It’s déjà vu all over again.
Three years after U. S. troops withdrew from Iraq, finally ending America’s war and occupation (2003-2011) of that benighted country, our soldiers will be sent there again.
This evening, June 16, 2014, after a weekend of golfing and political fundraising in California, President Lucifer declared, in a letter to Congress, that U.S. ground troops “equipped for combat” are being sent to Iraq.
The troops’ “only purpose” is to protect US personnel and the US Embassy in Baghdad from the ISIS militants — and not join in the fierce fighting raging outside the Iraqi capital.
Blah. Blah. Blah.
ISIS or the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is an extremist Sunni jihadist group that aspires to create a caliphate — a theocratic pan-Islamic state — in the New Levant of Iraq, Syria, southern Turkey, Cyprus, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel. (See “ISIS: the savage jihadists laying waste to Iraq“)
About 160 American soldiers are already in Iraq, including 50 Marines and more than 100 Army soldiers. Some of those soldiers have only recently arrived. Under tonight’s authorization, the U.S. will put an additional 100 soldiers in a nearby third country where they would be held in reserve until needed.
The White House says the U.S. military personnel are entering Iraq with its government’s consent.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State John “snake-tongue” Kerry says Washington is “open to discussions” with Tehran about military cooperation. Iran has hinted that it is prepared to cooperate with the United States, whom Iran has called the Great Satan, to shore up the beleaguered Iraqi government against the savage ISIS jihadists. Iran already has sent 2,000 advance troops to Iraq.
Kerry also said U.S. unilateral air and drone strikes against the ISIS “may well be” an option.
Last Saturday, June 14, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered an aircraft carrier moved into the Persian Gulf.
Today, unnamed Obama administration officials with access to the latest U.S. intelligence on Iraq told Fox News it “appears likely/probable” that ISIS militants got hold of U.S.-made Stinger missiles from Iraqi army bases they have taken over in recent days. The Stinger missile is a shoulder-fired surface-to-air weapon that is used against aircraft.
Iraqi intelligence officials said ISIS fighters managed to take control of two big weapons depots late last week holding some 400,000 items, including AK-47 rifles, rockets and rocket-propelled grenades, artillery shells and mortars. A quarter of the stockpiles were quickly sent to Syria in order to help ISIS militants there.
According to a report from the West Point Combating Terrorism Center, the ISIS “now possesses scores of Iraqi military equipment originally provided by the United States, from Humvees and cargo vehicles to small arms.”
In addition, after taking over Mosul, the second most populous city in Iraq, ISIS is now the richest terror group in the world from looting US$429 million and a large quantity of gold bullion from Mosul’s central bank.
~Eowyn