ISIS: Remaining and Expanding

[Lauren Johnson]

Isis captured the city Falluja, 40 miles west of Baghdad, in January and currently controls large swathes of northern Iraq.
The Iraqi government has launched a number of failed assaults on the city leaving hopes of retaking Mosul slim.
An Iraqi army officer told the Independent: "We can't beat them."

Somebody has spent a lot of money and time training and equipping these people.

[Peter Lemkin]

Point of information: Aren't they labeled ISIL not ISIS in English?

Yes, someone has trained them well and supplied them well, but there seems to be something beyond that - there seems to be either a fear by Iraqi Armed Forces to engage them - or a political reluctance to - or both....it seems, thus far.

[Magda Hassan]

Iraq under attack by US, France, Saudi Arabia

Voltaire Network | 11 June 2014 français Español ελληνικά italiano

The Al-Qaeda linked Islamic Emirate of Iraq and the Levant (IEIL, Arabic الدولة الاسلامية في العراق والشام whose acronym is pronounced "Daesh"), launched on 6 June 2014 a large-scale attack on Iraq. After taking control of Fallujah, it has now seized the district of Nineveh (including the capital Mosul) and is pursuing its offensive in the provinces of Kirkuk and Saladin. More than 150 000 civilians have fled ahead of the jihadists' advance.

On 10 June, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called on parliament to declare a state of emergency.
The Islamic Emirate in Iraq and the Levant is led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on behalf of Prince Abdul Rahman al-Faisal, the brother of the current Saudi Foreign Minister and of the Saudi ambassador in Washington. He is funded and supervised jointly by U.S., French and Saudi officers. Over the past month, he has received new weapons from Ukraine, where Saudi Arabia has acquired a weapons factory, and via Turkey, which has created a special rail line alongside a military airport to supply the IEIL.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is an Iraqi who joined Al-Qaeda to fight against President Saddam Hussein. During the U.S. invasion, he distinguished himself by engaging in several actions against Shiites and Christians (including the taking of the Baghdad Cathedral) and by ushering in an Islamist reign of terror (he presided over an Islamic court which sentenced many Iraqis to be slaughtered in public). After the departure of Paul Bremer III, he was arrested and incarcerated at Bucca from 2005 to 2009. This period saw the dissolution of Al-Qaeda in Iraq whose fighters merged into a group of tribal resistance, the Islamic Emirate of Iraq.
On 16 May 2010, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was named emir of the IEI, in the process of disintegration. After the departure of U.S. troops, he staged operations against the government al-Maliki, accused of being at the service of Iran. In 2013, after vowing allegiance to Al-Qaeda, he took off with his group to continue the jihad in Syria, rebaptizing it Islamic Emirate of Iraq and the Levant. In doing so, he challenged the exemptions previously granted, on behalf of Al-Qaeda, by Ayman al-Zawahiri in Syria to the Al-Nusra Front, which was originally nothing more than an extension of the IEI.
The IEIL is based in Syria, where it occupies the city of Raqqa, the only city whose population was unable to participate in the June 3rd presidential election (together with the Syrians residing in France and Germany).

http://www.voltairenet.org/article184211.html

[Magda Hassan]

Point of information: Aren't they labeled ISIL not ISIS in English?

It is confusing. Their predecessor was IEI (Islamic Emirate in Iraq) and in Arabic it sounds like Daesh. I think it depends if using the Levant for the 'L' or Syria for the 'S'.

Yes, someone has trained them well and supplied them well, but there seems to be something beyond that - there seems to be either a fear by Iraqi Armed Forces to engage them - or a political reluctance to - or both....it seems, thus far.

I did see a video a few weeks ago which I decided not to post here. It was extremely graphic and was just in Arabic. According to the comments in English (from Iraqis) it was a jihadist group in Iraq (ISIS?) in a car driving along a highway pulling up alongside other cars driving along and shooting into them. Massacring them all. This happened to many cars. Seemed to be some sort of propaganda video. No subtitles though and I don't understand Arabic. It was mostly music and singing. If this has wide coverage in Iraq I couldn't blame the Iraqi military for being frightened. Plus there is the bloody history of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in other occupied cites in Iraq after the US invasion. Still there are many many more and better armed Iraqi military than ISIS and it seems they have deserted their posts with out a fight. Like 'The Mouse Who Roared' scenario. But not so cute and with out the happy ending. Maybe it says more about Iraq military than it does about ISIS. A ragtag bunch of fighters has managed to fight them off for the most part in Syria. Will be interesting with their new found wealth and weapons what happens there now too.

[Peter Lemkin]

Saw some images of the Iraqi Armed Forces heading for the 'hills' like frightened children - all without a fight or firing a shot [or even being shot at]....they just packed up their vehicles and fled - yes, leaving behind many arms and ammunition. It all seems a bit contrived to me - but I could be wrong. I do NOT sense this group, whatever its name, is THAT powerful or fearful tactically. Something ELSE is going on. The bottom line is the 'West' totally destroyed Iraq and all the surrounding countries and secretly has been keeping it destabilized and even funding groups to act as proxies and patsies....the usual trappings of empire.

[Peter Lemkin]

Iraq is very quickly disintegrating. A Shi'ia - Sunni civil war is quickly evolving. Nearly 1.000.000 persons are in forced exile. A seven thousand year civilization has been destroyed thanks to UK and US [with some help from their friends] plans to do exactly that. Something similar will no doubt happen in Afghanistan when the US leaves. We sure know how to destroy countries [including our own!] We have nothing to offer other nations and should stay the hell out of them militarily. We create chaos, we don't understand or try to understand the cultures involved, we think only of our own needs [read resources] and not of their needs [read peace, stability, democracy, etc.]. The USA is a failed state and like some virus, it is spreading this failed-state-state to all others it 'touches'. Sadly.

[Lauren Johnson]

Iraq is very quickly disintegrating. A Shi'ia - Sunni civil war is quickly evolving. Nearly 1.000.000 persons are in forced exile. A seven thousand year civilization has been destroyed thanks to UK and US [with some help from their friends] plans to do exactly that. Something similar will no doubt happen in Afghanistan when the US leaves. We sure know how to destroy countries [including our own!] We have nothing to offer other nations and should stay the hell out of them militarily. We create chaos, we don't understand or try to understand the cultures involved, we think only of our own needs [read resources] and not of their needs [read peace, stability, democracy, etc.]. The USA is a failed state and like some virus, it is spreading this failed-state-state to all others it 'touches'. Sadly.

My theory is that the creation of instability in Brezinski's Zone of Percolating Violence is furtherance of the goal to tame and control Russia and China. Oh, the thought of regime change Russia and setting up technocrat as the PM. And then China? Just think of all the assets that can be stripped.

That's my read on this instigated civil war.

Could this be a continuation of Securing the Realm? I vote "Yes."

[Drew Phipps]

The problem with Brezinki's idea, besides that its just crazy/evil, is that the West and especially the US are far more reliant at the moment on the easily disruptable supply of oil from the region than is either Russia (who has their own supply) and China (who has diversified their oil suppliers and who signed a massive gas agreement with Russia just recently that will supply 10% of their energy needs). Any unrest or war in the area would hurt us worse than it would hurt them.

[Peter Lemkin]

Oh, ****! Obama just opened the door [wide] to the USA moving back in to clean up Dodge...er....Baghdad and surrounding areas. Here come the drones and bombs and special forces' dirty tricks!::darthvader:::mad:::pullhairout::

[Tracy Riddle]

The Shiite/Sunni rivalry is a huge factor here. The Shiites of southern Lebanon (Hezbollah) have been involved in the Syrian civil war, battling Sunni militants. The Shiites are in control of Baghdad and southern Iraq. So a lot of this is basically a religious war. But I bet some of these ISIS fighters are former Sunni tribesmen who were loyal to Saddam's regime.

Our bone-headed corporate media can't do anything but frame it as "Al Qaeda bad guys vs. whoever." Unfortunately for Obama, he is stuck in the position of watching Bush's failed policy unravel on his watch.