Half a Million Flee Mosul according to estimates. Reading through, there is some fear of ISIS and there is some fear of the fighting in general: which is wise, because the government’s only likely response is to either call out other militias (who can actually fight, unlike the army) or to use air power. Indiscriminate bombing, as in Fallujah, isn’t good for civilians. A lot of people fled because they saw others fleeing. But the lesson of Syria (and pretty much every other war) is this: you don’t want to be caught in a disputed city.
However, many others have been happy to see ISIS conquer Mosul, and are rallying to it.
The bottom line here is that the Iraqi army collapsed: it did not fight.
Some people want the US to go back in. That is a mistake. The Iraqi government was never likely to survive on its own, as constituted, any more than the Afghan government will survive the American pullout. The Iraqi government was artificial, without an actual power based which believed in it enough to fight for it. The same is true, again, in Afghanistan.
You can only keep such tools in power by main, external, force. If you go back into Iraq, you can’t leave because America is incapable of setting up a government which will be able to maintain control: people will not fight and die for the sort of deeply corrupt thugs that America today always puts in charge.
ISIS is a deeply problematic organization, as is the Taliban, but here’s what they have going for them: they believe and they’re willing to fight and die.
The situation in Iraq will be determined on the ground, by those people willing fight and die: the Kurds, ISIS, various non ISIS aligned Sunni militias, and the Shia militias. It will be determined by Iran, who is the only country which could intervene and maintain the peace otherwise.
If the US chooses not to accept this, not to allow this to play out, it will be stuck in Iraq for another ten years, and during that time Iraq will stay destabilized and more and more people will die
There are no good options here, but whatever solution is come to, it must be determined by people who have a real stake in the area, who are willing to fight and die for their beliefs. Only they can impose a peace. There’s a very good chance that it will be a very ugly peace, much like the Taliban imposed in Afghanistan.
So be it. I don’t like it, but there are NO other solutions which are better. American intervention again is not a better option.
If you want to support someone on the ground, support to the Shi-ite militias. They and the Peshmergas, are the ones who will defeat ISIS, if ISIS is defeated. Forget the government, it’s failed. It failed on day one, because it could never keep the peace because no one believed in it.
And stop aiding the insurgents in Syria. Again, this is a cost of the Syrian intervention. ISIS is LOSING to the Syrian forces and Hezbollah and has, in part, been pushed into Iraq. The other reason for them going into Iraq is to cut the Iranian supply lines to Syria and Hezbollah (something the West has no problem with.)
The West must stop intervening in other parts of the world. Getting rid of Qaddafi destabilized not just Libya, but two others. Attacking Afghanistan has destabilized Pakistan. The. Stop. It. The West doesn’t know how to do it successfully. It always makes things worse. Don’t intervene militarily and stop intervening covertly, as in Ukraine.
Just stop.
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Celsius 233
*The West Should Just Stop Intervening*
Yes, most certainly. But America’s foreign policy is a walking, talking, barbaric, piece of shit!
bob mcmanus
If Sadr wanted to control Mosul, he probably already have been there. If ISIL goes after the Shia shrines, the militias may take back the terrain. Will they hold it? Do they want to?
ISIL holds a bunch of Turkish hostages, but prefers to ransom.
Some recent analysis likes to talk about regional imperialistic hegemony, with the Brics of course, but also the Middle East rising. Is a Saudi fucking Empire any kind of problem for you? If we do get the Caliphate centered in Mosul, then maybe we know who bin Laden was working for?
Last I heard the Saudis were trying to build up a 100k regular army. Don’t know if or when it will be worth a damn.
How much global credit, politically, psychologically, would the Umma or SA get for breaking up those old colonial Western imposed national boundaries and borders? When does the old Westphalia/Versailles/UN model and consensus fall, and what would it mean?
You and I don’t make policy, madness and money make the policy. I promise to stay out of MENA.
Cold N. Holefield
For the record, my comments in the other thread were not a matter of what I want or don’t want. What I want or don’t want is irrelevant. All I’m doing is expressing my analysis of the situation — not what should be done or shouldn’t, nor what I would want or not want.
At MOA, the nattering nabobs of anti-Americanism now want to blame the situation in Iraq on America even though America has been withdrawn for several years now. These are the same people who clamored for America to get the hell out regardless of consequences.
If the U.S. retreats from the world stage and becomes a diminutive force in geopolitics, a power vacuum of massive proportions will be created in its wake. The result will very likely be many times worse than what The Cutters in Western media comment sections have been complaining about for the last decade.
And yes, I call these incessant nattering nabobs Cutters because they are every bit as pathological as the young American females who feel a need to cut themselves. I see their behavior having very much the same effect on their psyches and characters.
I’ll be writing something up on this in the next several days. It will feature the following YouTube video of a 1994 interview with Dick Cheney concerning the decision-making process in the first Gulf War in regards to going all the way to Baghdad and taking out Saddam. Since we know Cheney was The Decider when it came to foreign policy, not Bush, we know Cheney knew the risks and went ahead anyway. That’s not incompetence. He knew. They knew. Yet they invaded and occupied. There’s more to the story. Without full information, we must extrapolate what that story is. Instead, all I read is the incompetence criticism. It doesn’t wash. It doesn’t add up. But it makes people feel better to say it because they know if they were in the catbird seat, they would have played it much smarter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YENbElb5-xY
markfromireland
@ bob mcmanus June 12, 2014
No he wouldn’t. For a start the Jaish-al-Mahdi were exclusively a Southern and Baghdadi phenomenon, with some presence in Diyala, Their presence in Ninewa which is overwhelmingly Sunni consisted entirely of the guards for his one, count it. ONE, representative office in the governorate. Moreover al-Sadr dissolved the JAM in 2008. Their successor organisations consists of the Muhamidoon which is an unarmed political and social works organisation and the Liwa al-Youm al-Mawud or Promised Day Brigade which is a small but well-armed Hizballah trained force. Both are based exclusively in the Southern governorates, Sadr city, and Baghdad proper.
Your country’s armed forces were in that country for how long? There was accurate information about the Sadrists made freely and easily available even in the USA for that entire period. There was accurate information about the sectarian make-up of the country freely and easily available even in the USA for that entire period. And yet you still go round making statements like:
or this one:
There are NO “Shia shrines” as you put it anywhere in Ninewa governorate. None, zero, zilch.
The only place to which the Shi’i mount pilgrimages in Northern Irak is to Samarra which is where the Shrines of Imam Ali Al-Naqi & Imam Hasan Al-Askari are located in the Al-Askari Mosque. Samarra is in Salah ad-Din Governorate not Ninewa you can’t be bothered even get that much right. And before you quote the al-Jazeera article to me yes ISIL mounted a raid on Samarra and said they’d attack the Al-Askari Mosque however as even al-Jazeera’s report makes clear they were driven off within hours.
The idea that the Shi’i militias are capable of controlling the terrain in Northern Irak where they have zero presence (because there are almost no Shi’i there) is completely ludicrous. It’s so ludicrous that it is truly amazing that I have to refute it.
That’s good, please keep that promise, because your abysmal level of ignorance of even the most basic facts of life in Irak would get you killed and quickly too. Far more importantly it would get innocent Iraki civilians killed. I don’t care even remotely about whether you live or die. I do however care deeply about my Iraki friends and colleagues and their families.
mfi
markfromireland
Ian,
I plainly failed to close a tag above sorry. There are several points about Mosul. The first is to do with the collapse of the Iraki forces in the city. They’re mostly from the south and from a peasant background. Most of them are barely literate and they’re very badly trained. Badly led too, their officers are appointed on the basis of their politics not their ability. They’ve always acted like an occupying force. Given that there’s a fairly hefty Ba’ath presence in Ninewa I’d be inclined to believe reports that they were attacked from within and without. I don’t know why they suddenly collapsed and ran but their behaviour over the years has been such that they’re well and truly hated. Once they ran the police ran.
Barzani has said that he offered a combined defense but that this was refused by Maliki’s governmnent. On balance I think that’s probably very likely. The Peshmerga have long wanted to expand their buffer zone in Ninewa for obvious reasons and once they seized territory to deepen it Maliki would find it impossible to dislodge them.
There are a lot of reports that Da’ish gunmen concentrated their attacks on Christian areas in the city and are still attacking the Christian villages and the mixed villages on the plains of Ninewa, Talkeef (about 15km north of Mosul) seems to be a particular target. According to Msgr. Shimoun Emil Nona, (Chaldean archbishop of Mosul) the city itself is in anarchy. He says he believes that most of the Da’ish attackers have left the city to continue their attacks on the villages on the highway to Baghdad.
mfi
markfromireland
Oh and yes The West Should Just Stop Intervening.
mfi
bob mcmanus
They [Shia militias] and the Peshmergas, are the ones who will defeat ISIS, if ISIS is defeated.
That’s from Welsh, and apparently whom you have an argument with.
And for all your details, you really aren’t informative. Who, if anybody, is going to drive ISIL out of Mosul, or take control of Northern/Central Iraq. Does the Juan Cole map linked in the previous thread look like a probability? My point, if I made it badly, is that the Shiites and militias appear satisfied with defending the SouthEast, and will not be enthusiastic about
defending “Iraq.” I doubt the the Peshmerga want those headaches in Tikrit and Fallujah and will be satisfied with Kirkuk. If ISIL does try to move South to Baghdad they will lose and Iran can help without being too obvious, so I doubt ISIL will try.
So…???
Cole says it will split, half Western Syria half Northern Iraq.
And I get no moral thrills about telling the West to stay out. What I want matters not even to me, and certainly doesn’t matter to the folks sending money and arms. Last I heard, the US was still sending most of their support to some moderate group which may take over at an opportune time.
Fact is, I am mostly sympathetic to the Shia, Iran, even Alawites and Hezbollah, mostly because I hate and fear the Sauds and Gulf States. And I think maybe you might stop blaming we Americans and the West too much. We aren’t the important players or driving forces in that Great Game that is using Iraq as a playing field. Just hired guns and bankers.
God I get tired of all the “stay out imperialist yankee go home” shit. We are fucking Evil Empire, and that will not happen. War and destruction and looting is what we do.
And God I am also tired of the experts. What good are they?
Ian Welsh
ISIS has said they were going to go to Baghdad, and are on the edge of Kurdish territory. If they continue to advance, those are the people who will stop them. No, the militias aren’t going to advance into Mosul, but they are going to defend their own territory.
bob mcmanus
Second Map Down
I can’t stop staring at that map, and thinking 5-20 years down the line.
The fucking “experts” told me that Iran won Bush’s “damfool war.” How’s that looking now?
Ian Welsh
Relax and wait. The game goes on, and on, and on.
Frank Shannon
I feel moved here to say that the war against Al Qaeda seems to be going in an interesting way for the United States 14 years ago they were minor hangers-on in Afghanistan. Now they seem to be contending to rule over a few middle eastern countries. If we continue to fight them as successfully as we have been I wonder if they won’t be running the middle east in another 15 years or so.
abubaqar
most of the problems in the muslim world are caused by western nations as evidenced by the policy guidelines of the RAND corporation which are run by zionist jews,your masters in government.
It is in they interest to keep wars going between christian and muslims so that whatever your forefathers fought against Hitler(which i believe was wrong) they are doing to the Palestinians totally against international law,human rights,and international criminal court applications,and of course that nonsense called the united nations security council !
I wish to ask any christian here,will jesus christ on his second coming have to adhere to the resolutions of the security council on his return???
or will he enforce the law of god from the bible which states clearly that perversion is to be punished and that christians should beware of the of synagogues of satan and his children in JOHN 8–44?
the real issue is that everytime a muslim country or people wish to live by the law of the koran ,you christians war on it, because you are so peace loving and kind people,meek as lambs but really wolves in sheeps clothing!
you steal resources and impose dictators not just on muslims but all over the worlds countrys and then you call it democracy,why is this? who gave you this right?
you want to impose justice on the worlds people but you do want to be judged by the same criteria and brought to trial,is that normal thinking?
justice you say comes from inside a court room, but your leaders kill by drones innocents and suspected people on no evidence or legal authority!
should the world just accept this? because you think its legal?
take your heads out of your posteriors and let some sun shine in, the real evildoers are not muslims but those who sit in tel aviv and they minions in your countrys, who are totally to the zionist jews but not the countrys they are elected to serve!
this is what your holy book tells you and the actions of your leaders in the west!
Cold N. Holefield
Jesus Christ has “come again” millions of times since the initial visit and each time he’s been sent packing. In fact, every other visit since the first wasn’t even recognized. People can’t even see the hand in front of their face let alone the second, third, fourth……millionth coming of Jesus Christ.
South Korea’s done pretty damn well for itself with the help of The West, and yet there was no employment of the Koran. You employ the Koran in the ME, and look what it’s gotten you. We could be driving Jihadis right now as well as Kias, but instead, because of the Koran, we arm Jihadis rather than hopping in one to pick up some milk at the local grocery.
Celsius 233
@ Cold N. Holefield
Just what incomprehensible bs are you pushing now?
And you blame the Koran for the perversion of its teachings by the Jihadist’s?
Have you read the Koran?
I already know you have not; or you wouldn’t spout your utter crap.
Crawl back under the rock from which you’ve emerged.
bob mcmanus
New Juan Cole
US-Iran military alliance.
Okay. Right. Gee, why did I ever think there would be problems with that.
abubaqar
mr holefield, muslims are not the mass murderers like the western world where you killed by the 100,s of millions in the 1,st, 2nd and 3rd world.
South korea is occupied by america and should be united with its neighbour north korea and let the people vote for what they want as its governement, no doubt you know about the mass murder there by the american army in 1951 to 1953?
You keep your kia,s and other rubbish we do not need it!
we muslims will dismantle your slavery sytem based on usury, which enrichs the few and keeps mankind in oppression when the Mahdi comes.
general Dannant of the British army stated in an interview on b.b.c that the real reason they were in afghanistan was to keep the Islamic Khalifate at bay and not forming.
Because he knows and so do your masters of the christian world in Tel Aviv that when this happens, Israel will be destroyed and peace and prosperity will come to the world as much as you westerners have brought oppression and tyranny!
Israel will be destroyed for its sins against gods law and oppression in the holy land, twice the koran warned them it will happen and were punished by god almighty who sent the assyrians and the romans against them as history records, third time it will be a muslim army who will liberate the holy land, where children are forbidden even to fly a kite by these so called victims of nazism!
currently we know your kind will create more tyranny and oppression,murder and mayhem in the world, but you should know we will win through because we follow gods commands and not man made law where perverts can marry as a man to man and a woman to a woman which is directly opposed to gods teachings.
you can take these teachings and shove them. after all were not even raped by your perverts in iraq besides kids and women who you claim were freed from saddam!
thepanzer
I’ve read on several sites that the US Intel community was “surprised” by the recent events in Iraq. Perhaps if the CIA wasn’t hip deep meddling in Ukraine and the NSA wasn’t so busy reading our emails they might have noticed what was going on in jihadi world…
Bonus points to the west for providing arms and training to Syrian insurgents who may or may not be the same jihadis on the march in Iraq. Oops.
The Dude
@the panzer – The CIA is an enormous organization that has analysts and field operatives observing what is going on in every part of the globe at all times. You may rest assured that the “surprise” wasn’t not caused by these very smart people (and you’ve got to be pretty sharp to work there) not noticing what was really happening, but by the crushing groupthink at the more senior managerial levels that prevents reporting getting through which doesn’t jibe with their expectations from ever reaching the policy makers (who likely wouldn’t want to hear anything that didn’t conform with THEIR expectations anyway).
That’s how you end up with the Iraq War in the first place despite most of the agency’s lower level Middle East analysts knowing it would be a disaster. What’s appalling is that after 12 years, nothing has changed at the CIA.
John Measor
Ian I wish the mainstream would echo your sentiment – the debate as it appears evidences that nothing of the relationship between the English-speaking world and Iraq over the last three decades has registered. Iraqis have suffered greatly and they and their suffering are simply ignored.
“… the Iraqi army collapsed: it did not fight” Indeed, seems that many both forget and therefore fail to note the significance of that … I guess those mortar teams and IED crews that hampered the U.S. occupation just materialized out of thin air (!).
“… people will not fight and die for the sort of deeply corrupt thugs that America today [?] always puts in charge” Indeed, why is it that U.S. civilizing … er, ‘democracy promotion’ efforts … have so much trouble finding local liberals? I find them everywhere when I travel and they all seem to be useful idiots until the real carpetbaggers arrive on the scene and push them aside.
“It will be determined by Iran, who is the only country which could intervene and maintain the peace otherwise.” The Islamic Republic will have immense influence and impact, and the Saudis and their GCC crew will fund ISIS et. al., but don’t discount the Turks … 50-year oil deals and the attendant profits as well as a partnership with Barzani to stifle the PKK … lots of moving parts and no end to the music any time soon.
“… it must be determined by people who have a real stake in the area, who are willing to fight and die for their beliefs” Indeed, self-determination won’t come any other way, sovereignty isn’t ever gifted – and both require clear opposition to Anglo-American and French intervention just as much as they need to eliminate regional actors; so again – stay out USA.
“Only they can impose a peace.” I don’t think anyone will ‘impose’ peace; but, only an Iraqi victor who can persuade the population that they can do well and have a decent humane future can bring this disaster to an end. Two decades+ (!) of U.S. political imposition and death-from-above, neoliberal freedom pap and death squads targeting any legitimate political actors … the Iraqi bar for a popular leader isn’t all that high right now – heck, Saddam even does well in polls and he’s kinda indisposed. Get the electricity and water working (the U.S. nor Maliki could), provide a few jobs and cashable pension cheques, and make people feel that they are part of it all again rather than sheep to be fleeced and robbed … ’tis to dream. Oh! Yeah, how about a day without a car bomb going off? That would be nice.
“Forget the government, it’s failed. It failed on day one, because it could never keep the peace because no one believed in it.” True, true, true … I’m sure al-Maliki is nice to his children … everyone else he’s attempted to stab or subordinate.
I’d like to second markfromireland’s plea … Iraqis have suffered enough at the hands of Anglo-American intervention(s) and their appointed carpetbagging vampire-esque imposed tin-pot dictators. ‘Let the Iraqis decide’ sounds nice, and I’d wish it true were I able, but this is now a terrain without either the modern Iraqi state (1920-2003) nor the post-2003 Yankee-stan-on-the-Euphrates state. The path ahead will be bloody and the work enormous – but, Iraqis* are up to it.
*the Kurdistan region will go forward on its own path – they have long been separated from Iraq developmentally and no effort has been made to welcome them into a new Iraqi compact. Iraq may need Kurdistan, but the KRG and its people require promises any “victor” in Baghdad will find impossible to provide. The path to reconciliation between Kurds and Arabs in Iraq is through two separate states sharing what can be negotiated equitably out of the wreckage wrought by Saddam and his American friends.
Vive la Kurdistan libre! Iraq is dead, long live Iraq!
Larry
“Some people want the US to go back in. That is a mistake.”
The American Conservative blog had a rather well written piece on this subject recently.
Noninterventionism: A Primer
Thepanzer
The Dude – everything you said is true, unfortunately it’s also irrelevant. I’m sure there were many very intelligent people on the titanic, some bridge officers who had misgivings about the course, etc. but it’s known in history by the “results” it achieved.
Likewise the CIA is judged by the fruits of its labor, not by the dissidents or minority reports unacted in the bowels of the organization. I think it’s the Russians who have the great saying “if grandmother had testicles she’d be grandfather.” ; )
abubaqar
panzer, the intelligent people you mention on the TITANIC( which was not sunk but its sister ship PRINCESS for a insurance fraud by the WARBURG banking family) were also all bankers opposed to the creation of the federal reserve in America currently enslaving most of the world and is run by zionist jews.
When the jewish terrorist called BEGIN(israeli prime minister) said we are the master race, i believe him. the real enemy was not Germany but those who call themselves the CHOSEN PEOPLE of god who believe all rest of mankind are just cockroaches and they cattle!
America is only a front for these people hiding behind a christian facade and in europe ,the real political decsion makers are the terrorists in TEL AVIV whose policys are being carried out and are known as THE YINON ODED Plan of 1982?
how does it feel being made a fool of by these adherents of the synagogues of satan and children of the devil as jesus christ called them christians??
Mandos
Oooh we have a live one here.
Except then we run into the little problem of the people who do *not* want to live by (a particular interpretation of) religious law, and their fate. Which Muslims have not in recent history proven themselves to be very good at handling.
abubaqar
mr mandos,
we muslims have a 800 year history for what we preach in spain, known as the golden age of the jews, muslims and christians. no doubt you are aware of what your kind brought as civilisation known as the inquisition.
it was not just in spain but in south america and around the world your perverts went doing your normal thing!
what i say is historically based, in present day your kind are running amok as i stated earlier, to any action there will always be a reaction, so why do you feel muslims are the worst people on the planet, when it is really not us?
most of this demonization is from zionist jew garbage, why do you christians not judge your selves by the same standards you judge us?
you always bring in culture and ideals which are variant with your religious books in which you claim to follow, judge us by your religious standards if you dare!
jonst
@Cold N…..you wrote: “If the U.S. retreats from the world stage and becomes a diminutive force in geopolitics, a power vacuum of massive proportions will be created in its wake.”
This is a straw man argument if I ever saw one. We are not going to become a “diminutive force”. Would that we could, indeed. The US could take a significantly lower profile on the “world stage” and still be at the center. All people are asking for, some people, is that the US step back from ueber alles-agressive present foreign policy/power projection stop. i.e. can we just end the post WWII mentality? But I think it was Arthur Miller who wrote, ‘an era does not end until its illusions go away’.
Mandos
abubaqar,
I’m not a Christian and let’s just say that I have at least a passing familiarity with at least one Muslim country…
In the past, Christians and Jews dealt badly with various sorts of minorities in their midst, and it wasn’t a humane way to be, nor kind and merciful. Some of them have gotten over it. I know well that Muslims get a worse rap than deserved and that Western media loves to highlight all the bad parts, but a limited religious tolerance in Andalusia doesn’t compensate for how some Muslims behave today — and many do. (And some present-day Christians, Jews, Hindus, etc.)
And in any case, Muslims are being judged by the West through post-Enlightenment standards (yes, I know, also somewhat hypocritically applied), not Biblical standards. The hypocrisy of others is not an excuse, of course, to be cruel.
abubaqar
thank you mr mandos,
all things are relative and in that we say as muslims there is no one to compare with us in the world in sobriety,piety,familial life,tolerance,etc,etc.
if we muslims were as some claim then why would there be still after 1400 years of general muslim rule 14 million arab christians in the holy land?
after 1000 years of muslim rule,why are there still hindus as the majority in India?
the jews ran to our lands for a 1000 years to escape murder,rape and mayhem at the hands of the christian west,did we put them into ovens or massacre them by the millions?
there is no muslim government or country in the world today,most are facades of tyranny in the garb of islam,some outright dictatorships and others as ignorants attempting to make a islamic version of a country.
Islam is universal and is not based around a group of people in a given geographical area called a country as the saudi,s would make us believe. we believe in the caliphate and it will be back on the world stage sooner or later(see sheikh imran hosein on youtube on this topic)
no one can ever force a person to believe what they do not wish to believe, we have our black sheep but as a whole community against any other in the world, there is no one to compare with us!
and that is a challenge to prove us wrong if any one cares to in a public symposium!
markfromireland
@ bob mcmanus June 13, 2014
You see bob there’s a difference between what Ian wrote which was factually based and a reasonable conclusion to draw based upon those facts and the contrafactual codswallop that you wrote which was wrong in all its particulars. You didn’t bother yourself to get even the most rudimentary facts of the topic under discussion right and none of the diversionary matter you subsequently brought forth alters the fact that what you wrote was wrong in all its particulars.
mfi
Celsius 233
@ mfi
Mark, what, if anything, do you think of Cole’s take on the Iraq debacle (As referenced above)?
markfromireland
@ Celsius 233 June 16, 2014
It’s both reasonable and plausible but &ndash, and this applies to everyone, he’s winging it. Nobody including (especially!) those on the ground knows what happens next. Some guesses:
1: lot of the weapons they seized will wind up being used in Syria.
2: It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they started attacking Jordan.
3: I doubt they’re capable of holding much of the territory they’ve overrun and expect that as far as Da’ish are concerned they’ll go back to some version of status quo ante but with benefits. (The Ba’ath are another matter altogether ).
An important point is that this has been building for at least two years and I think they may have been forced to move before they were ready. The fact that Abu Hajjar broke under interrogation and gave the Iraki government (and thus the Americans and the Iranians) the name and address of the head of their military may – don’t know but it seems likely, may have forced them to attack now.
I’m impressed, very impressed, by the effectiveness of their organisation, their repeatedly demonstrated ability to mount complex attacks, and their logistical depth.
“Big picture”? <shrug>Nobody knows. Iran is the logical regional superpower and partner in stability operations. I wonder if their military cooperation with the Turks against the Kurds is about to come to a crashing halt.</shrug>
mfi
Celsius 233
Thanks Mark. “We’ll see” would seem to be the order of the day…
markfromireland
‘Fraid so, I predict that tea leaves, gazing into crystal balls, and all the other forms of justifying your guesswork are going to be wildly popular for the next while. I should have specified about the weapons that it’s mostly the light weapons that will wind up in Syria. The rest will remain in Irak where the survivors of the former Iraki army will put them to good use.
mfi
Celsius 233
Well, as long as you’re here; I have one more question.
Supposedly ISIS has $2.5 billion dollars (looting banks [?]); while I don’t necessarily buy that, given it’s true; what do you see as the ramifications of that substantial sum?
Can it affect the out come in the long run?
Cheers and thanks in advance…