The Obama Administration wasted no time in using the latest ISIS advances as a pretext for military operations, and have already been reported to have launched multiple airstrikes against ISIS targets on Thursday night. The reports came from both Kurdish officials and locals fleeing the attacked towns, but the Pentagon is denying the strikes.
The attacks hit the towns of Gwer and Makhmour, which the Kurdish Peshmerga unsuccessfully tried to recapture from ISIS yesterday. They lie just 25 miles southwest of the Kurdish capital of Irbil.
The US attacks appear to be focused both on blunting the ISIS offensive, amid ISIS threats of an attack on Irbil itself, and on giving the Kurdish forces openings to try to take the offensive and reclaim lost territory.
The Kurdistan Regional Government has been pushing for US intervention since the weekend, when ISIS seized control of Sinjar District, in the nation’s far northwest, and routed Kurdish fighters there. The Kurds had been successful in fending off ISIS up to that point, but the momentum seems to have shifted now, with ISIS keen to grow its territory in the area.
Great- so ISIS, which was a regional threat and had no capability or reason to strike the US, has just been given a blank check to declare war on us. That means US assets anywhere in the Middle East- or here at home, if they manage to recruit here- are fair game.
Way to go, team- we might have been able to deal with these folks at some time, but nope- gunboat diplomacy is what we do best and most often. Too bad it doesn't work.
The USG has done almost nothing while ISIS slaughtered thousands of Syrian and Iraqi civilians, beheaded prisoners, seized a large part of Northern Iraq, and threatened genocide of the Yazidi people, but now draws a line where Kurdish interests are threatened. This wouldn't have anything to do with the close relationship the Kurds have been developing with Israel, would it?
Wow, I didn't know congress declared war on Iraq. Funny, there was nothing in the papers, on the radio, or on the TV. Oh, yeah, the President can declare war whenever they want.
No problems in the world ? Don't worry. USrael will stir something up, rest assured. When was the last time they worked as a team to make living on earth better ? (rushing air, crickets)
We just have to wait and see the actual photo of where and how the bombing is taking place, otherwise is another manipulative political speech/games played by USG. One is denying it, the other one says is true, is a suspicious matter as other thing that been said but not done.