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Is Anyone In Control? The Iraq "Post Coup" Confusion Deepens
While the US is alternating between bombing the north of Iraq, and occasionally paradropping MREs and jugs of water to keep up the "noble" facade of intervention, it is very much unclear if Iraq currently has a government and in fact, who is in charge. As reported yesterday, current PM al-Maliki, seemingly unhappy with relinquishing power when a new Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi was chosen, decided to conduct what many described as a military coup and encircled the residence of the president. Since then things have gotten quite confusing.
As Reuters summarizes, "Iraq's president named a new prime minister to replace Nuri al-Maliki on Monday, urging him to form a broad government that can stem communal bloodshed, but it was unclear whether Maliki would bow to U.S. and Iranian pressure to step aside. A Shi'ite Muslim blamed by erstwhile allies in Washington and Tehran as well as Baghdad for driving the alienated Sunni minority into revolt, Maliki deployed loyal militias and special forces in the capital on Monday after making a defiant speech accusing the head of state of abusing the constitution.
There was no immediate reaction from Maliki to the naming of Haider al-Abadi as prime minister. However, Maliki's son-in-law, a close political ally, told Reuters that he would seek to overturn the nomination in the courts.
President Fouad Masoum asked Abadi, a leader of Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party, to lead an administration that can win the support of a parliament elected in April. In remarks broadcast on television, Masoum, an ethnic Kurd, urged him to "form a broader-based government" over the next month.
Abadi, who spent decades in exile in Britain during the rule of Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, promptly assumed he was in control and urged national unity against the "barbaric" Islamic State. However, the Maliki faithful have little desire to go gentle into that good night: "We will not stay silent," Maliki's son-in-law Hussein al-Maliki said. "The nomination is illegal and a breach of the constitution. We will go to the federal court to object."
And just to complete the confusion, this is where the US got involved:
After Washington endorsed Masoum's attempts to break three months of post-election political deadlock that have hamstrung Baghdad's response to the Islamic State, Secretary of State John Kerry called on Maliki not to resort to force or "stir the waters" when Iraqis were seeking a change of leader.
In pointed remarks, he said: "The government formation process is critical in terms of sustaining stability and calm in Iraq and our hope is that Mr. Maliki will not stir those waters.
"There will be little international support of any kind whatsoever for anything that deviates from the legitimate constitution process that is in place and being worked on now."
As police and elite armed units, many equipped and trained by the United States, locked down the capital's streets, Kerry added: "There should be no use of force, no introduction of troops or militias in this moment of democracy for Iraq."
...
Before Abadi's nomination, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman reaffirmed support for a "a prime minister who can represent the aspirations of the Iraqi people by building a national consensus and governing in an inclusive manner".
"We reject any effort to achieve outcomes through coercion or manipulation of the constitutional or judicial process," she said in a statement, adding that the United States "fully supports" Masoum as guarantor of Iraq's constitution.
This culminated when none other than VP Biden called in: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden congratulated Haider al-Abadi on Monday for being Iraq's designated new prime minister and pledged U.S. support for an inclusive Iraqi government, the White House said. "The prime minister-designate expressed his intent to move expeditiously to form a broad-based, inclusive government capable of countering the threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and building a better future for Iraqis from all communities," the White House said in a statement about the telephone call. "The vice president relayed President Obama's congratulations and restated his commitment to fully support a new and inclusive Iraqi government, particularly in its fight against ISIL," it said.
Of course, if left on its own, the situation would likely have promptly subsided with Maliki quietly exiting stage left. However, now that the US has made its intentions quite clear, and considering the US tracked record in recent years of picking the "winning candidate", suddenly all bets are off.
Then again, it may no longer matter just who, if anyone, is in charge: on Monday, police said the fighters had seized the town of Jalawla, 115 km (70 miles) northeast of Baghdad, after driving out the forces of the autonomous Kurdish regional government.
Because should ISIS take over Baghdad, watch as that that aggressively suppressed "Iraq geopolitical risk" crude premium soars through the roof.
Finally, it is not as if ISIS has no leverage: recall that the nuclear option before the jihadists is still on the table. Should all else fail, it can just blow up the Mosul dam it took over in the past week, flood the Tigris plain and countless Iraqi cities, culminating with Baghdad ending up under 16 feet of water, something which would make life for Joe Biden's son, Hunter, who may then also be named on the board of some leading Iraqi energy company in addition to Ukraine's Burisma, quite unbearable.
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so nice...had to post it twice....
Abusing the constitution? You don't say!
Every time Muammar Obama encourages the overthrow of a government the sheet gets deeper.
Control is an illusion.
The NeoCons want Chalabi to lead Iraq...
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/07/10/the_resurrection_of_ahm...
Are you asking the question in the headline about Iraq or the US government?
Who's in control when Obama's out golfing or taking selfies in the bath house?
The same people who are in control when Obama is actually in the Whitehouse...
No one? I'm barely in control of my own bowel movements, that is about it. I am willing to bet it's the same for everyone else.
The Gods of Madness reign.
We're still adding up the zeros, but we haven't come up anything yet.
I really don't see how this will affect Joe Biden's son.
Isn't he one of the "folks" from Elysium?
Ya know, one of those that lives in an orbiting space station while the rest of the dregs toil below on the planet surface.
You didn't make that planet!*
Someone asks "Who's in control here?". A voice from the north answers "I[S]IS"
At this point what difference does it make.
Inclusive? Gay marriage legal in Iraq your ass
Plugs
Joey Biden: "Iraq will be one of the great achievements of this administration."
That's "Captain" Joey
And the Dems were worried about Sarah Palin.
So we wound up with the real doozies
Sooo fucked up....
Such a mess...
Alack and alas...
This is the very defintion of the cold war.
John 3:16
Obama is a top notch constitutional lawyer. If anyone can fix this mess...it's him
EDIT: That one was so ripe the sarc tag kept falling off. Let me try this
/Huffpo
Try /Puffho
Try
/Onion
Of course, we should always believe everything written in Foreign Policy, since that IS owned, after all, by Graham Holdings Company, former owners of WaPo, whose family was quite connected to the Fed and the CIA.
Yup, I believe everything they, and Morty Zuckerman, always spew forth. . .
Control is an illusion ;-)
You can not rule the masses with an iron fist, it always ends the same way, with the tyrants dead. The only reasonable method is to convince the masses that you're in control, or that being under someone's "control" is preferable to the alternative. It doesn't matter if that alternative is based on a logical fallacy or not even real. As long as the illusion is maintained, you have control.
In that way, it doesn't matter if something goes wrong as long as you can spin the narrative about who is responsible and why the state should have control, and you merely have to push those masses until they start creating the revolts and violence you have been fabricating to maintain that illusion. Then it's that fabled self-fulfilling prophecy concept.
Peaceful resistance is the only solution that stops the state without blood shed.
Another stellar example of the Obama administration's handling of Iraq.
These people are beyond incompetent . . .
-30-
O so now Maliki will join ISIS to fight against the US and the new PM, while ISIS fights against Maliki because he is a shiite and the US and the new PM. And Iran would support Maliki because he is a shiite and work with ISIS against the US, but fight agaisnt ISIS because theyare trying to kill all iraninas sine they are shiites. And while the new kirdish PM Fights against ISIS, while shiites and sunis fight agaisnt the new PM and all kurds because they are trying to rob the oil from the north.
I see. Got it now.
Kid... I like your style.
please, it's always about the children. So long as the spice keeps flowing, nothing changes...
same as it ever was.
Man, this Shiite should be on TV. More drama than a network soap or a cable reality show.
ISIS aa doubledouble postpost
"Since then things have gotten quite confusing."
Well of course they are silly. This is Iraq.....home of Babylon.....from the word Bilbel.....meaning confused.
Nothing has changed in over 4,000 years.
"Those who do not know history....are doomed to repeat it."
Fractured and confused democracy versus focused and motivated caliphate. Place your bets.
IS ANYONE IN CONTROL THERE AT ZH???!??!?!?!?!?!!!!!
Nobody but us robots.
Just the NSA.
Yes. Just support any instance of the New National Party going into 2020 and everything will be fine.
Doubletap
Double tap for double the clicks.
Easy to do by accident with a Glock 20.
Itchy trigger finger.
You have good taste.
Hmmmmmm.......Which one to post on?
Boff of 'em. Why not?
both...you can contradict urself, than up and down arrow each....everybody gets a trophy that way
That's retarded.
Do I get a trophy now, too?
drooling
Can cockroaches swim?
Yes.
Just like 2 legged sand fleas and Ebola
"Is Anyone In Control?"
Bwah-Ha Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Hey, what's the deal with the 'dent' in that guy's head?!?
That's where he banged his head on Obama's cock while trying to get in some tea-bagging.
"Hey, what's the deal with the 'dent' in that guy's head?!?"
From doing this.....
http://eleconomista.com.mx/files/imagenes_galeria/16%20Diciembre,%202010...
http://www.paultaggart.com/files/gimgs/34_paul-taggart-ashura-lebanon-00...
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd158/DJMartyr/ashura_lebanon4.jpg
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KU8G6sIye1o/ULONqPmld1I/AAAAAAAAKIE/vEQEGQuGE...
Maliki has all the appearances of the head of government in exile. now if some school kid takes that head to show and tell, well that's another story
Hunter Biden is Mad Hedge Fund traders god son.
Well, well, well, you finally got something right, bainzai!
Deja Vu all over again.
Maliki's delusional. What Amerika wants to happen will happen. He should just call up Morsi down Egypt way to see how it works.........and he got elected fair and square!
U got it backwards on Egypt. Morsi was the US puppet and Egyptian kicked him out. The CIA is losing all battles since the Bumer Took over
He may have been the US puppet.......... but once we figured out the way the wind was blowing........we flushed him.
Wrong. Egyptians and russians flushed him.. CIA got punked and hence the war in Israel. They were trying to take a part of egypt and give it to the palestenians, but now they are stuck with them, forever.
You are most correct, of course, and people still can't figure out that an agency which hires idiots like Maria Harf (now at State), Larry Johnson, Bob Bauer, etc., etc., isn't capable of finding their own vagina.
Marie Harf the bimbo. A good material for fucking.
Stupid religion yet again.
I love the down arrows when someone dares to speak of the 8 million pound gorilla in the room!!
It reminds me of my favorite bar game, when you ask the drunk assholes, what's the matter with the world, and they respond with something like....
"I tell you what's fucking wrong, it's those fucking religious freaks in the Middle East, those Jews and Muslims". At which time, I love to say, "oh I totally agree with you, religion is a complete societial nightmare, once it goes beyond the individual and enters into the politics or communal consciousness!!"
Which always gets a fucking nasty stare for a minute, then a response of "I hope your not bashing MY fucking religion, that's not the problem, it's those other fucking assholes religions I said!!"
At which time, the only response is, "of course not, that's what I meant too!"
It's a bit more complex than just religionists gone wild, sonny (Renewable Life).
Had you bothered to read the international news over the past several years you would know that many (possibly all???) of those ISIS types were trained at a camp in Jordan by the Americans, Brits and French.
Funded by Qatar and Saudi Arabia (must explain their love of beheadings), these are just the douchebags the Wall Street controlled American gov't has funded and attempted to control decade after decade, with horrendous results (especially for nearby innocents).
The Turkish president, Erdogon, has dismantled the secularist parallel state originally created by their great leader, Attaturk.
Having opened his borders to ISIS, for whatever reasons (fighting in Syria, per the USA, who the eff knows) it is highly likely that ISIS will eventually spread to Turkey, and thence they will occupy property in Turkey, Syria Iraq and who the eff knows where else.
One should always examine all variables and facts prior to coming to a conclusion, otherwise you are no better than a Bush or an Obama!
"Had you bothered to read the international news over the past several years you would know that many (possibly all???) of those ISIS types were trained at a camp in Jordan by the Americans, Brits and French."
you missed the point doom, the Americans,brits and french were not training them on religous beliefs, they already had their own religious beliefs.
renewable life, I was expecting a lot more down arrows, quite correct, people alwasy think their religion is fine, its those damn other religions that are the problem.
Confusion here at ZH too...two posts..what to do..what to do....
Dear Leader is in control.
Just like He's in control of The Recovery®. And Jobs®. And Affordable Health Care for All®. And If You Like Your Doctor You Can Keep Youir Doctor®. And Global Warming® (since rebranded Climate Change®, since rebranded Climate Disruption®). And...
It is all part of a bigger mess! Things have deteriorated to the point that Americans are using every opportunity to take their eyes off what is happening in Iraq, the country has become a train wreck and is rapidly morphing into a failed State.
It is often unwise to take your eyes off a problem for long because when you look back you might find that things have gone horribly wrong, this is the case in Iraq and Syria. The lyrics from a song "slip sliding away" come to mind as a way to describe the massive investment made in Iraq by America.
Recently the group called ISIS shocked much of the world by swiftly capturing Mosul in an offensive that allowed the group to take control of major parts of northern and western Iraq. On June 29, 2014 the Islamist militants declared an Islamic "caliphate" in an area straddling Iraq and Syria. More on this subject in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/08/islamic-state-of-iraq-and-levant....
Took their eyes off Iraq to have a go at Syria, then the Ukraine and look where it got them..................
Three aweful disasters for mankind. Oh, plus Libya.
This US administration has got an increasing amount of blood on its hands.
Not good for Mr O's repution in posterity.
Not to worry, he can always burnish the Nobel Peace Prize anytime someone gets snippy.
Libya?
Negative, sonny, Libya was by design; Ghadaffi was trying to form an African financial union who would stop using the US dollar for trading, and move to using only gold.
The points where the Obama administrtion actually effed up royally was during the Arab Spring, when they sent that retired CIA stooge, Frank Wisner, Jr. (still hadn't figured out that miscreants within the CIA had murdered his daddy by feeding him brain altering drugs a la Sydney Gottlieb) who did an about face and hailed Egypt's Muburak as not being a dictator who should continue to remain in office.
The other screwup was when he approached Erdogon's Turkey (he having been dismantling the parallel secular state created by Attaturk) and suggest that they promote themselves as the Arab model for the newly "democractic" countries.
Shit is anyone in charge here?
BULLISH
I thought the US fortress super-embassy was in charge.
Have they left?
Nope, last told they were sheltering in place with an ample supply of scissors.
...all the while the spice keeps flowing...
and Brent Crude hits the LOD, you just cannot make this shit up
As if some turd brought back from London is going to "unite" Iraq. This is pure theater. Think the Kurds want to rejoin "Iraq" under Shiite control? When will it occur to the utter dimwits in the US media that Iraq is no longer. The discussion should be about what's to become of the region. Is IS a permanent feature now? Is it a country?
obam shot a 98 on the back 9
I assume that's a bathhouse reference. Can you decode it for us breeders?
Blowing up a dam is harder than Sideshow Bob made it appear.
Let's just say if that dam ruptures, it wasn't because thousands of illiterate troglodytes suddenly developed the skill needed to pull off a demo of that level.
It is already considered a dam in need of major repairs. May not be anywhere near as difficult as you imagine.
...and that's what I get for giving People of the Sand the benefit of the doubt.
yeah, they just go to pull the cork out of the centre, no worries.
I'm wondering who's up for the Peace Prize this year. So many choices.
There is an old Chinese proverb that says “Man who gets in middle of pissing contest, gets pissed on”.
A hundred years from now school children will hear of the historic Mulatto who could NOT tell the truth. His momma caught him red handed chopping down her maryjane plant one day and he lied about it and momma was so stoned she praised him thinking he was going to chop it and roll one for her, so she told him he told the truth.
I hope all you smart guy's purchase the Iraqi Dinar, because their new international rate is going to come out around $3.70. Right now you can buy 1 million dinar for as little as $900.00. This is your last chance to make the purchase as the RV will happen this week.
Uh, why would I want to buy a different brand of Toilet Paper?
Is this new brand softer and stronger than the one I currently use?
Beacuse Iraq is going to do the same thing that Kuwait did and revalue their currency. The only thing that was standing in the way was the need for a new gov't and PM. No pressure to purchase, but if you enjoy kicking yourself in the ass for missing the opportunity of a life time be my guest.
I wonder if Kerry will drop in to the Green Zone - you know pump up the embassy personnel - or maybe show them the way to the choppers.
Recall the exit from Saigon...WB7 graphic request...
American Pilot 1: Oops, we were supposed to drop the MRE's on the hospital, not the bombs. Are we going to get in trouble for our mistake?
American Pilot 2: LOL, you must be kidding. The Israeli's intentionally target hospitals with bombs to murder civilians and nothing ever happens to them.
American Pilot 1: You're right. I feel better. Thanks!
American Pilot 2: Shalom!
U.S. and Iranian pressure......BREAKIN NEWS.....USA and Iran are allies.
Hard to wrap my mind around Obama politics. He shits on Libya and leaves his stinking mess. He backs aniti-Assad forces---including ISIS--. He backs HAMAS over Israel because Israel kills baby. We watches ISIS commit genocide in syria and iraq and does nothing----until the USA military threatened a coup if he would not protect the Kurds.
AND now, allies with Iran!!!!!
The Mosal Dam is going to fail.
http://el.erdc.usace.army.mil/elpubs/pdf/tr07-10.pdf
It's best that ISIS is in charge of the dam when it fails. They can take the blame. Politics makes strange bedfellows.
http://www.meseisforum.net/mosul_dam.pdf
Given the unusual turmoil in Iraq, even by Iraq standards, does anyone else think its strange that oil has not moved over the last couple trading days? crude = $98 brent = $105
Even gold has not been slammed, drifting mildly up.
Its quiet ... too quiet ... its gotta be a trap!
Isis seems to have been waiting for this. Reports on social media that the invasion of Baghdad has begun.
Might be psy op but I doubt it.
Isis seems to have been waiting for this. Reports on social media that the invasion of Baghdad has begun.
Might be psy op but I doubt it.
Who should be in control...I vote for McCain and Graham as Iraq's new president and vice-president
Kerry may as well wear a strap-on phallus outside his trousers, the entire world already knows he is impotent.
Al is in control...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAhNzUbGVAA
Have no fears....
Kerry is such a clown, he is not stiring the water, he is stiring a shit-pot. Ha. Ha.
God is in control but he is busy on Q99X2 now. Can you call back later.
Clowns to the left of me... jokers to the right.
More meddling, same outcome: FUBAR.