Evening tweets....
Anti War......
The US was already escalating the Iraq War at an alarming pace under the guise of a “humanitarian intervention,” but now are using Foley’s killing as the official justification to continue that escalation in the name of revenge.
Iraqi FM Heshyar Zebari, the highest ranking Kurdish cabinet member, says that the Kurdish parties are also planning to negotiate for ministerial positions in the new Abadi government, but will have significant conditions on joining.
Retweeted by Joel Wing
Taking the War to #ISIS, Peshmerga making advances in #Mosul theatre with US air support #Twitterkurds
The US can trade terrorists for a soldier, but it can't pay terrorists for a journalist.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/08/21/the-logic-of-not-paying-ransoms/ …
ISIS doesn't recognize the Iraq-Syria border. The US might not either, Ben Rhodes tells @kellymcevers. Syria next? http://www.npr.org/2014/08/21/342095388/deputy-national-security-advisor-ben-rhodes-weighs-in-on-iraq-syria?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social …
Interesting look at the growing # of Washington thinktankers who advocate a deal with Assad -& the counterarguments http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/washington-foreign-policy-hands-make-the-case-for-the-unthin?utm_term=37ixbnj#1ya9c4o …
Retweeted by Alexblx
Dempsey's comments on #Syria today are big indictment of Dempsey himself & Obama policy. Ignoring Syria for 3 years made IS fester, recruit.
Anti War......
US Readying More Troops to ‘Crush’ ISIS
US Using Journalist's Execution as Pretext for Further Iraq Escalation
by Jason Ditz, August 20, 2014
The Obama Administration has never been one to let a sad piece of news slip by unexploited, and when news emerged last night of the beheading of journalist James Foley by ISIS, they were quick to transition their narrative to fit the new story.
The US was already escalating the Iraq War at an alarming pace under the guise of a “humanitarian intervention,” but now are using Foley’s killing as the official justification to continue that escalation in the name of revenge.
President Obama presented ISIS as a “cancer” that had to be “extracted” from the Middle East, going on to accuse them of plotting genocide and offering “nothing but an endless slavery.”
Obama went on to declare that “no just God wouldstand for what they did yesterday and what they do every single day,” vowing his own relentless pursuit of them.
Secretary of State John Kerry was more direct, vowing to crush ISIS militarily, and declaring the group the “face of a new evil” whose very existence is an insult to Islam.
Kerry went heavy on the thesaurus today, dubbing ISIS “ugly, savage, inexplicable, nihilistic, and valueless evil,” and saying the US will track them down anywhere in the world to destroy them.
The State Department also seems to be driving a lot of the escalation push right now, asking for another 300 US ground troops to be deployed to sites in Baghdad, including the US Embassy and the Baghdad airport. The Pentagon is “considering” the request, but its acceptance is all but certain.
The humanitarian excuse for the US war was basically up when they got to Mount Sinjar and realized there weren’t 40,000 Yazidis there. Officials seem to feel Foley’s death is a good excuse to shed the last remnants of that talking point in favor of a return to the 2003-style bellicosity. America’s goal in the war is now wiping out its self-proclaimed enemies, and any suggestion of a closed-ended operation has long sense flown out the window.
Kurds Rejoin Iraq Cabinet, Will Negotiate Ministerial Positions
FM: Kurds Won't Join New Govt Without Clear Plan
by Jason Ditz, August 20, 2014
Kurdish officials have announced the end to a boycott of the Iraqi cabinet, returning after over a month of boycotts to protest a dispute with outgoing Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki.
Iraqi FM Heshyar Zebari, the highest ranking Kurdish cabinet member, says that the Kurdish parties are also planning to negotiate for ministerial positions in the new Abadi government, but will have significant conditions on joining.
PM-designate Hayder Abadi, who desperately needs Kurdish support to push the idea of a “unity” government after years of sectarian divide under Maliki’s rule. Abadi wasfighting with the Kurds over oil revenue sharing in parliament this past year.
It is expected that oil revenue will be one of the Kurds’ conditions on joining the new cabinet, and Zebari suggested there would be others, and that the Kurds won’t agree to back the new government without a clear plan laid out to meet all their demands.
Tweets of the morning......
#Italian Minister of Defence Roberta Pinotti says Italy will provide #Peshmerga forces with anti-tank missiles.
#European nations boost arms supplies and military support for Kurds. http://rudaw.net/english/world/20082014 … #TwitterKurds
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