It could be. With Al Qaeda making some serious gains - and walking away with a ton of U.S. military equipment - Iraq is reportedly willing to "allow" the U.S. to help out .

This could get ugly.

Onward and upward,
airforce

We have to understand that the stooge we put up in Iraq has been thrown our by the Iraqi people.
If they go to their own banks, friends, and most of all join the alliance with Syria and Iran we lost our lock on them.
They lost the Turks for sneaking arms into Syria. If the lo lose Iraq the middle east ill be gone forever.
It is all about the Oil fir Gold....excuse me oil. For food program again. We still have a bunch in the Fed that we and the UN owe them back.
If not our guy in charge it will be due in full or no more oil for us, Europe, or our friends.

it will be Iraq 2.9 not 3.0 I wont be there to make it 3.0. If I could I would. But oh well I'm to busy fishing. send Cheney.

When the words "seizing" and "major cities" (plural) are used in the same sentence, you know shit is going downhill. If they want the use of the drones, then they need to pay for that stuff in oil at full price.

We tried that shit of "liberating" them so we could have a more solid ally in the ME, it all turned to shit for a number of reasons. Infighting in Iraq, a more formidable enemy military than expected, inept political leadership and I am afraid to some degree some over-aggressiveness on the part of invasion troops with too many incidents of pissing off the local population and providing the only thing they could unite on - uniting against us.

I say ramp up oil production in the Dakotas. Now an interesting thing, to see if it is possible to work harder on our social and political spectrum to exercise more influence in American oil production states.

Continental politics here is the Northeastern Seaboard could largely go back to functioning on a train system, but it would take them years to rebuild that infrastructure, except they could do it. Parts of the west could, but only the urban areas and only with what they would consider pretty painful development. The inland west and central states though, all run on petroleum. Trucks and road, no other way. You can't get reliable frequent rail service into all of those small towns and support the kind of society we have and keep the rail lines operational. Too much cargo needs to run by truck.

What is saved in all of that stuff is if America re-tools for manufacturing vehicles and equipment for the world market, we benefit from more or less open market competition because we don't have to move either the oil or the raw materials across vast oceans to make stuff - that stuff can be made in volume in much closer proximity to the natural resources.

Iraqi insurgents moving toward Baghdad. Lots of photos at the link. For those of us old enough to remember the fall of Saigon, there's more than a little deja vu going on here.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Damn, solidifies another big loss for America, but given how the government treated me personally over the situation, I don't personally feel like it is my personal loss. They made their own decisions to have other people running the show and keep me out of it, but all of the troops I trained, or at least trained under my direction, came back with their individual missions accomplished and no significant injuries.

The political landscape here is going to be changing greatly, and I think for the better over the next ten years as the old guard gets washed away and a new Republican pro-freedom party emerges over the next few elections, evicting the old guard and soundly defeating the Democrats who presided over America's biggest losses of the century so far.

You look at the late 1970s to early 1980s, it was pretty good for personal rights and the US State Department was getting into building goodwill overseas for the most part. There was some fuckups in the military, but the military has learned from it and I don't think is degrading in the post-Iraq years as much as it degraded in the post-Vietnam years.

"Iraq will be one of the greatest achievements of this administration." Joe Biden in 2010. Yeah, he's running in 2016 too.

Onward and upward,
airforce

With any luck... Biden will be this generation's Gerald Ford... Taking over for the final years of his boss's term following an empeachment/ resignation.

President Obama will not rule out anything in response to the "emergency situation" in Iraq.

Onward and upward,
airforce

After all the hard work....

amen I survived Fallujah just to have it go back to the enemy.

Now you guys know how all us old Nam vets felt.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Vietnam vol.2, it seems like from y'all old geezers (I mean it affectionately).

Perhaps Breacher is right and we'll learn our lesson for, say, another decade or two. I don't think we'll last that long, but hey, what do I know? I'm a skeptic.

I live in a military town and many of my high school classmates are now serving, especially the ones I know from jrotc. Luckily, none I know are serving overseas in combat capacity at the moment. What is most interesting to me, from a hopefully detached perspective, is what the next step for the administration is.

As I see it, there are a few options:

1) do nothing. absolutely nothing. sell it as you have to.

2) do a little. some CIA here, some drones there, maybe some devgru over there. sell it if you have to, or repeat (1)'s defense if its widely unknown

3) guns blazing light. Air-ground assets, no-fly zone, tomahawks, maybe small ground forces, and maybe more of (2).

4) guns blazing heavy. all the toys come out.

I see (1) as impossible because our overlords are way too ADHD to leave something like this alone TRULY.

I see (4)as unlikely because of the massive political capital involved.

2 is more likely than (3) by a factor but both are within the margin of error.

This is my uninformed guess of events to come.

I think Obama is going to have to do something dramatic. He isn't afraid to give aid to insurgents in Syria, and he has to know by now that some or all of that will end up with the ISIS. My guess is that Obama will have to ask Hillary for advice, since it's probably going to be her show in 2016. And Bill and Hillary were never afraid to bomb anybody.

My ESP has never been particularly good, but I think they'll try to paint the ISIS as being a completely different enemy, and put troops on the ground again.

Onward and upward,
airforce

So by that it means you believe Hillery will defeat any one who runs against her in the General Election, even against Rand Paul?

No troops unless the Iraqi government agrees not to try U.S personnel for crimes in Iraq, that was the deal breaker that got us pulled out in the first place.

If they don't line item that then no deal. Drones yes send them all. send them with a nuclear option lots of them wing tip to wing tip. The only way you will have a stable middle east is total disarmament. They are to mentally and emotionally unstable to have anything more than a butter knife.

The deal you hammer out with them on Monday will change Tuesday because they feel different about it now. You cannot reason with fanatics or paranoid schizophrenics or psychopaths.

We don't need the oil with the Bakken oilfields in full swing. We don't have any real trade with them. We should just turn the news channels off. Not allow and reporters to report from there and just ignore them. With the message being leave us alone or face the nuke. GTNW is viable and we need to seriously look at it from an economy point of view.

Counter-Insurgencies are long wars. And as your wallet is telling you right now. They are expensive wars. The Minute Man III was paid off along time ago. Our window for preemptive is closing each month that Iran gets closer to final assembly. They will as they have shown strike first. And they do not have the regard for humanity like we do. Al Sharia proves that. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, Turkey etcetera al sharia is the rule of Koran and even in turkey where you have a state justice system you still have Al Sharia in the back streets.

Troops on the ground it would be a bad move as the current troops are pissed off from being jilted on pensions, Careers and cutbacks. You cannot build an Army to fight an Insurgency doctrine and then dismantle it because you are in a pullout stage.

The insurgency will conform, Acquiesce and feign surrender in order to get you to pull out. then 6 months to a year later they look at lessons learned and start adopting new methods. That is the nature of insurgencies.

The insurgency current in Iraq has none of the underlying motives of OIF. Nor is it the same. Our Intel base is none. And we learned the hard way not to trust any Intel from the INP/INA. It is often crafted to guide us to strike against a personnel enemy or as a method of extortion.


And Monica Lewinsky is still feeling the effects of Bill Clintons Tomahawk.

No, but I think she would have to stumble really, really badly to lose the nomination. So far her only serious competition is Joe Biden and, well...

What would I do bout Iraq? Nothing. We've lost way too many people there already, and the Iraqi people are worse off than they were under Saddam. If Turkey, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia don't like it, then they can do something about it themselves.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Brother you and I think a lot on a lot of things but please would you stop or at least not use so many acronyms in your posts.

I know you have not been out of the Military for very long and I also know the Military loves acronyms but please stop using them, since a lot of people, including myself, have no idea what they mean.

I did a search and the only thing I found for GTNW is Global Thermonuclear War and I have a feeling that is not what you meant since you stated that: "GTNW is viable and we need to seriously look at it from an economy point of view."

And there is no way anyone who is not mentally ill would ever consider Global Thermonuclear War viable. Dr. Strangelove didn't have any problem with Nuclear War but he had a few lose screws.

OIF I suppose you mean Operation Iraqi Freedom, but I hate having to think hard about what someone meant when I reading a post.

And INP/INA I have ZERO idea of what that refers to and I am not about to waste time trying to figure it out.

Actually for the purpose of this post I did a search and I came up with this.

INP (Iraqi National Police)

INA (Iraqi News Agency)

When even Breacher is sometimes unsure of exactly what one of the acronyms you use means, that should tell you that maybe you should stop using them and use regular English.

By the way I am a HAM and I know what QTH and QRZ and the other Q Signs mean but non Hams don't.

And I know what ATM means and I don't mean Automated Teller Machine.

By the way do you know what the acronym LASER stands for? I do.

And I know what passage and piaffe and even what levade, courbette, and capriole refer to but most people who are not SCUBA (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) Divers or Horsemen do not know.

So will you please lay off the acronyms a little and make your posts easier to understand for people who are not as familiar with the current Military acronyms as you are.

I will end with this.

I really like the way you think about what to do with the Scum Sucking Politicians and you and I also think alike on what to do about Iraq.

President Obama spoke to the press about Iraq today. We’ll do something, as soon as we decide what to do, but whatever it is it won’t be anything decisive. And this is all the Iraqis’ fault, and probably Bush’s.

Whatever the heck all that means.

Onward and upward,
airforce

There are unconfirmed reports that 100-200 U.S. non-combat contractors and civilian support staff at Balad Airbase have been abandoned by their Iraqi security forces, and have taken up arms and are holding off ISIS insurgents on their own. I'm trying to find out more.

UPDATE: It looks like they've all been evacuated.

Onward and upward,
airforce

VADER INA = Iraqi National Army and yes GTNW is what it is and far cheaper. If you think Iran is playing by the rules think again. The whole push in Syria by A.Q is for the Bio weapons to send here. We keep dicking around and Pakistan will lose more plutonium and it will end up here, Sorry you don't like acronyms. not my fault. I've been posting here for 12 years and I'm not changing my writing style. I have 6 combat tours 4 in the middle east. over 25 years in service and I frankly don't care if you have to look up an acronym. If you hate them You definitely would hate my books. Both are required reading at the US Army War college.

Maybe if you had spent some face to face time with the Iraqi or Afghan people you would see first hand the irrationality of those people. Maybe if you had 29 people in your platoon die in less than a half an hour in Fallujah you would understand. Maybe if your Son was killed by a sniper in Taji you would understand. But I doubt many could walk in my shoes and keep their sanity.

If you have issue with what I post or how I post send me A pm as it is I see your post as nothing but an attack without you doing your homework as to who the hell you just posted to.

Air Force

“This is not solely or even primarily a military challenge,” Obama told reporters. He placed the burden of the present crisis on the Iraqi government, which the president said has fostered an atmosphere of sectarian mistrust by excluding Sunni groups from broader representation in the central government...."

The president of Iraq is Kowtowing to Shia pressure and excluding the Sunnis from positions in office at all levels. Meaning even if they were elected by popular vote. He pressures or denies their confirmation and puts a Shia in instead. In addition inside the police and army it is very fractured amongst religious lines. And the performance is the same way.

Good example. In Basra when the police chief was a Shia and if a Shia had a complaint against a Sunni it was handled in favor of the Shia. If a Sunni had a complaint against a Shia it was decided that not enough proof existed.

It could be the exact type of case but due to religious differences and "Wasta" the Shia always sides with the Shia. In Iraq its all about the "Wasta" Arabic for Influence and Power.

So if its sectarian its self inflicted.

when we were implementing SWETT Infrastructure and PRT teams it always seemed to boil down to who got what first with the basis of the religious majority in a city having the control.

In the case of Syria which was Baathist and still is under the current regime as long as instability is prolonged then the risk of Bio Chems being transported out of country is extremely elevated. It wont take much to cause panic. And it is impossible to say how much Bashir or his father stockpiled. So we are fueling our own enemy with the means to acquire items that they could not get under a stable albeit tyrannical regime.

Maybe that's what the current administration wants. The SDR's that I had the opportunity to read as far back as 2004 stated that a stable Syria was key to keeping the chemicals in their country. When the administration changed a new breed of yes men and women came into power. and the old SDR's were thrown out. Including the one written in late 79 warning about the two front feint against Embassies. Which was the exact same thing that happened in Libya. Anyone who remembers 1979 will see the similarities. as 79 was studied by the bad guys.

This is going to get ugly. The ISIS has issued a manifesto calling for the destruction of all Shiite shrines. Predictably, Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani is calling for all Shiite men to take up arms, and thousands of them - many with militia experience - are doing just that.

I don't know if it's enough to make up for the thousands of Iraqi soldiers who have deserted, but this is not going to be pretty.

Onward and upward,
airforce

From all the accounts I'm reading, it looks like the Iraqi security forces are regrouping, and have even retaken a couple villages. Shiite volunteers may be helping, and Iran may be playing a hand, too.

This may turn out to be more like Vietnam '68 than Vietnam '75. That still wouldn't be good, of course, but it sure would be better.

(Old-timers will probably know what I'm talking about.)

Onward and upward,
airforce

About 100 Marines and Army personnel have arrived at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Iran, Iraq, and the United States are now all allies. That ain't weird at all, is it?

Onward and upward,
airforce

It now seems that Obama may be sending Special Forces to Iraq.

Before he stated he would not be sending ground forces but now Obama Strikes Again.

First Special Forces and then what comes next?

Maybe more ground troops and we all know where that may lead.

That is exactly what Neocon-in-chief Bill Kristol is advicating in his new article in [i]The Weekly Standard[/i] , which should come as a surprise to no one.

Onward and upward,
airforce

The ISIS is fighting for Baquba , forty miles north of Baghdad.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Watch we'll see an incremental invasion:

"We're not invading, we're just sending in a minimal force of Spec-Ops personnel."

"Now that we've got Spec-Ops on the ground for more than two days, we need to send in our logistics guys to support them."

"Now that we've got our logistics on the ground, they're being attacked, so now we need to send in our conventional combat units to provide security for the logistics units."

"Yes, we now have 150,000 troops on the ground in Iraq again, but let me be clear; no, this is NOT another occupation."

If the people get really ticked off by sending troops to Iraq the people have the power to stop the Administration.

Back in the 60s people who were against the war and didn't want to be drafted had a chant, Hell No We Won't Go and that is what the People now need to do, return to the Anti-War Sentiment and Movement of the 60s and early 70s.

Except this time it won't just be young Radicals Protesting it will also be their Parents and other Older People.

Nah, protesting won't do any good. The only effect that had was when the draft was going on. A few people refused to show up when drafted. They laid low for a few years, then they were pardoned. It by no means stopped the war.

For those of us old enough to remember, recall Vietnam in 1975. We didn't support or ally there and they were overrun.

So will we support an Iranian backed Shia Baghdad government in a bloody sectarian civil war against the Sunni Islamists?

Part of me would think letting them "thin the herd" might be fitting!

Just get the Christians out of the way, and keep Jordan, Lebanon and Israel out of it.

We've already armed and trained both sides. I think that's more than enough "help." Let them duke it out. It just ain't our problem.

Onward and upward,
airforce

+1
Let those barbarians tear one another to pieces. As they're fighting one another, they're not fighting us. A little instability amongst one's enemies can go a long way. Let's sit back and watch. Let's learn some lessons of war from watching them from afar.

I'm sure the Blackwater types are now drooling over the potential for working again in the region.

President Obama says he is sending 300 "military advisers" to Iraq. When I was in Vietnam, we used to joke about us being "advisers." It wasn't particularly funny even then.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Quote of the day, from Ron Paul :

Read the whole article at the link.

Onward and upward,
airforce

ISIS insurgents appear to have captured Iraq\'s largest oil refinery in Baiji. Meanwhile, John Kerry was in Iraq doing something.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Those 300 "military advisers" have grown to 750 .

Onward and upward,
airforce

This seems to be plain and simple Operation Foul Eagle.
It was the mainstay of military interaction.
The embassy is under threat.
Troops jump, land, sail into place to allow a mass evacuation. Convoys leave embassy for airport. Pull in of externals to route, and last contingent leaves on last plane.
Much better than choppers from the roof to aircraft carriers as they did in Saigon.
We need to look carefully though at this ISIS army Obama supposedly trained in Jordan. Did he get screwed or did we?
The people of the captured regions seem to readily accept them. Not unlike the Sheite Militias in Bagdad.
Just a thought that ran through my mind!
Could this be a reestablishment of the Sunni based Republican Guards. We never really captured them or many Officers after Saddam was taken. They always had links to the Sunni's in Syria. They were also armed and trained by the US Intel groups.
Just a thought.