Thursday, August 28, 2014

Iraq / Syria Regional War Update ( August 28 , 2014 ) -- Mission Sprint well underway --Likely US Airstrikes in Syria Just Another Stop on Endless Mission Creep Will Congress Have a Say ? In Expanding War to Syria, US Could Attack Assad Too Unwilling to Cooperate With Assad, US Could Just Bomb Everyone ....... Syrian Rebels Seize Israel Border Crossing Israeli Army Attacks Syrian Military Positions as Nusra Advances



http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-28/obamas-grand-plan-crushing-isis-we-dont-have-strategy-yet


Obama Reveals The Grand ISIS Plan: "We Don't Have A Strategy Yet"

Tyler Durden's picture
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/28/2014 16:55 -0400




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UPDATE: Damage Control Spin begins...
Josh Earnest        ✔ @PressSec
In his remarks today, POTUS was explicit - as he has been in the past - about the comprehensive strategy we'll use to confront ISIL threat.
5:23 PM - 28 Aug 2014
President Obama 'knows' how to handle Putin's 'continuation' (not 'invasion') - more sanctions (and costs for Europe) - but when it comes to beating the most "barbaric" terrorists known as ISIS, ISIL, or The Islamic State; he had this to offer... "I don't want to put the cart before the horse. We don't have a strategy yet." Rest assured Americans - who have been told that ISIS could be crossing the borders every day and a constant threat, President Obama is 'working on it'. Perhaps most crucially, while we 'joke' that the administration has no strategy, it is noteworthy that Obama stated it was "not US policy to defeat ISIS, only reverse gains."
QUESTION: Do you need Congress's approval to go into Syria?
OBAMA: You know, I have consulted with Congress throughout this process. I am confident that as commander in chief I have the authorities to engage in the acts that we are conducting currently. As our strategy develops, we will continue to consult with Congress, and I do think that it'll be important for Congress to weigh in and we're -- that our consultations with Congress continue to develop so that the American people are part of the debate.

But I don't want to put the cart before the horse. We don't have a strategy yet.

I think what I've seen in some of the news reports suggests that folks are getting a little further ahead of where we're at than we currently are. And I think that's not just my assessment, but the assessment of our military, as well. We need to make sure that we've got clear plans, that we're developing them. At that point, I will consult with Congress and make sure that their voices are heard.

But there's no point in me asking for action on the part of Congress before I know exactly what it is that is going to be required for us to get the job done.
Maybe instead of golfing around Martha's Vineyard, he could have been working on "strategy"?
*  *  *
But perhaps more crucially...
...my priority at this point is to make sure that the gains that ISIL made in Iraq are rolled back and that Iraq has the opportunity to govern itself effectively and secure itself.

Jon Williams        ✔ @WilliamsJon
All headlines from Obama's presser will be "no strategy". But real significance, he says not US policy to defeat , only reverse gains.
4:48 PM - 28 Aug 2014
******





Evening Tweets.....







 · 25m
Isn't ironic that President Obama is now asking Sunni states to act on when they had warned+asked him to deal with 2yrs ago?








 · 39m
Obama plays down prospect of U.S. military action in Syria, saying confronting Islamic State requires regional help.





 · 52m
ministry of oil contests the decision of Texas court to throw away court seizure to confiscate a tanker,...






 · 2h
Obama: 'We don't have a strategy yet' on ISIS. Okay Mr President, now tell us something we didn't know.




 · 4h
Islamic State (IS) fighter claims a drone is currently flying over Al-Bab in .



 · 4h
BIG: Qais al-Qataneh, leader of West-backed Alwiya al-Omari was assassinated today in ()



 Retweeted by Joel Wing
 · 9h
Includes analysis of Ansar al-Islam tensions & instances of working w/IS,as well as solidarity w/ Jaysh al-Mujahideen



 · 8h
INTERVIEW: military airport key to controlling province -



 · 10h
ROUNDUP: take border, hits , Rebels ally in , 's new govt. -




Anti War .......


Likely US Airstrikes in Syria Just Another Stop on Endless Mission Creep

Will Congress Have a Say?

by Jason Ditz, August 27, 2014
From announcing the authorization of airstrikes on ISIS earlier this month in the area around Mosul, the US war in Iraq has already seen an amount of mission creep so substantial that the term “creep” doesn’t seem anywhere near appropriate.
The initial goal was to stop ISIS from attacking Irbil. That expanded to Baghdad, then to wiping out ISIS in Iraq. Now, the war is set to be expanded into Syria, even though theUS has almost no intelligence on where any targets are in Syria.
Expanding into Syria is just the next stop on an Iraq War that seems to be escalating without any end in sight, and with reports of ground troop deployments coming in Anbar Province, the war could quickly become a land war spanning multiple countries with no well-defined goals at all.
The expansion is a foregone conclusion, but the question of a Congressional vote is unclear. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R – KY) claimed he was confident Congress would approve the war. Yet only a handful in Congress have made public their views on the war, and Rep. Adam Schiff (D – CA) has been quite critical of the endless escalations.
What the vote’s results will be is only a question if there’s a vote at all, and there may well not be, with the administration arguing they don’t need Congressional approval, and much of Congress seemingly reluctant to make their position a matter of record ahead of the mid-term elections.



In Expanding War to Syria, US Could Attack Assad Too

Unwilling to Cooperate With Assad, US Could Just Bomb Everyone

by Jason Ditz, August 27, 2014
The Obama Administration has had a private turn-around on the situation in Syria. After years of pushing rebels in general as an alternative to the Assad government, the US is now keen to expand their new Iraq War into Syria to attack the largest of those rebels, ISIS.
The US has even taken to sharing intelligence with the Assad government on targets, which is quite a turn when less than a year ago they were pushing hard to invade Syria to oust Assad.
The Assad government is eager for US aid, but wants it publicly. The US has ruled out doing so, and is now considering, among its options, attacking both ISIS and Assad targets to avoid tipping the scales in Assad’s favor.
It’s a preposterous idea, but would be in keeping with the long-standing US policy of arming the rebels enough to keep them from being overrun without ousting Assad outright. If the US goal of keeping Syria a calamitous warzone remains intact, officials could decide that just bombing everybody is the simplest solution.
The stated US goal of wiping out ISIS would make preventing Assad from getting more powerful than them all but impossible, and would ensure that the US war is not just open-ended, but permanent.


Syrian Rebels Seize Israel Border Crossing

Israeli Army Attacks Syrian Military Positions as Nusra Advances

by Jason Ditz, August 27, 2014
Syrian rebel factions, including al-Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra, seized the nation’s only border crossing into neighboring Israel, in the Golan Heights. The takeover puts al-Qaeda directly on the Israeli frontier.

The clashes ahead of the takeover saw a stray mortar shell entering into Israeli occupied Golan, lightly wounding an Israeli soldier. Israel responded by attacking multiple Syrian Army positions in the area.
Israeli Army spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner downplayed the situation, insist it is “not a conflict that we are involved in.” Even though Israel has been keen to undermine Assad in the war, it’s hard to see how having al-Qaeda on their border is a preferred situation.
Israel has had a comparatively small number of troops in the Golan frontier because of the Gaza War, but as the ceasefire holds Israel is said to be redeploying some of those troops back to the north.




Tweets.....


 Retweeted by 
 3m
: Air Force attacking around





 31m
Key line from Abadi presser earlier this week: I will not be ready in the future to send units from the south to fight in Ninewa and Anbar.





 24m
Abadi refusal to send units from the south reflects common sentiment in the south: Why should our sons be dying in Mosul & Anbar?








 Retweeted by Carol Malouf
 · 1h
As says, why didn't Assad evacuate his soldiers from Tabaqa? Cargo planes (Antonovs) were landing in the airport to the last days.



 · 31m
Ken Pollack outlines plan to train a conventional Syrian opposition army -- could have worked in 2012, not today


 · 1h
Syria ready to help Lebanon fight jihadists: envoy



 · 1h
Saudi grant to strengthen legitimate arms in Lebanon: Salam



 · 5h
Musings On Iraq Iraq going through most intense car bomb campaign seen in years



 Retweeted by Joel Wing
 · 6h
See excellent piece on Iraqi military men within ISIL 1/3




 Retweeted by Joel Wing
 · 12h
Maliki to his generals: "so if we place the magic bomb detector wands there, will that stop the bombs?"


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