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"The Battle For Baghdad" - A Backgrounder On ISIS' Grand Plan
It is no secret that the extremist al-Qaeda Jihadist group known as ISIS for short, which in the span of weeks has overrun the northern part of Iraq, has grand ambitions to not only preserve its power in the north and central regions, as well as the border with Syria, but to ultimately proceed south where not only Baghdad is located but also the great energy infrastructure of the country: "the grand prize" for ISIS as it would make the extremist group viable and financially self-sustaining.
But how and when will this "Battle for Baghdad" take place?
For the answer we go to a backgrounder prepared by the Institute for the Study of War titled, as expected, "ISIS Battle Plan for Baghdad" which lays it out in detail.
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There are indications that ISIS is about to launch into a new offensive in Iraq. ISIS published photos of a military parade through the streets of Mosul on June 24, 2014 showcasing U.S. military equipment, including armored vehicles and towed artillery systems. ISIS reportedly executed another parade in Hawijah on June 26, 2014.2 These parades may be a demonstration of force to reinforce their control of these urban centers. They may also be a prelude to ISIS troop movements, and it is important to anticipate where ISIS may deploy these forces forward. Meanwhile, ISIS also renewed the use of suicide bombers in the vicinity of Baghdad. An ISIS bomber with a suicide vest (SVEST) attacked the Kadhimiya shrine in northern Baghdad on June 26, 2014,3 one of the four holy sites in Iraq that Iran and Shi’a militias are most concerned to protect. ISIS also incorporated an SVEST into a complex attack in Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad, on June 25, 2014 in a zone primarily controlled by the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and Shi’a militias on the road from Baghdad to Karbala.4 These attacks are demonstrations that ISIS has uncommitted forces in the Baghdad Belts that may be brought to bear in new offensives. ISIS’s offensive has not culminated, and the ISIS campaign for Iraq is not over. Rather, as Ramadan approaches, their main offensive is likely imminent.
ISIS seeks to create an Islamic Emirate that overcomes the modern states of Iraq and Syria. The Syrian war began without ISIS, but ISIS succeeded in instigating a sectarian war in Iraq in order to destabilize the state. ISIS has systematically targeted sectarian fault lines in Iraq over the past two years in order to precipitate a civil war, but ISIS also intends to break the Iraqi state permanently so that it cannot recover. This is essential in order to protect the Islamic Emirate from external attack. ISIS may not seek to make Baghdad its capital; Baghdad is far from the center of Iraq’s Sunni heartland and sits along the contested corridor that separates the Sunni and Shi’a majority lands in Iraq. Rather, ISIS likely seeks to destroy the government of Iraq, to destroy the Iraqi Army, and to ensure that Baghdad does not remain a viable Shi’a capital. It is more reasonable to expect that ISIS has a battle plan for Baghdad than to presume that ISIS would not create one because they recognize how difficult the task of controlling the city.
ISIS now has artillery and other indirect fire capability, in addition to heavy machine guns. This is visible in their social media coverage of their acquisitions in Ninewa. ISIS can induce a surface-to-air threat against IA aircraft at Balad Airbase, Taji Base, and Baghdad International Airport that effectively neutralizes Iraq’s air assets. ISIS can also attack fortified positions in downtown Baghdad through medium-range direct fire via the artillery pieces it has seized. ISIS likely intends to strike the Green Zone and other fortress targets that have adequate ground protection. ISIS likely has presence inside Baghdad that can facilitate accurate fire through visual observation, and the emergence of SVESTS on June 26 in lieu of the more detectable SVBIEDs likely illustrates its adaptation to the new Shi’a militia environment. ISIS may also layer explosive attacks through SVBIEDs against checkpoints or infrastructure in order to open temporary movement corridors that will permit ground assault against targets in Baghdad. ISIS may still be designing and sequencing its plan for Baghdad, but from a threat perspective, the most dangerous outcomes that ISIS could precipitate against U.S. interests in Baghdad are feasible. ISIS’s revived capability for spectacular attacks in Baghdad and its ability to harness medium range artillery comes just as the U.S. has placed 300 personnel in country, in addition to those essential personnel already stationed at the Embassy. There is no safe place in Baghdad against the threat of ISIS.
A ground campaign to deny Ramadi and Baghdad to ISIS in the near term and to begin to retake lost territory is critical to overcome the offensive spirit and message of victory that are currently fueling ISIS. The Sunni population in Iraq may very well unite in order to counter ISIS deep within the Sunni heartland if they perceive that ISIS can be defeated, and that their tribes will be protected from ISIS and Iran. The Sunnis are not looking to the government of Iraq for these assurances right now, because they perceive more than ever that Maliki’s government is part of an Iranian axis. Syrian air strikes into Iraq’s Sunni lands only underscore this point. With no army to protect them, and no army that can outmatch ISIS on the ground, the Sunnis are faced with an existential crisis on two-fronts: the threat of ISIS, and the threat of Iran, both assaulting Iraq’s Sunnis with military force. The war in Iraq and the war in Syria have the potential to engulf the region, while ISIS usurps the terrain lost by states that may never recover their former likeness.
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There is much more in the full report below (pdf link):
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....so who paid these guys?
Who trained them?
Follow the money hunny.
Oh snap....Is it the same guys who provided all of the "pilots" on 9/11?
Who trained them? Why the USSA of course.
http://middleeastuncovered.wordpress.com/2014/06/20/report-us-trained-is...
Let them have the shit hole Iraq. Let them create their radical muslim state. Let all the radical muslims go there. Then easy to surround and nuke from space, the only way to be sure.
Wake up Black Swan it's all NWO Theater... if the American people weren't so drugged and brainwashed the murderous pack of dirtbags pulling the strings on this would be swinging from ropes.
ISIS is definitely incapable of planning and executing a surprise blitzkrieg attack without US knowing it. Hell, sins Russia did not do it, US had to. Who else is there?
I'm given to understand that ISIS tweets.
I'm sure that as soon as the NSA gets done collecting, colating and filing my emails they'll be on the case like stink on shit.
So... we have a map of all their headquarters and troop locations... but we can't stop them?
This article is complete and utter propaganda garbage. Either they are making shit up or they are showing the 'truth'. In either case we are being fed a large log of semi diuretic shit.
So we're back to a buncha rag-heads as an existential threat to freedom, democracy, the United States and the entirety of western civilization.
Fuck 'em.
Leave them alone and they'll fight one another to the death.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend
Does anybody but me realize that if we leave them alone, go home, they'll forget about us real fucking quick?
PS As a goodwill gesture, I suggest that we take all the homeless flooding over our borders and send them as gifts to the ISISISICADAETC for remedial training , thus killing 2 birds with one stiones. Why not? Grand idea!
^ Hispanics make for shitty fighters however...
Why do you think they come here for?
That ISIS military map scares the crap out of me, especially that vertical, squiggly line in the center. The dash-dotted one gives me the creeps!
Keep following that squiggly line, it leads to your door!
Ahhhhhhhhhhh...........
the quoted part of the analysis didn't say the threat of isis was existential for the u.s. it said it was existential for iraq, and it well may be.
certainly parts of the israeli government (where i think we can all agree most of the plans for u.s. policy in this region, at a minimum, originate) want to break iraq into at least three pieces.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/greater-israel-the-zionist-plan-for-the-mid...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38876.htm
http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/06/28/divide-and-rule-us-state-dept-plan...
http://counterpsyops.com/2014/06/27/the-chaos-in-iraq-is-by-design/
"turning the sand into glass", "killing all these ragheads with nuclear airbursts", or even "ignoring them" (and leaving u.s./israel policy intact) etc. etc. etc. is so much silly fantasy. until zionism, or at least u.s. support for it, is gone, there never will be peace between the muslim world and the u.s. it really is that simple.
that a dozen of the top twenty largest oil fields by production http://seekingalpha.com/article/159078-worlds-top-producing-oil-nations-... are in territory controlled by muslims is just too bad, apparently.
someday this country will have to decide between justice and oil on the one hand or zionism on the other. the day approaches.
The Neo-Cons were right! Lose Baghdad and the next thing you know they'll be pouring over our borders.
Think about it for a second.
Think a little more.
It is true.
The cause and effect are greatly disparate from that usually meant, but they are related with respect to world views.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
JOB WELL DONE BROWNIE
- G W Bush (I'm just the messenger, folks)
One obvious point all the talking heads are missing is this: The problem (and benefit to for some) is that terrorists dont occupy territory and are therefore difficult to find and attack. Once a terrorist group defines a territory they can be easily bombed into submission. Why has no one pointed out this obvious problem? Oh right, because then we wouldnt be properly affraid.
Also, Paris 1919 is a must watch for anyone hoping to understand how this mess started: http://tvo.org/video/167453/paris-1919
but if "they'll forget about us real fucking quick?" how do you expect our glorious MIC to make an abscene buck or bilion??
We the people need to be terrorised, petrified so that we'll plead for bigger government to "save us" from those real scary folks far far away.
if we can get them they chop a few heads off and roast them even the better to eat you with my dear said the big bad US wolf.
I'm given to understand that ISIS tweets.
I'm sure that as soon as the NSA gets done collecting, colating and filing my emails they'll be on the case like stink on shit.
I do hope the NSA are printing out hard copies of all this stuff. As the IRS illustrated, it's just sooooo easy to lose critical data on hard drives.
No kidding, you actually heard that, did you?
Anyone with a normal complement of neurons (would that be you?) and a basic reading comprehension should have figured out by this time that this ISIS is one incredibly well-financed, slickly packaged, well branded, operation. Duuuuuh!!!!
Their own line of ISIS t-shirts and cammies?
Putting vids online ever 12 hours of their executions of captured Iraqi soldiers?
http://www.wnd.com/2014/06/officials-u-s-trained-isis-at-secret-base-in-jordan/
And after the nukes land and irradiate all the territory, where will you find the 3.3 million bpd they flow now and that you HAVE to have.
We'll find the 3.3 mbpd we need to get the economy out the ditch right where they we left it. The beauty of an atmospheric (as opposed to surface) detonation is that it blasts the "terrorists" back to the dark ages where they belong with an EMP, and with far less radioactive mess than another Fukushima or Chernobyl. Furthermore, the Arabian Sands will quickly bury the remaining fallout faster than the Washington press corps buries scandalous corruption. Exxon and Halliburton will then march in and know exactly where to drill and have pipelines to pump the liberated oil to the sea. A couple of nukes didn't stop life in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So let me be clear, since the Iraqi oil is currently buried underground deeper than any nuclear fallout shelter, it will be 100% environmentally friendly when we liberate it from those oppressive rock formations.
Baghdad Barack Hussein Cheney, 2015
You don't know very much about matters military.
No one will accept targetting orders for civilians. The military targets would be vulnerable to far less than nuclear yields, so there would be no need for airburst configurations. Conventional weaponry would suffice, without risk to civilians.
So, then you face the officers and order them to target civilians and they will refuse. Only minimum necessary collateral damage is acceptable in officer training, and given you don't need nuclear weapon yields to destroy the designated targets, the targeting with be rejected.
You're the one who took his sarcastic and ludicrous notion of nuking them from space and suggested that it might be some sort of insurmountable obstacle for the all important spice trade. But if you want to deliberately ignore sarcasm and hurl personal insults- I'm happy to expose the limits of your military knowledge, but you might want to start with a more defensible position than strawmen... ("targeting" civilians with nukes, really?)
First you have to rile up the troops with propaganda, J. Goebbels style.
They are then happy to drop neutron bombs, wiping out most of the human beings but leaving infrastructure undamaged.
Consider My Lai and also other Viet Nam atrocities like it that were never exposed to view.
Many ordinary folk back home would applaud such a ballsy foreign policy.
But not far down the road, we ourselves might, in the twinking of an eye, be placed back in the stone age by an EMP attack launched by an unknown perpetrator.
"No one will accept targetting orders for civilians." you are optimistic aren't you?? Nominative determinist by any chance.
Ask the students at Kent State Massacre, oops you can't because they were shot.
Different this time TM Well today the army in ukraine, israel and others don't seem to have much of a problem in shooting civilians.
American exceptionalsim makes it different i suppose?? i for one won't be taking any chances.
They're trained to kill people, that's their job, so it won't be any different.
Curtis LeMay begs to motherfuckin' differ!
I doubt very much ISIS will attempt ground combat to take Baghdad, they have what, 10-20k fighters? Versus Iraq's 150k plus Iranian, US, and a smattering of other nation's troops, all hardened veterans.
No, if ISIS has any brains at all they'll use the chemical or possibly nuclear weapons they've conveniently found lying outside their front door with a CIA calling card attached.
World War III will be triggered by some unknown force or unpredictable event.
Today is the 100 year anniversary of the assination of Archduke Ferdinand. This lone act started WWI...which eventually led to WWII.
http://www.planbeconomics.com/2014/06/100-years-ago-today-archduke-franz...
The wars are staged...all of them. World War I was planned by the same ongoing criminal cabal. If you believe the B.S. propaganda that the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand started WWI as taught to the peasants in public schools you're a gonner.
even though much of war is the result of an ongoing criminal cabal, particularly at present, it is more convincing when you spell goner correctly. there is a reason spellcheck redlines gonner.
and the miseducated are not actually dead are they? http://onlineslangdictionary.com/meaning-definition-of/gonner
Doesn't Tyler and many posters here know that ISIS is backed, created by and run by Al See Eye Aye Duh, NWO, McCain, Graham, AIPAC, NeoCons, Saudis, Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Dems, Obama and brainless Democ rat voters?
Did ISIS do their annual report at a print shop in Langley, VA? What a joke. I hope those Syrian pilots with SU 25's blow that hell out of those clowns.
what? we're giving the brainless republican and independent voters a pass?
that seems so unfair. and asymmetrical.
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE, WE DID A GREAT JOB OF THE TRAINING,
sorry about the caps.
I'm afraid your phone auto corrected *patsies. If you want to know what guided those planes into the towers, look into Dov Zakheim and System Planning Corp. Then scratch your head about them crossing paths at Stewart AFB, exactly aligned with the 2 runways. If this confuses you read Operation Northwoods, particularly the part regarding a drone aircraft and Elgin AFB.
zionismsucks.com
We paid for it. And our children and our children's children. But our funds were stolen first!
- - - How much ? ? - - -
Turn on Fox News, and they speak of the "militants of ISIS" --- turn on NPR, and they speak of the "militants of ISIS" - - - WTF?
Where do those jackholes receive their scripts from? We do know it to be the same source or point of origin.
President Obama asks congress for $500 million to train rebels to fight against Assad of Syria - - - yet $7 billion was spent training the Iraqi Army - - - of what use was that?
And who received those $7 billions anyway?
Meanwhile, the Obama Administration continues to suppress the $43 million report on CIA torture (for well over a year now) - - - who received that $43 million, one wonders?
One monetary amount we have yet to hear about is the figure spent on training the Free Syrian Army the past several years in Jordan?
And what become of those so-called rebels? Today they are uniformly referred to by America's CorporateMedia as the "militants of ISIS"!
Lana? Lana?! Lanaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Danger Zone.
@LTER, pardon my ignorance, but who/what is LANA?
She works for ISIS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3-zaTr6OUo
And animated comedy shows are much more interesting to me than anything the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has to say. Their mission statement: "The Institute for the Study of War advances an informed understanding of military affairs through reliable research, trusted analysis, and innovative education. We are committed to improving the nation’s ability to execute military operations and respond to emerging threats in order to achieve U.S. strategic objectives. ISW is a non-partisan, non-profit, public policy research organization."
ISW is a thinly veiled Neo-Con think tank. Take a look at the bios of the "Leadership". http://www.understandingwar.org/who-we-are
@LTER, Thanks, ( I think) - very interesting and very sexy girls - even though they are cartoons! I never know what my mind will be exposed to next on ZH!!!
The first casualty of every war is the truth.
This would include the Wars on Terror, Drugs and Poverty, not to mention the various hot, cold and simmering wars against Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Ukraine, Serbia et cetera et ad nauseum.
Too much rationalizing makes some people believe bombing women and children is okay.
Fundamentally, this is not about american interests. Our chief priorities lie with americans on their own soil, not in the sands of a faraway nation.
Keep 5000 troops in iraq the cheapest way possible, make friends with iran and ask them to assist and lets get back to addressing the rapid decline our country is facing on all fronts, if thats even possible anymore.
Down arrow for being a delusional sheep. USSR MIC state doesn't make friends and sing koobayah.
These days we all we can do is dream of how things could be
ZATO don't make friends. ZATO wants to overrun Russia ... again. So, ZATO and lackeys, like you will not stop the seige warfare. Hopefully, Vlad's baking a cake with a surprise in it for you.
Watch and see.
Agree, but not gonna happen. We still got the Kardashian's YO?
I hear one of them changed their hair color, check it out!
Tell that to Detroit
Anyone else notice that the only products stamped Made in the U.S.A these days are funded by the US taxpayer and only used to kill people?
Got to keep that trade deficit down. Reduced population, international chaos,Progress!
The iraqi govt took billions of usd, our taxpayer money and instead of developing a decent army with decent defenses based on the development of decent local intelligence - plundered it - marcos style. These guys are filthy fucking rich while i'm forced to ratchet my food choices down from healthy meals to cheap junk. Intolerable. Send me out there to consult and give me a piece of that fucking pie. At least it would be going to an american who will put it back into the system
You're interested in putting something into this system?...lol...I've been busy breaking my bonds with it for over five years now.
Oh yeah, the bear is loose...or sumpin...
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/06/26/obama-the-bear-is-loose-and-trying-to-reconnect-with-voters/
...hardly news for anyone paying attention.
Dude sees himself as a bear. That is some funny shit.
Ain't dat sumpin?...ROTFL!
A golf playing bear...lol...doing a little global community organizing for the "folks", the peeps, on the most exclusive courses of the world...wearing Mom Jeans.
It just doesn't get any better ;-)
At first, I thought they were talking about Putin.
@nmewn- why not, i'll buy a decent defensible house and patronize ford and smith and wesson, plus black and decker (nailguns) and home depot (guillotine construction). ;-)
lol
You go girl!
@intric8:
Amen brother. I recently watched a one hour ISIS video from Iraq. They showed how they raided Iraqi regime collaborators in the middle of the night and then executed them.
The guys they were killing were Iraqi government officials who worked with Americans. They had much more expensive furniture in their house than I have in mine. I'm working my ass off here day in and day out so that my tax money can be sent to Iraq to pay Iraqi bureacrats big money so they can do virtually no work and live better than I do.
My tax money is spent to welcome, house, feed and fly illegals around the country to shelters. My tax money is spent to send TOW missiles to Al Qaeda while I have to wait three days to buy a pistol to shoot trapped raccoons with.
I trap beavers, turtles and musk rats to feed my family. I shoot deer, rabbits and sqirrels. I grow lettuce, Swiss chard, tomatoes, corn and cucumbers in my garden. I work my ass of at 51 years of age.
I'm kinda glad ISIS is chopping off a few heads over there. I just wish they'd chop off a few heads in Washington DC.
>>>The guys they were killing were Iraqi government officials who worked with Americans. They had much more expensive furniture in their house than I have in mine.
I'll vouch for the fact that Iraqi government employees are quite well paid; a friend is an Iraqi with close family who work for the Iraqi government. Since I don't recall the details and don't want to make up numbers, I'll just say that Iraqi government salaries appear to be not very different from the USD salaries paid by a typical US state government (i.e. comfortable, if not damn comfortable).
If you've got oil wells and the US taxpayer backing you up, the sky's the limit.
"All three hundred of them!"
Ridiculous. I feel sorry for the folks who supported these clowns. Looks like Al Maliki might be gone by Monday...we'll see. I don't know anybody who doesn't hate these people in the entire Region.
Just some Jewish puff piece funded by Bloomturd near as i can tell. Right up there with "credit default swaps" and "cdo's squared."
I'm so glad we kicked over that anthill in Iraq and threw out Saddam Hussein. What a fantastic idea that was.
All of the countries around there only work when there is a strongman in control. They know how to keep the crazy in check
You are correct. However it was a good try.
We gave them time to develop a constitutional gov and a non religious militia to protect it. We rebuilt their infrastructure better than it was before. Unfortunately, they weren't ready to be civilized.
Now we should just stand aside and let them massacre each other for a few more decades, until either they civilize or destroy themselves.
You Are Entering The Sharia Time Zone Please Set Your Watches Back 1,400 Years.
Correction, please: << You Are Entering The Sharia Time Zone Please Set Your Sundials Back 1,400 Years. >>
Running away just exposes millions of people to slaughter, its a religious war, we can't change that by sending Kerry over to state that they all just need to work together, that's not going to happen and there is all that lovely oil to protect which is why the US was over there in the first place, lets not forget about that.
Put a strongman who represents the majority religious sect in charge, give his militias the weapons, let him rule with an iron fist as long as the oil flows and let him establish a rule of law and get out except for leaving security around the oil wells.
Forget about democracy, it won't work.
..Put a strongman who represents the majority religious sect in charge, give his militias the weapons, let him rule with an iron fist as long as the oil flows and let him establish a rule of law and get out except for leaving security around the oil wells.
Sounds like Sadam Hussein..
More like we gave the US Contractors time to go ape shit wild there ripping of American tax payers like a crack head looting a liqour store.
the plan is so simple and it works well ..... let Iraq People run Iraq ... let Iran People run Iran ... Let Canada People run Canada ...... Let Libya People run Libya .... USA stay in the USA ...don't trespass ... stay on USA land ... I live in the USA ... I get it... it is simple ... Russian People run Russia .... Peace ...
It's not simple except to simpletons like you.
Look at history. At no time have people left each other alone. Strong men become strong men because they are sociopaths who crave power. They will always invade their neighbors.
Grow the fuck up little boy.
you're talking about the US, right?
I thought he was talking about Russia ;-)
I really don't know anymore, hard to sort the good guys from the bad guys now days :)
Just remember we're the good guys and the rest sorts itself out ;-)
If we're the good guys, it would be nice if we started acting like it, otherwise it just gets confusing :-)
Us needs to stop invading it's neighbors and send back their 30 million prisoners of war.
I respectfully disagree with your premise. Those who have objected to war as a solution are not simpletons or saying we should lay down our arms. The catalyst for war has not been diminished as many people have hoped it would once the world matured. National pride, political agendas, religious and ethnic hatreds are some of the biggest roadblocks to world peace.
Often we seem to forget as we look back to World War II and past a dozen "lesser Conflicts" peace has been the exception rather then the rule for hundreds and thousands of years. The true reality is that across the world few mothers want to see their children killed and most farmers want to be left along to raise their crops and earn a living. More on the subject of war as a solution to conflict in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/05/war-and-what-is-it-good-for.html
Silly boy. Next you will be telling me the Caledonian Mafia will cease to run England!
Who, exactly, are "Iraq People"? Don't you understand that Iraq is country manufactured by the Brits by drawing lines on a map? The damn place should probably be three countries.
Borders are a creation of man and not visible to the birds flying above. Much bloodshed and many wars could be avoided if the issues of regime change or borders could be handled in a more rational and constructive way, but do not expect this to happen. Borders and political control is a problem that haunts man since before the written word.
Recently President Obama and other officials have talked about the legal sanctity of sovereign borders, but in reality this is an argument of convenience masking deeper issues. When it comes down to it we are just pawns in this sad power game. If you doubt this just ask some of the many people displaced from their homes in Syria. More on the subject of sovereign borders in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-issue-of-sovereign-borders.ht...
"ISIS may not seek to make Baghdad its capital; Baghdad is far from the center of Iraq’s Sunni heartland and sits along the contested corridor that separates the Sunni and Shi’a majority lands in Iraq. Rather, ISIS likely seeks to destroy the government of Iraq, to destroy the Iraqi Army, and to ensure that Baghdad does not remain a viable Shi’a capital."
I think that makes sense. Turning Baghdad into the front line with no one in overally control could force the Shia government to move to Basra and would partially negate hostile air power.
Forcing the Shi'ite-led government to flee to Basra will prove a giant step toward the eventual (and permanent) 3-way partition of Iraq.
And wasn't that the US/Israeli goal, all-along?
No, the USA is supporting the one state solution, ISIS.
Seems to me ISIS, having knocked the Iraqi Army out of the Sunni heartland and left it demoralized should turn and use its new firepower, especially any anti air missiles and guns its acquired and concentrate on toppling Assad. It is now the dominant rebel force with al Nusra reported to have joined ISIS and the FSA without any leadership ready to do the same or quit the fight. If it can now neutralize Assad's helicopters, gain the FSA TOW missile firepower along with what is captured in Iraq, majority Sunni Syria it ripe for the taking. Iran is overextended now with three satrapies dependent on it and if Assad falls ISIS would control a population base and military resources equal to the Shia rump state in Iraq. Hezbollah would remain a potent military force in ISIS rear but it would be isolated from its Iranian benefactor and supplier and Israel might decide to take the opportunity to crush this Iranian proxy army once and for all under those circumstances as Iran would have its hands full propping up the Shia in Iraq. My thoughts anyway.
ISIS is Very Scary, and the US-created Iraqi army quite pathetic. However that doesn't mean ISIS can take Bagdhad - or Damascus.
As for Maliki, win or lose, replaced or not, he will no longer control the Iraqi state when the smoke clears. Such power as he has left after the ISIS scattered his troops is fundamentally shifting to the Shiite militias as they mobilize to defend Bagdhad.
For a perspective on the fighting capabilities of the ISIS and the Shiite militias, see
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2014/06/two-shortlong-analyses-by-mind...
If this analysis is correct, then Assad's battle-hardened and highly motivated troops should also be more than a match for ISIS. They are finishing with clearing the US-supported version of Al Qaida out of their western cities. When the Syrian army strikes east in force, soon, we will see what each side is made of.
(comment moved)
The US never stood a chance to understand Iraq where allegiances change faster than moving sands. Now the rot of Syria is spreading and the question is: Where will it stop? More ominously: Who will be sucked in?
Lots of bad things are going to happen.
These guys are going to get a LOT of oil revenue.
It will pay for nuclear weapons. Period.
>>>These guys are going to get a LOT of oil revenue.
It will pay for nuclear weapons. Period.
I'm not generally in favour of the mass slaughter of civilians, but for NY and DC, I'd consider making an exception.
If ISIS topples Assad or can force the Iraqi regime out of Baghdad ( unlikely IMO in any near time scenario) then everything changes. ISIS would rule a Caliphate of 25 million and have the huge military inventory of tanks and even air assets of Syria. Worse, for some, it would be seen as the real champion of Sunni Islam not the Saudi and Gulf oil monarchies. It could bring a sea change in alliances and relationships not seen in the Middle East since the Shah fell 35 years ago. If ISIS starts drawing large numbers of jihadis, and I suspect it would, from the Arab hinterlands it going to be game on for all out Sunni/Shia war in Iraq.
At some point in all of this the House of Saud is going to fall ... and the piranha party that follows is going to be the Greatest Show on Earth.
I would get the cable TV just for the Pay Per View of this one.
KSA is majority Shiite, FYI.
No, KSA is majority Sunni, but large sections of the country are majority Shia (particularly the areas with the biggest oil fields). KSA is also a 20th century British influenced artificial state (like Iraq) that was an amalgam of smaller kingdoms/principalities/tribes. Once TSHTF the country will break up along tribal and sectarian lines (as will the USA,Iraq and many other failed states).
Where are the carriers?
Where is Jen Psaki?
Where is Jamie Farr?
I think ZH should propose some readings about this issue too:
Nigeria, CIA covert operations, Boko Haram and US interests... In Nigeria. Also.
Unless you have some evidence or tips, show us.
RT George Galloway discussing ISIS
You be the judge of interview.
WTI - next stop, $110. Get long bitchez.
Don't you hate it when one of your operatives on the way to work leaves The Grand Plan on a seat on the train.
Map looks like mobile coverage in Western United States.
ISIS plans as described in this article don't explain how it will deal with Obama drone strikes. We already know drones are on location ... ...
Drone strikes from the USA will hit about 15% of intended targets on a good day..
The Shia Muslims are sheep like Mexicans, easily manipulated, emotional hotheads -like Mexicans, low IQ like Mexicans, tough in a overwhelming mob, a non entity when not in a mob, easy to defeat by professional soldiers, look at Saddam, he could have stayed In power for 1000 years without us removing him.
Baghdad is a piece of cake, cut off the power and march the artillery in, surrender or die of starvation, turn the shia mob on its self, the Iraq govt is a stooge puppet looter govt with a private mafia army that everybody hates, Sadr city will grow great crops with all the blood that's going to be spilled there.
We shoulda whacked Moqtada AlSadr on day 1 when we invaded, and just taken the country, instead we gave it to a looter political hack as a gift.
Who the fuck are we to turn over a whole country to a mullah with his own private army -which he never used to touch Saddam, and only uses to control the Iraq people and personal looting.
Fuck Maliki, fuck Sadr, let them earn their power and assets.
Good to see racism and bigotry is alive and well, I was a bit worried we were all getting too sensible here for awhile.
If only the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines had listened to your star-spangled awesome battle plan, Baghdad would have been "a piece of cake".
Go back to masturbating to your war-porn, child.
The Qatari Journalists at it again...
The first Russian planes have arrived in Bagdad.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28077462
They are not 'fighters' they are SU25 ground attack aircraft. The Iraqis had them before the Americans 'arrived'. They also had 7 more that escaped to Iran.
They are very effective against ground troops, unless the ground troops 'liberated' some MPADs like the Stinger from Mosul.
I don't think Russia gives a hoot about Iraq. But this gives them libertry to bust a few at ISIS, which helps Assad, which helps them.
Look for attacks across the dotted line, which will be said to disrupt material and personnel flow into Iraq.
Russia might not give a hoot about Iraq, but trust me they care a lot about what happens in Iraq.. A nice hot burning oil field in Southern Iraq, and Russia is getting paid 150 bucks a barrel for oil next week.. Things are about to get really twisted up now..
Listen folks, even some of my most simple minded American friends and neighbors have a pretty good idea of what is going on (and why).
When I overhear Walmart greeters, gas station attendants, and pizza makers openly discussing the current Iraqi civil war, ending the FED, 9/11, Benghazi, and so on... I know there is hope for the Republic.
It's those in the halls of power that had better wake up. The pitchforks and torches are closer and more numerous than they know.
Obama foreign policy is either the biggest cluster ever or it's the plan.
All I can tell is that the US policy is failing so far in Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Iraq. Afghanistan is on deck. Here is a profound statement. Leadership is lacking. I don't care who pulls Obama's strings this is not good for the world and certainly not good for America long term. His policy simply features supporting the most extreme Islamists.
Why do we even have a policy in these shithole "countries" other than to stay away and ignore them? All we have done for decades is piss away money in these dumps trying to prop up dictators. Have we improved the situation over there for anyone?
Only winners are our MIC and banksters. And please don't give me the BS about being over there because we need the oil. Those crazy fuckers always find a way to get the oil out of the ground to sell to the West. They hate us but love the petrodollar.
ISIS is corrupt due to their basic foundation of greed, avarice and fear. Fanatics need only apply. So...when they "win", what do they establish? Another crazy religious state of fear and massive ignorance. Ruling with fear only lasts so long...but then again, look at us!
The bloodthirsty fanatics should fear success, because if and when they achieve their objectives, their leaders will see them as a threat and have them murdered, just like what is happening in the Ukraine.
ISIS will find the best defence is a good offence. By attacking and making a mess of Baghdad they can mute any real effort to drive them from the remainder of Iraq.
something is very very wrong here.
the isis video is freely distributed via internet, not blocked. sure, for watching it one is on a nsa or no flight list.
missing in the discussion is the point that isis hs days of forgiveness, every asshole can come and say i have done wrong and is forgiven by isis. no beheading.
isis has large amounts of footage pre war, full computerized.
this is not cia style. this is saud awakening on world theater scene.
or just an agreed shift of power, usa no longer acts with consent of saud but now saud got ok to act alone in middle east.
with all the spying, nsa is omnipotent no?,cia action teams, tsa "security" pat downs and molestations of freedoms, HLS check points and mega budgets for all our security forces, SS (sec serv), ATF, FBI, and local police armed with military equip..all the monitoring of every key stroke- every phone message..and they still are suprised by bombs at boston, or major attacks in Syria, Lybia and nowIraq today..would make one wonder who is the target of all this "security"..got a mirror?
When old boogeymen get played/worn out, invent new boogeymen.
Backgrounder or Blueprint
All the artillery and high tech gear isn't worth much without proper training.
Where did this stuff come from? All this "heads up" about ISIS...
look up on Wikipedia .....
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) is a think tank founded in 2007 by Kimberly Kagan. ISW describes itself as a non-partisan think tank providing research and analysis regarding issues of defense and foreign affairs, but has been described by others as "a hawkish Washington" group [1] favoring an "aggressive foreign policy".[2] Though it had produced reports on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, "focusing on military operations, enemy threats, and political trends in diverse conflict zones",[3] it first gained widespread public attention in the aftermath of the Elizabeth O'Bagy scandal in which it was involved. The non-profit organization is supported by grants and contributions from large defense contractors,[2] including Tomahawk missile designer Raytheon, F-16 manufacturer General Dynamics, private military company DynCorp and others.[4] It is headquartered in Washington, D.C.[5]
bingo.
You are absolutely correct.
What I find particularly disturbing is the fact that the Tylers seem to put a lot of faith in these bozos' analysis, and do not seem to understand what or who they are, what their agenda is, and where their financial backing comes from.
The Tylers use their "products" and post them on ZH frequently.
In my humble estimation, the Institute for the Study of War represents the worst kind of "informed" laptop bombardiers.
The ISW "products" should come with at least 1,000 caveats and very large and bold "deluded ass-clowns" warnings....
ISIS is still being funded by the Obama regime through Syrian rebels.
I don't know what the grand plan of Sunni rabid ISlam is; apart from the fact its a convoluted sign of resistance of the desperate and damned to the global empire of the "happy few".
As the people of first world have abandoned their desire to fight for liberty and republic, totally engrossed in bread and circus games of the summer of 2014.
But, I do know what its plan WAS in the PAST, 'cos that is HiSTORY.
If you remember back in 1978-1980 many things coagulated and Pax Americana had its panties all tied up in knots :
1° THe Shah said we needed a second price hike. His overthrow produced the Ayatollah regime that kicked the US out of its second Pillar in the Oil patch and the second oil price hike occurred with a vengeance.
2° The Soviets pushed their pawns in Afghan and the US immediately used that as a counter pawn move on the Asian chessboard to use surrogate Pakistan --under Zia-- to usher in the Taliban breed to fight Soviet invasion. Sunni rabid Islam now had a focal point ALL MADE BY CIA/ISI to fight the atheistic commies. It was perceived as win-win for US/Saud joint strategy against the great Satans of Commie and Shia enemies respectively.
3° Both US and Saud made Saddam their spear carrier to fight the Iran theocratic regime disguising this blatant invasion, contrary to UN resolutions, as an "ideologically justified" Sunni/Shia proxy war in 1980, just as the Ben Laden Mujahideen brigade financed by the same were doing God's work in Afghan.
So... we know what happened after that, when Saddam went renegade against both Saud/US interests after his failed 10 year stint against Ayatollah Iran. It led to the 2003 Iraq Crusade--another ideologically justified invasion, doing God's work not condoned by the UN, --- at the behest of the Bushes and resulting in the further cementing of the US/SAUD axis around the oil patch (think Carlyle and Halliburton).
Now its all going sour before our eyes along the Ukraine to Afghan ideologically torn divide zone of new Cold War in Asia.
And Al-Qaeda and ISIS are doing a second round of a SADDAM type stint in Iraq against the same axis, their paymasters in Syria, in their common fight against a statist and apostate Alawite elite of Bashar al-Assad.
Does Pax Americana think it can do to the new Sunni contrarian axis-- (now enemies of the gulf monarchies and more politically aligned to Saddam's old dream) -- what it did to Saddam?
Looks like Caesar's legions are once again trying to stop the inevitable in Mesopotamia, all the while Iran and Putin are getting stronger locally and the US's pet surrogate in Iraq, al -Maliki, is now trying to join the Iran/Putin axis. In Afghan the US's pet surrogate Karzai has also turned coat to Pax Americana's presence in that devastated country.
And, Caesar's legions are now trying to extricate themselves from ME to go Eastward to South China Seas and Southwards to Africa, as Oligarchy global mayhem plays require that guns and war spread the game of divide and ruin further to these new hunting grounds (all for the greater glory of our "non negotiable" way of life whatever the price!).
Isis and al-Qaeda has its antenna in Africa and you can see in Philippines and Brunei that religious sentiment is once again ready to come out forefront.
Wherever Caesar's legions go in name of civilization the regressionary backlash of obscurantism festers like its designated Nemesis.
What a race to bottom this is becoming.
And I'm not talking peak oil and peak cheap money whose dynamics don't act to the benefit of Caesar's global strategy; nor the debasement of the world's eco systems, nor the depletion of its vital resources...
Those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first drive mad !
I love the Saturday news. Sen, Graham comes out to a bank of microphones breathless from just leaving a meeting being told the, "Threat To America" that is the group ISIS.
Deer Lindsey, so you are saying $56 BILLION for HomeLandSecurity is not enough to protect me. Sir, I would like my tax money back and I'll take my chances.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/invading-iraq-2-0-isis-propaganda-proxy-war...
Invading Iraq 2.0: ISIS Propaganda, Proxy Wars and US-NATO’s ‘Blitzkrieg’
By Shawn Helton
Global Research, June 28, 2014
welcome to the NWO, more jizya!