AIR STRIKE CONSEQUENCES

"... Airstrikes are in part to protect American advisors sent earlier to Erbil to support Kurds there because Iraqi central government won’t... the U.S. is already in. It is highly likely that U.S. Special Forces are active on the ground, conducting reconnaissance missions and laser-designating targets for circling U.S. aircraft. If U.S. planes are overhead, U.S. search and rescue assets are not far away, perhaps in desert forward operating positions... via airstrikes, the U.S. has gone all-in on side of Iraqi Shias and Kurds [against the Sunnis]... This is how bigger wars begin..."
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2014/08/08/why-airstrikes-in-iraq-are-a-mistake/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

OBAMA AIR PROTECTION OF KURDS IS DEJA VUE

"... the prospect of thousands of Kurds dying of hunger or thirst in the mountains on his watch upset [George H. W.  Bush] ...  So he ordered a “no-fly zone” instituted over the Kurdish portions of northern Iraq. US planes flew hundreds of missions... (Now) Obama’s hope that the so-called “Islamic State” can be stopped by US air power is likely forlorn. The IS is a guerrilla force, not a conventional army. But one thing is certain. A US-policed no fly zone or no go zone over Iraqi Kurdistan is a commitment that cannot easily be withdrawn and could last decades, embroiling the US in further conflict."
http://www.juancole.com/2014/08/airstrikes-protect-again.html

CHANGING OF THE GUARD IN IRAQ

"Little noticed... is a changing of the guard evident at the Baghdad International Airport... U.S. contractors, U.S. Embassy personnel and most of the U.S. service members from the embassy... have abandoned the threatened capital... virtually all U.S. contractor personnel have left Iraq... The exodus has coincided with Russian contractors and support personnel pouring into (the airport) to help launch the 25 Russian SU-25 warplanes that Moscow is rushing to Iraq in its hour of need..."
http://news.yahoo.com/how-the-u-s--is-letting-russia-beat-them-to-the-punch-on-military-aid-to-iraq-203343350.html

LIES THAT LED TO WAR

"... investigative journalist Charles Lewis... new book, 935 Lies: The Future of Truth and the Decline of America’s Moral Integrity details the many government falsehoods that have led us into the current nightmare... “An outrageous thing happened. We lost $2 trillion. More than 100,000 people died. Folks are going to be maimed for life in the tens of thousands… And no one has ever acknowledged that this was a war on a lark. It was a complete war of choice, because a certain little faction wanted to do it and they orchestrated it… Did they make statements that weren’t true? The answer is yes.”
http://billmoyers.com/episode/the-truth-vs-dcs-propaganda-machine/

NEW CALIPHATE IS DECLARED

"... the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant... formally declared the creation of an Islamic state... the group's chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is the new leader, or caliph, of the Islamic state... with the creation of the caliphate, the group was changing its name to just the Islamic State, dropping the mention of Iraq and the Levant..."
http://news.yahoo.com/al-qaida-breakaway-formally-declares-islamic-state-184155646.html

ISIS' BOOTY

"... The list of military hardware captured after Iraq's troops fled Mosul and Kirkuk includes, sources say, some 4,000 medium machine-guns, 1,500 Humvees and other military vehicles, 50 state-of-the-art 155mm GPS-guided artillery pieces which can "aim like a sniper rifle" over a 40km range, 50 T-55 tanks and two helicopters. They are also reported to have seized an eyewatering $427m (£251m; 314m euros) from Mosul's branch of Iraq's central bank, boosting their coffers to independence levels..."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28045054

A NEW ISLAMIC COUNTRY ECHOES AN OLD ONE

"With the alleged fall to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria... the border between Iraq and Syria has now been effectively erased. A new country exists, stretching from the outskirts of Baghdad all the way to Aleppo. In history, it uncannily resembles the state ruled by Imad ad-Din Zangi (AD 1085 – 1146), a Turkish notable who came to power in 1128..."
http://www.juancole.com/2014/06/erases-border-hizbullah.html

U.S. BUILDUP IN IRAQ
Two private security guards to protect each American soldier


"... Equipped with Hellfire missiles, the predator drones are being deployed from a base in Kuwait to accompany unarmed surveillance flights that include drones as well as manned aircraft... Meanwhile, the United States has opened a "joint operations center" in Baghdad, boosting the total number of U.S. service members to 500... And ... the U.S. is planning to send more than 1,000 U.S. private security guards to Iraq to protect U.S. troops..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/06/27

"The United States is flying F-18 surveillance missions over Iraq from an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf... but F-18's are not traditional surveillance aircraft -- they are attack aircraft..." 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/18/us-now-flying-surveillance-missions-over-iraq/

SUNNI MILITANTS IN CONTROL 80 MILES FROM BAGHDAD

"... Al-Qaida-inspired militants pushed deeper into Iraq's Sunni heartland Wednesday, swiftly conquering Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit as soldiers and security forces abandoned their posts... Iraqi security officials confirmed that the city, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad and the capital of Salahuddin province, was under ISIL's control..."
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/governor-says-iraq-determined-retake-mosul

THE FALL OF MOSUL IS CIVIL WAR

"... Instead of sowing human rights and democracy in Iraq, as was promised by Bush administration officials and their supporters leading up to and during the war, the country is now... "a riven, embattled, dilapidated country" wracked by violence. As events in Mosul on Tuesday show, the nation is likely no longer on the verge of civil war... but actually engaged in one...  the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 unleashed a brutal, bloody, Sunni-Shiite civil war across the region..."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/06/10-4

SUNNI MILITANTS CAPTURE MOSUL

“… in Mosul [population just under 2 million], the second-largest Iraqi city after Baghdad… Sunni militants freed hundreds of prisoners and seized military bases, police stations, banks, the airport and the provincial governor’s headquarters… government security forces fled from some places without firing a shot…”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/world/middleeast/militants-in-mosul.html?_r=1>http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/world/middleeast/militants-in-mosul.html?_r=1