US officials are all set to launch air strikes against ISIS-controlled parts of Iraq, but are warning of a major “intelligence gap” in the CIA regarding where potential targets might conceivably be.
And if US officials are saying that, that’s really saying something, as strikes in Yemen and Pakistan, upon which the Iraq plan is apparently based, have been notoriously inaccurate, killing a lot of innocent people on the basis of phony “tip-offs.”
With ISIS having taken a lot of new territory in Iraq, intelligence services don’t even know where to begin in acquiring intelligence, and the targeted air strikes seem set to be hugely unreliable.
In Mosul in particular, ISIS has been restrained in its rule, and is trying to gain the support of locals. US air strikes, particularly inaccurate ones, are likely to add to support for ISIS, and anti-US sentiment.
Maybe it is because the CIA considers ISIS the good guys. Afterall, is not ISIS the same people that the CIA has been giving arms to in the fight against Syria?
EXACTLY!
Murdering is the only obsession that administration has.
I doubt if they know exactly what territory ISIS controls, let alone who they'd like to kill or where they are. Since supporting ISIS means supporting Islamic terrorists, and supporting the Iraqi government means supporting a Shiite bloc that one presumes would be happy to turn south and take Kuwait and the Shia majority areas of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states that contain most of their oil, the obvious US policy is to do nothing. It would at least save the cost of the bombs.
Oh just go ahead and strike — they are all rag heads anyway (sarcasm intended)
It's all Kabuki, of course they know where they are and who they are. The U.S. intelligence has lots of assets and personnel in the region. Israel has been very active in the Kurdish region for years and shares info. The CIA probably trained some of the ISIS fighters in the Jordanian training camps. ISIS is funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar and it's unbelievable that the U.S. didn't know ISIS' growing strength. Obama has an itchy trigger finger when it comes to drone strikes in Africa, Yemen and Pakistan. So why is he dragging his feet in Iraq? The goal is to reduce the Shiite government and Iran's influence. Of course, the U.S. wants to oust al-Maliki, that's why the U.S. is waiting for a crisis to build.
I can tell you what the US is going to attack and where, even though the CIA won't.
The US's sole objective in Iraq is now, and has always been, OIL!
Therefore, the US will "secure" "Iraq's" (the US's) oil supply infrastructure, including all refineries, pipelines, etc. What happens to average Iraqis is inconsequential, as it has always been.