Friday, June 16, 2017

Some things I don't understand

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Does he mean Jeff Sessions?

I'm serious here.

Robert Mueller is over the investigation, I thought.

Does he mean Mueller?

I'm confused.


And I'm not trying to be funny, I'm serious.

Know what else I don't get?

The continued push for war on Syria.

All that leftover regime change money has gotta go somewhere. They failed so now they're focused on revisionism



Let's accept for a second that a war is needed (it's not), okay then how about you end the other wars first?

We don't need war.

We don't want it.

There are many things I don't understand but there's two of them.




"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Friday, June 16, 2017.  The Mosul Slog continues, a bishop misses the point, and much more.


It’s Going Down: ICE Arrest 199 Iraqi Christians During Deportation Sweep! [Video]
 
 




"That priest is probably still floating on a fog pillow," wrote Anne Sexton ("The Inventory Of Goodbye"). Bishop Bawai Soro's feet certainly aren't touching the ground.


Reading his column at THE HILL, it's hard to figure out whether he's stupid or dishonest?


ISIS is more in the news than the Iraqi government so he may be using them -- and lies -- to make a case.  If so, it may attract more eyeballs for being 'trendy' but it will also attract many eyeballs from the heads of people who get that Soro doesn't know what the hell he's writing about.


ICE and US President Donald Trump must not return Iraqi Christians to Iraq, he argues, because the will face the Islamic State.


The Islamic State?


Forget the corporate spin that the Islamic State is on the run, the problem for Iraqi Christians throughout the Iraq War has not been the Islamic State.

Yes, they've been victimized in the rare areas of Iraq that the Islamic State has grabbed control of in the last few years.

But stop pretending that's it.

The Iraqi government has failed them and has persecuted them.

They have passed laws against them, the forces have raided their bars and establishments to shut them down even when the law wasn't on the Iraqi forces' side.


The Islamic State is a recent thing in the long war.  It will likely be replaced by something else.

The same can't be said of the Iraqi government where thug Nouri al-Maliki was replaced by thug-lite Hayder al-Abadi.

The exodus of Iraqi Christians from Iraq begins long before the emergence of the Islamic State (as did the relocating to northern Iraq from Baghdad).

Is the Bishop a liar or just stupid?

And the argument to make, pay attention here, against deporting the group back to Iraq is that the Iraqi government has not only failed to protect them, the Iraqi government has taken part in attacking them.

The Iraqi government's history since the 2003 US-led invasion is one of persecuting religious minorities -- this includes Christians.

So why would you force Christians to return to that country?

That's the argument you make.

You rest it instead on the Islamic State?

The minute The Mosul Slog finally wraps up, people shrug and say, "Well they're over, no reason the Christians can't be sent back now."

The Bishop had a column to make a case and he didn't.

Instead, he's put out the highly damaging notion that, were it not for the Islamic State, Iraq would be a fine place for Iraqi Christians to live.


But the Islamic State did not run them off from Baghdad.

It wasn't the Islamic State, either, that reduced Baghdad's Jewish population to one elderly person.



Day 240 of The Mosul Slog.

map update. Green= completely liberated. Orange= frontline clashes. White= control.
 
 



End of ISIS: U.S. and Iraqi Forces Prepare for Final Battle After Surrounding Old City
 
 




End coming?

Good, because it's already been 240 days.


Though the operation to liberate or 'liberate' Mousl was only launched in October, Mosul was seized
by ISIS in June 2014.

Nouri al-Maliki was prime minister then.

Some have not forgotten that fact.

G.H. Renaud (KURDISTAN 24) reports:

Demonstrators called for Maliki to face justice as they marked the third anniversary of the Speicher massacre where Islamic State (IS) militants killed hundreds of students at the Air Force base near Tikrit.
[. . .]
Banners listed the three “plagues” demonstrators believe Maliki is responsible for: the fall of Mosul, the Speicher Massacre, and the squandering of Iraq’s money.


Nouri and Moqtada al-Sadr are squaring off for upcoming elections -- whenever they might be held.

Provincial elections were actually supposed to take place in April.

They have been delayed until September but there's also a proposal to combine them with next year's national elections.





The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley -- updated:


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  • Thursday, June 15, 2017

    It's all do sad and depressing




    Stevie Wonder and the late George Michael performing Stevie's "Love's In Need Of Love Today."

    And goodness is it.

    Some days it seems like things can't get worse.

    You really start to understand why people tune out.

    All these wars -- ongoing.

    It's enough to make you stick your head under the pillows.

    And it doesn't help to learn that there's no one to trust.

    Take the ridiculous PPL Summit last weekend.



    If is so progressive, (and not partisan DNC tricks) does anyone know why Jill Stein was blocked?


    They wouldn't let them speak?


    Some movement for the people.


    "Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
    Thursday, June 15, 2017.  And look at all that 'progess' in The Mosul Slog.



    More than 100 Islamic State militants launch counterattack in Mosul after months of heavy fighting with Iraqi forces





    Day 239 of The Mosul Slog and still it continues.

    239 days ago, the Iraqi government finally launched an operation to liberate or 'liberate' Mosul.  The city was seized by the Islamic State in June of 2014.

    239 days later and still the slog continues.

    Situation in on 14 June 2017 - claims counterattack against forces south of the old city failed to capture ground







    The Mosul Slog has increased the number of refugees.


    The US criticizes Assad & Russia for bombing hospitals but does exactly the same in




    And the destruction -- of hospitals, homes . . .


    And it has increased the amount of  War Crimes.

    Civilians have been harmed by Iraqi forces, disappeared by them, killed by them.

    And there's the use of White Phosphorus.


    US-led coalition acknowledges use of white in amid mounting criticism



    It's a city still filled with people, still filled with children.

    And White Phosphorus is being used.


    Meanwhile in Iraq. 100,000 children threatened as conflict escalates in west . via


    Time to invade the US for some regime change? US using chemical weapons in Mosul & Raqqa:








    In the US, many Iraqi immigrants are being threatened with deportation.





    Trump pledged to protect Iraqi Christians from ISIS, now he's deporting them





    Is that accurate?  Because it's being repeated.

    Perspective | promised he would protect persecuted . Instead, he's sending them back to .



    Niraj Waikoo (DETROIT FREE PRESS) reports:


    Immigration officials today strongly defended their arrests of Iraqi immigrants over the weekend, saying the U.S. detained 114 people in metro Detroit with criminal pasts who posed security threats.
    Today's statement from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was the first time officials said how many were detained in sweeping raids of Iraqi nationals targeted for deportation. Many of the detained immigrants are Christians who say they fear that deportation to Iraq would jeopardize their lives since they are a minority there and under siege.
    But ICE said today the detainees have criminal pasts and already faced final removal orders from a judge.
    "The operation in this region was specifically conducted to address the very real public safety threat represented by the criminal aliens arrested," Rebecca Adducci, field office director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Detroit, said in a statement. "The vast majority of those arrested in the Detroit metropolitan area have very serious felony convictions, multiple felony convictions in many cases. I applaud the efforts of the law enforcement personnel who, day in and day out, put their lives on the line to protect this community."



    See the problem?

    Donald Trump also promised to enforce immigration laws.

    If you're building your coverage on one promise only and not noting the other, you're discrediting yourself at a time when journalism is already discredited.

    That's not advocating for the immigrants to be removed from the country, that's saying you need to tell the truth.  And you also need to investigate ICE's claims because they're saying something doesn't make it so.


    The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley, PACIFICA EVENING NEWS, GORILLA RADIO and DISSIDENT VOICE -- updated: