By William Mayer
June 30, 2014 – San Francisco, CA – PipeLineNews.org – Make no mistake about it, the escalating jihadist surge in Iraq and Syria is now owned by President Obama.
This is his war.
As a result of more than two years of feckless inattention, including the administration’s failure to negotiate a status of forces agreement with the Maliki government, the country teeters on the verge of becoming a de-facto terrorist state.
If the country falls, American interests – secured through the sacrifice of nearly 4,500 American soldiers – won’t be the only casualty.
As reports continue to filter in it’s becoming clear that the Sunni terrorist army, ISIS, is engaging in a savage religious cleansing of Christians in the areas which it now holds.
“And now, with the raging incursion of ISIS – a brutal Al Qaeda affiliated terrorist group – the religious cleansing of Iraq’s Christians is nearing completion as well. Iraq’s Christian community is hardly a western innovation or a colonial relic. It dates from the 1st Century, when two of Jesus’ disciples – St. Thomas and St. Thaddeus (also known as St. Jude) – preached the Gospel in what was then Assyria. There has been a Christian presence in Iraq ever since. [source, Lila Gilbert, The religious cleansing of Iraq’s Christians, Fox News]
A definitive example of what’s happening has occurred in the city of Mosul, where over the last two weeks thousands of Christians have been forced to flee as ISIS took over the city.
“According to CNN, militants believed to be from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) took control of the airport, government offices, and TV stations. Iraqi police and soldiers fled from the onslaught. The militants freed around 1,000 militants from the Mosul prison.
The Iraqi government has asked the United States for help, under the terms of the Strategic Agreement. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki has asked the parliament to declare a state of emergency and called on all able Iraqi men to come out and help defend the country.
While the majority of Mosul’s 1.8 million inhabitants are Sunni Muslim, the city has historic importance for the world’s Christians. Mosul encompasses the ancient city of Nineveh, which is first mentioned in Genesis 10:11: “Ashur left that land, and built Nineveh”. It was to the city of Nineveh that God sent Jonas to preach repentance, and in the end the city was saved from destruction.” [source, Katie Gorka, Apocalyptic Assault by Islamist Militants Underway in Mosul, Iraq, Breitbart]
Additional resources dealing with this unfolding tragedy:
Emboldened ISIS Threatens Americans
GABRIEL: ISIS is a threat beyond Iraq, with Shariah as worldwide aim
ISIS ENABLERS: SCORECARD OF THE GUILTY
Desperate pleas by Iraqi officials for help have been rebuffed by President Obama, who seems inured to the catastrophe which Iraq has become. During this bloodletting in Syria and Iraq, jihadists are resorting to grotesque levels of violence; Christians are being crucified for refusing to renounce their faith or simply because they are non-Muslim. [please refer to, Raymond Ibrahim, Christians Are Being Crucified Again, Front Page Magazine]
The President remains silent.
Though U.S. military advisors have been urging the administration to hit the jihadist army before it becomes too interwoven with Iraq’s civilian population, the President remains stubbornly opposed to taking any type of meaningful action, aside from the symbolic sending of 300 advisors whose primary job will be to turn out the lights at the U.S. Embassy should Baghdad burn.
But it’s more than poor judgment; Mr. Obama is comfortable with the presence of a reconfigured Iraq. Unbelievably, the administration is stalling the delivery of – already contracted for – fighter jet aircraft to the Maliki government, an act which has forced the Iraqi’s into the willing hands of Vlad Putin while strengthening the hand of Iran at a time during which Team Obama is engaged in nuke talks with the mullahs.
In a recent public statement Maliki expressed great frustration in dealing with the American government:
“I’ll be frank and say that we were deluded when we signed the contract [with the US]…We should have sought to buy other jet fighters like British, French and Russian to secure the air cover for our forces; if we had air cover we would have averted what had happened,” he went on. He said Iraq was acquiring second-hand jet fighters from Russia and Belarus ‘that should arrive in Iraq in two or three days.'” [source, Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki: Russian jets will turn tide, BBC]
Unsurprisingly, the State Department is sounding like a broken record, claiming that an unassisted Iraq can defeat ISIS, a fact not in evidence.
“Our view is that Iraq and the successful outcome here is not contingent upon the intervention of any country,” she said. “They need to take steps on the political front to be more inclusive, to govern in a non-sectarian manner. But the United States is – and the president is – considering a range of options, looking at factors including the national security interests of the United States.” [source, US Official Says Iraq Requests Airstrikes, U.S. Dept. of State]
Throughout all of this, Obama projects a sense of being aloof and very oddly detached.
His focus remains on politics as he continues to make partisan speeches to hand-picked audiences in the face of burgeoning domestic scandals, logging thousands of miles over the last month to fundraise for the Democrat party. The price of admission to these affairs is steep. At a scheduled July 23 DNC fete in Los Angeles tickets start at $1,000. High rollers, in the party decrying the “one percenters,” can spend as much as $32,500 [the Fed maximum] if they have the desire to be listed as a co-sponsor of the event.
PR savvy folks have noted the terribly bad “optic” such excess presents while much of the Middle East is in the tightening grip of Islamic fanatics whose unimpeded advance makes their desire to establish a caliphate spanning Syria and Iraq a real possibility.
As we go to press Iraqi forces are engaged in attempt to re-take the city of Tikrit – just North of Baghdad. Located in a predominantly Sunni region, it has historically been at odds with the country’s Shia majority.
Regardless, Maliki’s forces are meeting with a great deal of resistance from ISIS.
“The insurgents appeared to have repelled the military’s initial push for Tikrit, and remained in control of the city on Sunday, but clashes were taking place in the northern neighbourhood of Qadissiyah, two residents reached by telephone said.” [source, Iraq crisis: Iran pledges military help against Isis as battle for Tikrit escalates, UK Telegraph]
Though Iran has more than hinted that it would be providing military assistance there is, so far, not much verification of that on the ground – though the country did warn the U.S. that its assistance is neither wanted nor needed.
From outward appearances at least, the President and Khamenei seem to be on the same page.
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