platform.


    Barack Obama ousted Nouri al-Maliki in the fall of 2014 to make Hayder prime minister.  Former prime minister and forever thug Nouri wants to be prime minister again despite his flunkies repeatedly insisting that is not the case.  ALSUMARIA reported last week that Nouri has insisted Iraq is passing through a serious, make-it-or-break-it period.  Naturally, Nouri believes he's the one who can save the country -- despite nearly destroying it in 2014..  Last week, ALSUMARIA noted that he's saying Iraq needs someone who can lead the country in construction and progress.  Others who would like to become prime minister include Shi'ite cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr who has teamed up with five other groups -- including the Iraqi Communist Party -- for this election cycle.  Two others who'd like to become prime minister, Ammar al-Hakim and Ayad Allawi, have done joint photo-ops.  Ayad Allawi should have been prime minister per the 2010 elections.  But Nouri refused to step down for eight months and brought the country to a stalemate.  Barack Obama, then president, refused to back the winner of the election and instead brokered The Erbil Agreement which, in November of 2010, gave Nouri a second term as prime minister -- in effect, nullifying the election results and overturning the will of the Iraqi people.


    March 7, 2010, Iraq concluded Parliamentary elections. The Guardian's editorial board noted in August 2010, "These elections were hailed prematurely by Mr Obama as a success, but everything that has happened since has surely doused that optimism in a cold shower of reality." 

    November 10, 2010, The Erbil Agreement is signed.  November 11, 2010, the Iraqi Parliament has their first real session in over eight months and finally declares a president, a Speaker of Parliament and Nouri as prime minister-designate -- all the things that were supposed to happen in April of 2010 but didn't.  Again, it wasn't smart to schedule elections right before Ramadan.






    Fears that Turkey could still strike Sinjar despite PKK claims that they have withdrawn from the Yezidi Iraqi town. Would be a major violation of Iraqi sovereignty that Iraq PM Abadi can't afford so close to elections












    Intelligence indicators point to a resurgent , ready to carry out multiple, large attacks in build up to elections in May 2018.









    Meanwhile, Martin C. Evans (NEWSDAY) reports:


    A somber string of wakes and funerals will begin Wednesday to mark the passing of the four area National Guard troops who perished March 15 in a helicopter crash in Iraq.
    The men — members of the 106th Rescue Wing based at Westhampton Beach — had been among a contingent of 106th airmen who deployed to Iraq in January. The 106th’s combat specialty is rescuing downed pilots and other troops from behind enemy lines.
    The four — Master Sgt. Christopher J. Raguso, 39, of Commack, Technical Sgt. Dashan J. Briggs, 30, of Port Jefferson Station, Capt. Andreas B. O’Keeffe, 37, of Center Moriches, and Capt. Christopher T. Zanetis, 37, of Long Island City, Queens — were among seven American military personnel who perished when the Pave Hawk rescue helicopter they were flying in went down near Iraq’s border with Syria.
    The gatherings will begin at 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, with a wake for Briggs at the Westhampton Beach Fire Department. Briggs was posthumously promoted from his previous rank of staff sergeant.


    How many more will have to die for Cordesman's "years of patient effort"?

    Hassan Hassan (THE NATIONAL) observes:


    For observers focusing on Iraq, the following argument often made in Washington’s policy circles about the future of the country might be a familiar one: the political system in Baghdad, put in place by the United States in 2013, has finally a real chance to be consolidated, resulting in more stability than at any other time over the past 15 years.

    According to those advocating the argument, the war against ISIL has created a reality in which the Shia majority is now more able than ever to control all of the country. The argument attributes instability in Iraq over the years to Sunni rejectionist politics. Sunni rejectionism, to proponents of the idea, has created space for groups such as ISIL throughout Iraq and led to political stagnation in Baghdad.

    Today, they argue, the situation has changed dramatically. Sunni rejectionists, often used as a shorthand for any person opposed to the Shia dominance in Baghdad, have been crushed. Sunnis, according to the argument, lost the bet they had placed on the rise of ISIL in the summer of 2014 to reclaim a larger place for themselves in Iraqi politics. The result is an empowered majority that could potentially take its rightful place as the leaders of Iraq.

    The implication of the argument, which has been cited to the author by officials in Washington as an idea often advanced by Iraqis, is that the US must focus on supporting the historic chance rather than instating demands for political reforms that could only add to the stagnation. The idea also appeals to the basic political instincts of any official who wishes that the moment of a true “mission accomplished” is finally in the horizon.

    But this is a dangerous argument. The narrative is based on a flawed logic as well as a tendency to overstate the ability of the Shia majority to sustain order beyond the relative calm that naturally follows extreme violence. It is simply a shortsighted and incomplete view that mischaracterises the situation in Iraq.




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