Islamist Fighters Rout Kurds in Northern Iraq and Seize Dam

[flamingdem]

Source: New York Times

BAGHDAD — The crisis gripping Iraq escalated rapidly on Thursday with a re-energized Islamic State in Iraq and Syria storming new towns in the north and seizing a strategic dam as Iraq’s most formidable military force, the Kurdish pesh merga, was routed in the face of the onslaught.

The loss of the Mosul Dam, the largest in Iraq, to the insurgents was the most dramatic consequence of a militant offensive in the north, which has sent tens of thousands of refugees, many from the Yazidi minority, fleeing into a vast mountainous landscape.

In one captured town, Sinjar, ISIS executed dozens of Yazidi men, and kept the dead men’s wives for unmarried jihadi fighters. Panic on Thursday even spread to the Kurdish capital of Erbil, long considered a safe haven, with civilians flooding the airport in a futile attempt to buy tickets to Baghdad.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/world/middleeast/isis-forces-in-iraq.html

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President Obama will speak in 10 minutes according to MSNBC (9:20 est currently)

[onehandle]

1. Every death and military action in Iraq since 2001 is the fault of one man...

[IMG][/IMG]

And them, of course...

[IMG][/IMG]

[bemildred]

2. I blame the Felonious Five and their unconstitutional intervention in Presidential Politics. nt

[flamingdem]

3. I know what you mean!

sigh

[HERVEPA]

4. Exactly, though the rationalizers will find every reason to deny it

[fujiyama]

5. Good reminder

All those that supported Nader (or more surprisingly those that still do) are nothing more than useful idiots.

That ass hole hasn't contributed to anything positive in over 40 years. His biggest concern just recently was a lawsuit against the NBA. He's a greedy, delusional psychopath.

[Ghost Dog]

8. Two-party cronyship & partisan Supreme Court,

in bed with big money & imperialist ideologues...

There's your (most immediate) problem. if you'll forgive me for saying so.

[JackRiddler]

10. That assertion can only be described as pathological.

Truly bizarroland.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

13. I prefer "idiotic".

But those types would rather blame Nader because it's easier than blaming Bush Co

Because let's face it, most of the "blame Nader" types suported the war in Iraq (like Hillary) and their politics align more with Bush and his neo conservative agenda than they do real progressive politics.

To these types the left will always be the enemy. Even when the right fucks up, it's the left's fault.

[iamthebandfanman]

12. Where were you

in 2000 ?

you seem to have sure missed a lot of the process , beyond a person completely within their rights to run for president choosing to do so...

Lord knows I think ole Ralph has been misguided the last 20 years .. but he did more for left politics than anyone on DU may ever accomplish... and im betting most certainly more than you've done (tho kudos for being a part of DU since 2001)...

but hey, if you need a scapegoat to keep the reality of the cronyism that got us GWB and the WEAK democratic party that refused to keep the fight to HAVE VOTES THAT WERE CAST COUNTED (GASP!)... more power to ya...

[cpwm17]

16. Nader didn't vote for war.

Congress and the White House did:

[Comrade Grumpy]

17. OMG! What a stupid post.

And you might want to have a word with the 300,000 Florida Democrats who voted for Bush in 2000.

[craigmatic]

6. We're past pointing fingers even if it's true. The question is how do we go forward.

I personally think we should arm and train the Kurds maybe give them military aircraft of some kind or do coordinated airstrikes with them.

[SolutionisSolidarity]

9. I agree.

I usually oppose military intervention, but foreign fighters are pouring into Iraq to commit genocide against people who can't defend themselves because we destroyed their country. Iraq belongs to the people of Iraq, not us and not these invaders. These are Turkey's and Saudi Arabia's thugs, and they must be stopped from murdering these defenseless people.

[McCamy Taylor]

7. We can not abandon the Kurdish people the way that Bush Senior did. They are our allies.

[iamthebandfanman]

11. NY Times is late to the story..

other agencies, including CNN, were reporting this 4-5 days ago.

[flamingdem]

14. I'm looking at twitter and a lot of news was

reported a few days ago. I guess the spotlight was on Gaza.

Also, there are reports that ISIS didn't really capture the Mosul Dam but they used photoshop to make it look like they had?

Not many reporters are going to want to get next to these guys to find facts.

[okieinpain]

15. i thought the kurds were suppose to be some

bad ass fighters.