Category Archives: foreign policy

ISIS’ Purpose in Invading Iraq

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The assumed purpose for the terrorist organization’s invasion is to seize Iraq as part of the Caliphate the terrorists claim to be restoring. This may be true. However, there are other purposes that may be in play, also, if not instead.

One such purpose would be to destabilize Iraq while exposing the paper tiger that President Barack Obama’s United States has become. This purpose envisions ISIS shooting the place up, exacerbating along the way extant sectarian violence, and then withdrawing into Syria, if not into strongholds in northwestern Iraq. Keeping captured weapons, while demonstrating ISIS’ reach, to their economic betterment from…supporters…of the drive for the Caliphate.

And there’s this:

[ISIS has] obtained significant numbers of tanks, trucks, and US-origin Humvees in recent military operations in Iraq and those arms are being shipped to al Qaeda rebels in Syria[.]

Now one branch of Syrian rebels has several examples of our weaponry.

Oh, and this, admittedly a bit of a stretch as an ISIS purpose: Iranian forces are now operating in Iraq. The enemy of my enemy bit.

Hmm….

In Which Russia Creates an Opportunity

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Russia on Monday cut gas supplies to Ukraine as a payment deadline passed and negotiators failed to reach a deal on gas prices and unpaid bills amid continued fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Naftogaz company head Andriy Kobolev said Russia had cut the supply of gas to Ukraine, but that Ukraine can manage without Russian gas until December.

There’s no reason at all we can’t fill this newly created market with American natural gas, even if it will take longer than next December to get the delivery chain up and running.

By extension and demonstration, this also creates a market opportunity to sell American natural gas throughout Europe. Even with a seaborne “pipeline,” we can deliver at a lower price than Russia can.

All we need is an administration willing to take advantage of the opportunity.

A Pet Peeve

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And in my hubris, I’m going to write about it. In an article about ISIS likely having captured a supply of Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, Fox News commits the crime. Unfortunately, Fox News is just one of far too many news organizations that do this.

fallen into the hands of Sunni insurgents.

And

fall into the hands of the radical group.

No. These are not “insurgents,” nor are they a “radical group.” ISIS is a terrorist organization. Full stop.

A Token Force, more Dithering

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Now the Obama administration is “weighing” sending 100 (count ’em) Special Forces soldiers to…some place…in Iraq. With their hands tied behind their backs.

The troops would fall under the authority of the US ambassador in Baghdad and would not be authorized to engage in combat, another US official said. Their mission would be “non-operational training” of both regular and counterterrorism units, which the military has in the past interpreted to mean training on military bases[.]

So, no support, no qualified leadership at the top, and they’ll likely be on bases that the Iraqi “army” abandons at the first sniff of gun smoke.

This is not an optimal use of our SF.

Iraqi Drama Catches US Off Guard

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That’s the headline of a Wall Street Journal article, and I stole it. It’s here, too, because the headline says it all.

The quickly unfolding drama prompted a White House meeting Wednesday of top policy makers and military leaders who were caught off guard by the swift collapse of Iraqi security forces, officials acknowledged.

And

US military leaders said they had thought that Iraqi security forces’ efforts would be enough to slow ISIS’s advance. But those assumptions were proven wrong when Iraqi troops largely abandoned their posts.

Yet it’s not just about establishing ISIS in Sunni Iraq. Having moved to within a few 10s of miles of Baghdad, ISIS has announced its intent to move on and seize Shia Karbala and Najaf, hosts of two of the holiest shrines for Shiite Muslims, for the humiliation of the Shia in Iraq. And for the added fertile agricultural territory.

Why was the US caught off guard by this Iraqi collapse in the wake of the collapse going on in next-door Syria? Because no one in this administration has any clue at all concerning what’s going on—and why—outside the little choir of “advisors” President Barack Obama maintains in his coterie.