What's the escalation about then?? HAGEL: LESS LIKELY US WILL UNDERTAKE IRAQ RESCUE MISSION

[bigtree]

Last edited Wed Aug 13, 2014, 07:41 PM - Edit history (1)

The Associated Press ‏@AP 1m
BREAKING: Hagel: Less likely US will undertake Iraq rescue mission because fewer refugees on mountain.

This is a report from Tuesday:

AP reporting some 45,000 Kurds have been provided 'safe passage' out of the mountains by Syrians

from Diaa Hadid, Associated Press

Syrian Kurdish fighters create safe passage for Iraqi Yazidis stranded for days on mountain

___ While the U.S. and Iraqi militaries struggle to aid the starving members of Iraq's Yazidi minority with supply drops from the air, the Syrian Kurds took it on themselves to rescue them. The move underlined how they — like Iraqi Kurds — are using the region's conflicts to establish their own rule.

For the past few days, fighters have been rescuing Yazidis from the mountain, transporting them into Syrian territory to give them first aid, food and water, and returning some to Iraq via a pontoon bridge.

The Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking minority who follow an ancient Mesopotamian faith, started to flee to the Sinjar mountain chain on Aug. 2, when militants from the extremist Islamic State group took over their nearby villages. The militants see them as heretics worthy of death.

"The (Kurdish fighters) opened a path for us. If they had not, we would still be stranded on the mountain," said Ismail Rashu, 22, in the Newroz camp in the Syrian Kurdish town of Malikiya some 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the Iraqi border. Families had filled the battered, dusty tents here and new arrivals sat in the shade of rocks, sleeping on blue plastic sheets. Camp officials estimated that at least 2,000 families sought shelter there on Sunday evening.

The U.N. estimated around 50,000 Yazidis fled to the mountain. But by Sunday, Kurdish officials said at least 45,000 had crossed through the safe passage, leaving thousands more behind and suggesting the number of stranded was higher.

read more: http://www.startribune.com/world/270931601.html

https://news.yahoo.com/syrian-kurdish-fighters-rescue-stranded-yazidis-172250706.html

. . . c'mon. All the hammering from supporters of this escalation claiming this is about rescuing Kurds off a mountain. What the fuck is really going on?

No, don't fucking tell me . . . I don't believe ANYTHING from supporters of this deployment anymore. Unfuckingbelievable! 130 more 'advisers' into Iraq to tell us THIS??

here's the Pentagon's ass-covering bullshit . . .

Rear Adm. John Kirby ‏@PentagonPresSec 2m
Thanks to work of our troops & USAID #Secdef says "far less likely" an evacuation mission will be needed on Mt. Sinjar.

The majority of the airstrikes were to protect U.S. personnel and positions! Claiming this escalation is responsible for the evacuation is a goddamn lie. Did we not just go through 24 hours of the administration and the military justifying this escalation of force as a RESCUE mission??

here's a report about the targets of U.S. force:

Thus far, the vast majority of air strikes have targeted Isis positions threatening Irbil, as several US officials consider the advance of Isis into pro-US Iraqi Kurdistan an unacceptable outcome. Dozens of US special-operations advisers are stationed in Irbil, where the US also has a consulate, and the rationale of protecting that force provides Obama with diplomatic cover for attacks to halt the Isis advance on territory US officials believe must not fall to the Islamic extremists.

Despite Obama’s description of the humanitarian crisis atop Mount Sinjar prompting the newly aggressive US posture, so far only on Saturday have US warplanes hit Isis vehicles harassing Iraqi Yazidis trapped without food or water . . .

This is what the U.S. troops ACTUALLY did today on that mountain range . . .

Spencer Ackerman @attackerman · 2h
Pentagon: fewer than 20 US military personnel landed on Mt Sinjar for assessment (read: recon) of Yazidi evacuation need. They've all left.

I'm tired of being lied to about these deployments. Fucking tired of it. Tired of the bullshit from administration defenders of this escalation as well.

[bigtree]

1. yeah, just fucking ignore this

. . . after playing politics and trying to shame everyone who opposes these deployments in Iraq by claiming we don't care about the refugees.

Supporters are being bullshitted by the administration and are busy feeding everyone else the same bullshit. They need to face up to this.

[bigtree]

2. hello?

[bigtree]

3. administration statement

[Nuclear Unicorn]

4. Even if someone opposes re-involvement in Iraq it has to be admitted in fairness that

stopping ISIS is politically safe for the President. There's no need to lie.

[Fred Sanders]

5. What would be the point of lying? And 130 additional humanitarian advisors is not yet any big deal.

[bigtree]

7. they did lie about it

. . . those minimizing the lies are sleepwalking through history.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

8. "humanitarian advisors"? Is that the newest euphemism for USMC special forces?

[bigtree]

20. we know the U.S. all about protecting Iraqis; how capable we are at that as well

"Iraq Body Count (IBC) recorded 4,153 civilian deaths from violence in 2011. Evidence of these deaths was extracted from some 6,828 distinct reports collected from over 90 sources covering 1,907 incidents, each of which is openly listed on the IBC website. This brings the total number of deaths in the IBC database so far to 119,087. These numbers represent a verifiable documentary record of deaths, and are not estimates"

The release of the Iraq War Logs by WikiLeaks enabled IBC to carry out some preliminary research into the number of casualties that the Logs might contain that have not been reported elsewhere. IBC was consequently able to provide an initial, but fairly robust, estimate that once fully analysed, the Logs would reveal another 15,000 civilian deaths (including 3,000 ordinary police) beyond the previously known death toll. 1,363 of these newly discovered deaths have been added to the IBC database thus far, including 629 caused directly by US-led coalition forces, and 56 by Iraqi security forces.

https://www.iraqbodycount.org/analysis/numbers/2011/

[bigtree]

6. I'm less interested in why he (or his supporters on Iraq) would lie than the bullshit itself

. . . they had more access than we did and most people knew Tuesday that the majority of Kurds had escaped into Syria with the aid of Syrian fighters.

They justified the escalation or 130 troops as 'advisers' who would rescue civilians out of the mountains.

If the mission has changed, they haven't said a word about it yet (unless you pay attention and read between their nonsense about rescuing people).

You're right. This is about a wider fight against ISIL. A deepening war. Mission creep. We'll see where they find support for that.

[bigtree]

9. kick

[polly7]

10. I know, right? I read days ago that the Syrian Kurds had been starting rescue efforts

and already getting many to safety.

Then just today, I read we're all good to go here as part of the support 'team' ... sorta like Libya, but not going in as NATO - just support.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/canada-consulted-as-us-mulls-rescue-effort-for-iraq-refugees/article20037195/

“We have offers of support from a number of allies like France, Australia, Canada,” Rhodes said.

“We’ll be in discussions with them about what they can do both as it relates to helping the Yazidi population ... but also, more broadly, helping bring relief to the displaced persons in northern Iraq, which includes not just Yazidis but an enormous number of Iraqi Christians and others who have been driven from their homes by ISIL.”

It’s expected that several countries would play a humanitarian-assistance role while U.S. special forces assess options for a more muscular military mission to help move tens of thousands of people away from the area.

The U.S. has stepped up its Iraqi engagement in recent days, after thousands became stranded on a mountain, facing starvation and the threat of being killed by Islamist rebels.

It has also vowed to fight off rebel incursions that threaten areas where there are Americans — notably Baghdad and the oil-rich Kurdish region, which has a considerable U.S. business and diplomatic presence.

Call me another sick of being lied-to skeptic.

[bigtree]

12. thank you, polly7

. . . I've been wondering if the anti-war in Iraq site I stumbled into after buying a computer with my last dime just to oppose Bush's war in 2003 still exists.

Nice to hear a voice of reality.

[bigtree]

11. 'US' is lying their asses off

The New York Times ‏@nytimes 7m
The U.S. said it broke the siege on Mount Sinjar in Iraq, allowing thousands of Yazidis to escape http://nyti.ms/1uPIjBr

from Stars and Stripes:

US airstrikes helped, but Kurds from Syria turned tide against Islamic State

and this incredible admission:

US air strikes in Iraq will have minimal impact on Isis – Pentagon

[bigtree]

13. litany of lies

Aug. 12, 2014 1:26 p.m - John Kerry Says U.S. Doesn't Plan to Send More Troops to Iraq

Aug 12, 2014, 10:06 PM - US Sends 130 More Troops to Iraq

US air strikes in Iraq will have minimal impact on Isis – Pentagon

U.S. says it broke the siege on Mount Sinjar in Iraq, allowing thousands of Yazidis to escape

[leftstreet]

16. It's all bullshit

Thanks for keeping current on posting links

Saw this today in the Guardian

...
13 Aug 2014
Fleeing Yazidis have reported seeing small teams of American soldiers high on the northern flank. “We weren’t allowed to go near them,” said a man from Sinjar who was airlifted from the former base. “They were being guarded by the Kurds.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/13/us-ground-troops-direct-role-evacuate-yazidis-iraq

Wait, what? So the Peshmerga have to STOP in their rescue efforts to guard US personnel?

[bigtree]

19. it's like the most excellent satire

. . . I can see them with their hands shading their eyes, standing in the blistering sun for as long as they could manage to be out of their air-conditioned vehicles; just long enough to make it look good.

Drones, CIA, warplanes . . . but they didn't know that Kurds were already off the mountain before they decided to escalate the force with the excuse that they were staging a rescue?? They didn't know? How did they discern that with their little jaunt to the top of one of the mountains? I can just see them, shading their eyes against the blinding sun;' looking to the side of them to see if observers were taking notice . . .I hope they got some neat photos for the BBC to use in the report of their amazing victory.

[G_j]

14. a pretty good rule of thumb,

if the Pentagon says it, it's probably a lie, or a half truth at best. That's the way it's always been.

[bigtree]

15. aint it the truth, G_j

. . . why do I get the feeling that people are just waiting to get lied to again?

Sleepwalking through history.

[renegade000]

17. i'm not sure what's hard to understand about the situation

ISIS has been aggressively trying to seize territory held by other ethnic groups (e.g. the Kurds at Erbil) as well as taking violent actions against minority groups in the territories they have already seized (e.g. the Yazidi situation on Mount Sinjar). In that vein, I hardly think it's fair characterize the recent events in Iraq as unilateral escalation by the US. The administration has decided to provide limited assistance to these groups on both fronts. They certainly have stressed the Yazidi situation in their PR, but they've articulated both goals.

Given the blood will be on our hands in pretty much any case (even if we remove every single American from the region), I view this as the least worst option.

[bigtree]

18. first it was sold to Americans as protecting the embassy

. . . they thought correctly that they could snow us into believing it was just defense of 'personnel and facilities'

So next, the story was that we were sending another handful (hundred or so) 'advisers' to help direct attacks against ISIS/ISIL.

Next it was just a little tweaking with a few hundred more . . .

THEN, it's GENOCIDE for gawd sakes! We're defending Kurdish civilians in the mountains from a 'siege' by ISIS. . .another pack of special forces 'advisers' sent in.

After destroying our own equipment and mainly defending Irbil they claimed that they needed even more troops to stage a direct RESCUE of Kurds from the mountains . . . never mind that hours earlier Kerry was claiming that they had all the troops they needed.

Here's a U.S. civilian who knew well that the majority of Kurds that were 'trapped' on the mountain had already been evacuated by Syrian fighters across the Iraq border into Syria. But, hey, maybe they were too busy or sumpthim to notice.

They didn't stutter . . .the latest escalation was sold as a RESCUE mission, not as any part of a campaign against ISIS. For hours and hours, the line was that these 130 'advisers' would be working to find a way for Kurdish civilians out of the mountains. No 'boots on the ground' - these 130 special forces would actually be hovering several inches above the soil as they shepherded civilians they knew well didn't exist to safety.

20 of these 130 'advisers' went to the mountain and looked around for about an hour and left.

Couple hours later, the word from the military and administration was that, lo and behold, there weren't any Kurds up there who actually needed our hovering boots.

March out to the cameras and mics and claim victory. 'We said we'd rout them and we DID!' came the boast from the bullshitting administration spokesman.

'We broke the (imaginary) siege!' exclaimed the bullshitting military.

Now I'm just setting back, waiting for the punch line . . . we already have their fake narrative down. I wonder how long before Americans discern the truth?