The Pentagon has issued a secret directive, as of last week, calling on the military commanders in Iraq to plan a massive campaign against Iraqi Shi’ite militias, with an eye toward totally wiping one or more of the factions out.
The offensive is being advocated by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who believes they can destroy Iran’s proxies while the country is distracted by the coronavirus pandemic. Some commanders, particularly Lt. Gen.
Robert White, are opposing the idea.
The general warns that the new campaign would take thousands more US troops, divert resources from existing missions, and risk blowing up into a full-scale war with Iran. Escalating a war with Iran, however, probably isn’t going to deter Pompeo from advocating the effort.
It isn’t clear if Trump has signed off on the offensive yet, but he did allow the planning to continue, and advocates are likely to believe they can go from planning to engagement without too many serious obstacles.
Planning to engagement without too many serious problems.
What happens after initial engagement will be interesting. The number of US forces in Iraq is totally inadequate and they will be totally routed by the militia without massive reinforcements and air power. So plan all you like Pompeo, but the consequences might not be what you expect.
Add to that an uncertain timer on the money.
War ain’t cheap, and the U.S. economy just got tanked over a cold.
This has the feel of trying to interdict an Iraqi TET that isn’t.
COVID-19 is now “a cold”?
Technically, COVID-19 is a cold. Coronaviruses are classified as cold viruses.
https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/common_cold_causes
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/types.html
Influenza is in a class of its own as far as upper respiratory tract illnesses go.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/viruses/types.htm
There is no popular third category for celebrity Alphabet viruses like COVID-19, SARS, or MERS.
DW.com put out a nice chart of symptoms, however.
https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-symptoms/a-52233885
Based on the DW symptoms chart, you can see that COVID-19 is kind of a completion of common cold worst-case symptoms, if co-infected with a seasonal flu. Otherwise, COVID-19 is very flu-like.
Its possible that many worst-case COVID-19 incidences, are co-infections with seasonal cold. However, co-infection with influenza wouldn’t be much fun either.
They haven’t been for 25 years.
I pray that Pompeo will have a fatal heart attack soon .. This POS is a menace to us all.
He is a fat, putrid POS. Only in America could we have such a psycho Sec. of State. Shows the state we are in.
A psycho just like Hillary right? And a very long line of them.
Not quite; War Queen Hilary got things done, with Gadaffi her most prominent trophy.
Trump scooped Pompeo on the Soleimani assassination; there’s not much low-hanging fruit left.
I believe when trump is done, he will make Clinton look like a peacenik. The numbers are not in on his sanctions on Iran and Venezuela. His rubbling of Syrian cities alone surpass anything clinton was responsible for in Libya.
Granted, Mosul, Iraq was as bad if not worse as Raqqa, Syria. However, Hilary set the early bar in rubbling with Sirte, Syria.
Libya also lost their united indigenous leadership and national sovereignty to Hilary’s U.S./NATO intervention. The country remains contested in civil war by foreign-backed factions.
Syria is still an independent country with a more or less legit indigenous sovereign government.
So is Iran.
So is Turkey.
Iraq… well Trump and Khomenei seem to have gotten ideas about who’s tops in Iraq.
The rubbling of cities like Raqqa is no different than what the Syrians and Russians have done to reclaim Syrian sovereignty from the Islamic State.
You are reading neocon sources to believe that Syria and Russia rubbished cities like we did Raqqa to free Syria from ISIS.
Look good at the map. Nearly all ISIS occupied territory was within what US claimed to be its air- dominated zone. With the exception of few inroads into the interior (Palmira), other ISIS trophies were strung along Turkish border.
Turkey took care of all of them to the west of Euphrates, after action at Jarabulus and advance to Al-Bab. At Al-Bab, ISIS took a strong stand. There was a strange collaboration between Kurds and ISIS there. Kurds were essentially counting on US to let them take over any places liberated from ISIS. And Al-Bab was a prize — connecting Raqqa to Kurdish Afrin. If Turkey did not stop this plan, all of Turkish border and Iraqi border regions in Syria would have been Kurdistan.
In fact, ISIS must have had superior air reconnaissance and managed to rout Turkish forces several times. To win it, Turkey needed Russian help. That was the only offensive where Turkish and Russian fighters performed joint strikes on ISIS and defeated it. The corridor to Euphrates valley was cut.
Our news never includes data that does not fit the narrative.
So after Syria, Turkey and Iraq beat back ISIS, the remainder of ISIS under US skirts in US controlled Syria had to go. It would have been rather embarrassing. But plan B, to get righteous Kurds to take their place was on.
Raqqa was devastated to insure ethnic cleansing. With city being unlivable, Kurdish command was to control the remaining Arab population. They even introduced Kurdish language in schools. Even though Kurds were about 5% of prewar Raqqa population.
Now we want to avenge the loss of Mosul — without those bad Shia militias, that would not have happened.
Iraq is nearly 70% Shia — so starting war on them is a curious move.
But I can see the dim wheels of such minds calculating — unless US gets a fully compliant Iraqi Shia population and Government to match — there could be no war on Iran. They have given up on perfumed princes of Gulf. Pompeo wants now only their money, but wants Iraq to be the war horse — again. Good luck with that. Corona may distract US population, but they are not distracted in Iran.
As much as I supported the Russian-Syrian campaign, I also recognize they did what they had to to destroy the Islamic State, which saw no shame in hiding among civilian targets.
The main difference, was that the U.S. also bombed with an eye to preventing Syria’s easy reconstruction, while the Russians and Syrians tried to spare as much infrastructure as they tactically could.
Maybe the US should just kill all Muslims and be done with it. That would make our “leaders” and Bibi ecstatic.
“Maybe the US should just kill all Muslims and be done with it.”
Believe it or not, my boss said pretty much the same thing, and he was quite serious. He thinks that somehow the American empire and military are somehow “Christian,” and that there can never be peace as long as one Muslim is left in the world. He thinks that this is all foretold in the Bible, and our military is just doing “God’s will.”
It’s sad but I think we all know someone like your boss. Probably more than just one.
And you still work for the guy? I would have walked out right then and there.
He is not without redeeming qualities, such as the fact that he is quite materially generous with people who are in poor financial shape, even sometimes, when they take advantage of his generosity. You know what they say about charity “covering up a multitude of sins.”
Also, I am in no position to find a new job. Even in the best of times, I would need a $4K to $5K cushion of savings to make a soft landing, and I live paycheck to paycheck. I would have to fix my car, travel to a new state, and hope I could find a job within a month or two. During the current economic collapse, with no recovery in sight for several years at best, it is simply an impossible prospect.
As Iraq is a majority Shia country, by quite a way, this would simply alienate the Iraqi people even more, and would possibly move them closer to Iran and Syria.
A couple of tidbits about our wonderful SOS:
“I argue with everyone,” Trump told New York Magazine in a 2018 interview. “Except Pompeo. I don’t think I’ve had an argument with Pompeo.”
“He’s like a heat-seeking missile for Trump’s ass,” a former US ambassador told the New Yorker last month.
Like I said, two peas in a pod.
“Like I said, two peas in a pod.”
I agree with this statement for the most part, with a slight exception: Trump may be evil, but he is a bumbling idiot, while Pompeo is far more competently evil.
A distinction without(much of)a difference. 🙂
Jeez, where did this general come from-someone with some common sense.
He’ll probably be fired soon.
With zero diplomatic skills, Sec. of hate and threats, Pompeo, acts more like a Consigliere ……than a Sec. of State.
At least Hitler was honest about his genocidal plans.
And Hitler fought for Germany, his own country, not for israel as the USA does.
Hitler fought for the gratification of his own ego, like all politicians do.
That is true. But so many believed in him. May be because so many were like him. Soldiers in WWI, coming back to destroyed and economically devastated countries and unable to feed themselves. Wars are supreme crimes, and the leadership of bankrupt states that start them, supreme evil.
Austria was his country.
He’s a puppet of Tel Aviv and Zionism and thinks he’s a player in the second coming of Jesus Christ. Destroying Iran is part of his plan and also fits into the 7 countries in 5 years plan exposed by Gen. Wesley Clark years ago. The policy spans past administrations as well. Trump is just doing his par to advance the Zionist agenda also.
It’s been a LOT more than five years. Obviously the battle plan didn’t survive contact with the enemy.
Both that 5 year plan and 1984 are late by some years, but both are still moving ever forward, aren’t they?
“Both that 5 year plan and 1984 are late by some years, but both are still moving ever forward, aren’t they?
1984 in particular. The massive power the state is grabbing will never be relinquished.
Netanyahu’s right wing government is the problem, not the Jewish people. However, the Zionist Jews, which Netanyahu leads, are a large part of the problem. Religious zealots will end up getting us all killed.
“Secretary of Hate” – cool term.
So, now the US is obviously taking sides in the ongoing sectarian wars there. Wipe out the Shias for Sunni Saudi and Zionist Israel. But, that won’t be enough for Bibi and Co., next Washington will go after the Sunnis as well. The USA is doing Tel Aviv’s dirty work for them and then get those AIPAC and other pro-Zionist lobbies campaign funds in return. It’s all about buying Washington and foreign policy which we all pay for with American lives and tax funds and get nothing back except dead and wounded military personnel.
time to get some revenge against those evil militias who defeated isis
Stupidity. USA Out of Iraq Now! Only there to make sure GlobalCorp gets the oil revenues, instead of the Iraqi citizens, and to do the same to Syria. Making the Mideast safe for Zionists.
Vietnam all over again. Killing South Vietnamese to make South Vietnam safe for the South Vietnamese. To “pacify and protect the population” in the words of the USMC General.
Killing the “bad” Islamic terrorists, meanwhile supporting the “good” Islamic terrorists.
War criminals.
Possibly like Vietnam; but see my above comment about how this ends. Hopefully we will be chased out of the Middle East before we are a totally broken nation and we still have a chance with climate change.
“before we are a totally broken nation”
It is too late. With the recently passed 2.2 Trillion dollar “stimulus” bill, which actually transfers more than 5 trillion dollars from the American people to the big banks due to the way it is financed (by monetizing the debt), you can kiss even a modicum of prosperity goodbye.
It will not be long before there are food riots in major cities. Hunger tends to undermine civilization. Martial law will be declared, and that will prevent any recovery of either liberty or prosperity. In other words, we are toast.
“It will not be long before there are food riots in major cities.”
The COVID-19 panic includes “restricted visa services” that, coupled with the last few years of a bigger East German Cosplay Festival on the border, are set to leave Florida and California crops rotting in the fields this year.
As slowly as government moves, even if Trump got his head out of his ass and supported the American way (open borders), it might be too late to turn things around and prevent massive harvest losses this year.
“As slowly as government moves”
It seems to move very slowly at efforts to increase liberty, that is true, but it has moved quite quickly at efforts to take away liberty.
… Some Iraqi militia are now part of the official Iraqi forces. Any overt assault not in direct ‘self defense’ is an attack on Iraq.
Attacking covertly with a wave of assassinations, isn’t exactly going to go over well either.
Although, the real problem is not Pompeo, but the Iraqi government’s refusal to formally and in writing ask the U.S. to leave Iraq. And the reason that would be, is not only Iraq’s Shia corruption at this point, but Iran’s Supreme Leader.
Seems Iran wants the U.S. to stay and fight a prolonged proxy war of attrition, and Pompeo wants to snuff that with an overwhelming first strike.
With only marginally whelming forces at hand.
How did we beat the USSR? We kept them in Afghanistan until they were broke; both financially and in spirit. How are the Russians going to beat us, USA? Two guesses should do it if you are paying attention!
https://sputniknews.com/world/202003291078749886-us-led-coalition-departs-k1-air-base-in-kirkuk-iraq/
If this story has any veracity, I suspect the Russians or Chinese will occupy it on Iraq’s blessing.
Seems to me that’s destroying the Iraqi Military was exactly how we got into this mess.
Well now we know what the trillion dollars is going to go towards.
Well it certainly isn’t going towards healthcare.
The U.S. loses quite a lot of money to health admin costs. A trillion dollars, would generate a fair amount of pork.
“The Secret to Reducing Hospital Administration Costs” – Cathy Reisenwitz, Capterra, July 23, 2015.
https://blog.capterra.com/the-secret-to-reducing-hospital-administration-costs/
This is amazing, I doubt even the British will support this. Where does he suppose he is going to get some trillions to fund this war? We are tapped out. Is he planning to short the market?
The US can print money.
Not so secret if they plan was leaked and not implemented already.
It would seem that at least 1 senior US military commander, vast doubts he is alone but others dare not speakout in public, that fighting todays Iraq malitia would not be the Turkey shoot US had in conquering Irag and for next couple years.
Pompeois but the most powerful and most visible mini tyrant hat came up through the non old line Republican party ranks, a group that turned politics into a huge buisness run by ruthless without morals group of psychopathic and sociopaths whose members found loopholes to launder dark binds under the guise of not for profit organizations and thinktanks, over 850 of them as of mid 2019, that began funding pseudo religious and political groups in college age students on American campuses.
Where they realy gained power was through control within the US Fundy Evangelicals, that they morphed in to Christian Zionism that today control and hold fanatical sway over an estimated 70 millions of adherents.
Adherents that bought bribed and lied that now run deep from top level down to janitors in the bureaucratic ranks of military and every Executive Branch and also the Federal and State Judicial Branch as well.
The propaganda by flag waving drooling military worshipping flag wavers spread of a hard fought heros galore by military fighting a national army was a lie, as over 90% of Iraq military threw uniforms away, donned civvies and went home,. Home to familys who did not initially oppose US troop but we’re eagerly awaiting the US and allies millions they thought US would invest to make Iraq even better than before Saddam led Kuwit invasion.
Where US set up its seaport , built by a Tacoma/Seattle firm, the areas highest ranking Govenor and Generals sent their troops home and but kept enough to guard own butts.
Butts that left said Govenor as Govenor after invasion and top military before as new local police.
Over 2000 men and families who had collaborated to shut down resistance before and at invasion were flown to US to be established using Federal Witness Program and US State Departments Cultural excange funds.
US would not now be facing groups of untrained and poorly armed civilian malitia men as they did during invasion and after, but men who now know US tactics, are unlike before the regular army and todays malitia men are battle hardened after fighting Al’Q, ISIS and other US-Israel, NATO and Sunni nation terrorist groups.
They now know that their Soviet derived small arms rounds are useless against US troop body armor, useless as they bounce off, , some Iraq military now wear, have lots of anti-armor missles from Iranian sources, with knowledge of drone and helicopter tactics used by US military.
It will be guerrila warfare of hit and run , improvised munitions, ground level communications and standoff motor and short range rockets, no more stupid pitch battles wasting manpower.
US has they very same allies in Iraq that aided their invasion, the Kurds who are today an autonomous self governing with highly skilled Israeli trained and armed Peshmerga to aid them, but they have Iraq civilans in areas under their contol, barely controlled.
It would be an easy US, NATO and Kurd Turkey shoot and as US has shown in Syria they have no compunction against completely destroying Syrian cities for their Kurd allies there, and the useless deaths and destruction to civilian innocents, caused in Syria, Iraq, and destruction of Lybia., who counts.
Trump says US will retain Syria’s oil in Kurdish US and NATO control and what makes anyone think they would surrender control of Iraq oil.
It is quite possible that attacking malitia, would mean stopping Iran’s aid would lead to direct naval conflict and take twice the numbers of troop and materials needed than at initial invasion.
Yes US would kill many more than they lose but the initial invasion that killed but few and crippled may more than double or triple if they attack Malitias today.
US and allies showed their genocidal nature by occupying IRAQ and Syria, so there will be far less complacency by civilians helping them as back then.
The amounts of corruption within Iraq is far greater today than ever reached by Saddam, and all the corruption is led by US and Euro allies.