Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says he “welcomes” the recent Syrian air strikes on ISIS targets along the frontier between the two countries, saying ISIS is a problem for both nations to tackle.
At the same time, Maliki denied any coordination with Syria on the strikes, saying “they carry out their strikes and we carry out ours. The final winners are our two countries.”
The Syrian strikes hit several towns along the border, as well as some deeper into Iraq’s Anbar Province, and reportedly killed 90 civilians, wounding scores of others.
Maliki has been complaining about how own nation’s lack of warplanes to launch its own airstrikes, faulting the US for delays in delivering ordered planes. He announced the purchase of unspecified Russian planes today, which will be delivered this weekend.
Putin beats poseur Obama to the punch again.
Reminds me of Guernica – too bad Pablo Picasso isn't around to paint another picture.
Let us see, Iraq has no planes, so any group with some Toyotas with heavy artillery mounted, and well armed thugs — can take Iraq for the asking. Syria bombs them, and Iraq is thanking them, as they are fighting the same enemy. But in Syria, Obama is asking for more money to help poor ISIS against the bad Assad. Now, if Obama has anyone else to arm — he should really speak now, so he will not be trying to get out of his stories later. There is no one in Syria, other then Nusra, that has the people and arms as ISIS. And Nusra has been loosing to ISIS, and people are crossing over to ISIS. ISIS is better paid, better armed, and better supported by intelligence judging from the way they ran over good chunk of Iraq. Now, who does Obama plan to arm??? What other group? Free Syrian Army does not exist anymore, as the soldiers have abandoned it, and commanders either joined Nusra, or went back to Assad. Will US try to create anti-Assad mercenary army from scratch? And who will guarantee that they will not take all the weapons, and cross over to ISIS.
As for the "diversity" of government in Baghdad, it is much too late to worry about it now. Because Kurds and Sunnis have a decision to make. Kurds, if they think they can defend themselves, better be prepared to do so. So far, ISIS kidnapped Kurds, bombed Kurkuk, and this is only the beginning,. Kurds will have to either put up good fight, not just sitting there — hoping that they can get away with "neutrality". They will not, as ISIS does not trust them, nor does it believe that Kurds have the capacity for defending themselves. So, Kurds may need Baghdad after all. As for Sunnis — those tribes or individuals that are with ISIS,– they will not change their position. Others, they need to know — they are either with the terrorists or against them. So, Maliki government for many of them may be the alliance they will need down the road. All this nonsense of trying to beg Sunnis and Kurds to cooperate has been show as garbage. Kurds are hoping to be allowed to use "their" wealth, while lecturing Maliki on the need to be "inclusive". Same with Sunnis. It is too late for them to avenge Saddam, and they spent years enjoying Saudi money, help in food, education and cash. Now, they are to pay the price, and join ISIS. They have no rights to moralize and complain about Maliki's absence of "inclusiveness". It looks like only Shiite population was tasked with "inclusiveness" while others used everybody and everything to advance only their group. It is time for Shiia to tell others — you are with the government or you are with terrorists. Do not play both sides of this fence. And after all these years, now has Maliki finally realized that US will not defend Shiia population, and will always be against them. All the lies they believed in before, that there is a way to have one's country free from external pressure — have gone up in smoke. And now, after all these years, calling on Russia to help. Pathetic. But all this time they believed that they are safe, and will not be attacked. All this time, they did not help Assad, in order not to displease US.
When will they ever learn.
So we have muslims fighting muslims and the US/West is arming both sides ? Seems strategic.