82nd Airborne Division preparing for deployment amid unrest in Baghdad

abc11.com ^ | January 1, 2020 | WTVD-AP

[abb]

How long has it been since we heard “quagmire”?

Mrs abb & I were just discussing that on our morning walk. Look for the Drive-Bys to deploy that word within the next few days.

[MarMema]

Will keep him in my prayers along with them all.

[MarMema]

Fake Americans, all three.

[Jim Noble]

Religious Jews do not write out His name, G_d is a common workaround.

[Maris Crane]

The article says there were “thousands of protesters” and 100 Marines. Also says no one in the Embassy was hurt, but 62 protesters were injured.

I think our guys are pretty effective.

I pray that ratio continues.

[HighSierra5]

He’s going to be OK. My son was in Fallujah with the 505 of the 82nd before the Marines went in. They didn’t take chit from nobody. And delt o lot of chit. I will pray for him and all of his buddies.

[Alberta's Child]

The U.S. embassy in Baghdad was stormed by a mob of protestors after the IRAQI prime minister condemned the recent U.S. air strikes in his country.

It’s time to just booby-trap that embassy and get the hell out of that sh!t-hole.

[Eddie01]

but a U.S. official familiar with the decision said they will go to Kuwait.

If this is accurate, said U.S. official should hang.

[Eddie01]

As I recall -

From September 10, 2018 Boston Herald article: Obama’s Benghazi remark a new low

It’s bad enough former President Barack Obama and his then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left four Americans for dead in Benghazi the night radical Islamist terrorists attacked the U.S. consulate in Libya and nearby annex on Sept. 12, 2012, taking the lives of Winchester native Glen Doherty, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods and Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

-snip-

In an outrageous partisan speech delivered at the University of Illinois Friday, Obama sent shockwaves through the social media stratosphere by dismissing the outrage over the 2012 massacre in Benghazi as the result of a “wild conspiracy theory” perpetuated by conservatives and Republican members of Congress.

Talk about #FakeNews.

First off, you don’t need a Harvard degree to know that the flag-draped caskets of four dead Americans that arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland two days after the attack had nothing to do with any “conspiracy.”

Obama should try telling that to the victims’ families.

Hillary did here at 8:50 mark.

Right-wing conspirators weren’t the ones who cooked up and kept doubling down on the absurd claim that the targeted and prolonged attack, with mortars and other heavy weaponry, was a demonstration over an internet Mohammed-mocking video that just got out of hand.

They weren’t the ones who lied repeatedly and continued to stonewall the truth, so that we didn’t find out until years later that Hillary Clinton had emailed her daughter, Chelsea, in the immediate aftermath, saying the attack was committed by an ­al-Qaeda faction — even as U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice was out there repeating the video line.

-snip-

But I do know what happened, as do Herald readers and Herald Radio listeners who remember our interviews with Glen Doherty’s sister and the three CIA contractors on the ground that night who heroically saved dozens of lives fighting off scores of jihadists — terrorists who launched RPG’s and other artillery at patriotic Americans while Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama went back to bed.

-snip-

[VanShuyten]

“Nice refinery you’ve got there, Iran.“

I think if there is going to be any action, it will be a swing west to go after the Iranian Republican Guard-led groups in southern Iraq and Syria. That would hurt Iran while removing a threat to Iraq, Syria, and Israel.

Just an armchair quarterback view of things on this Bowl Game day.

[Bratch]

U.S. Sends New Contingent of 4,000 Troops into Iraq…

Posted on December 31, 2019 by sundance

First, the explanation from former CIA Director, current U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo:

State Secretary Pompeo reacts to attacks on US embassy in Baghdad

Does this “escalation” have a familiar feel about it?

Let’s review the timeline:

A joint U.S. DoD, CIA and State Department effort initiated the background for an impeachment effort against U.S. President Donald Trump.

♦ A DoD Lt. Colonel named Alexander Vindman (Defense Dept.) sends false information to CIA operative Eric Ciaramella (CIA)…. that kick-starts a manipulated anonymous whistle-blower complaint through congress and the intelligence inspector general… which precedes a litany of U.S. foreign service operatives (State Dept.) testifying against President Trump.

Despite the known compromise and his certain inability to do his job, the National Security Staffer, Lt. Col. Vindman, is not removed from his position inside the White House National Security Council by Joint Chief’s Chairman Mark Milley.

♦ At the same time Vindman’s activity hits the headlines, U.S. Secretary of Navy Richard Spencer extorts the White House over President Trump’s decision to grant clemency for U.S. Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher.   Spencer offers to drop the Trident review for Gallagher if President Trump backs away from the issue.

After public exposure of the extortion, Defense Secretary Mark Esper is forced to fire Navy Secretary Richard Spencer.  Using Spencer’s firing as the starting point, a contingent of former flag officers mount a mass-media campaign against President Trump.  Joint Chief’s Chairman Mark Milley remains silent.

[NOTE: President Trump has an administration-wide military policy of allowing field commanders to make decisions closer to combat operations.  Offensive military engagement requires Commander-in-Chief approval, defensive operations do not.]

♦ U.S. officials and a coalition of Afghanistan tribal leaders representing the Taliban in Afghanistan announce a joint cease-fire as terms of U.S. withdrawal are discussed.

♦ On the same day the U.S-Afghanistan ceasefire agreement is announced, Secretary Pompeo, Secretary Esper and JCS Mark Milley travel to Mar-a-Lago to brief President Trump on a range of new airstrikes carried out in Eastern Syria and Western Iraq as retaliation for an Iranian proxy militia attack against a U.S. base in Kirkuk, Iraq, that killed an “American contractor”.

A U.S. civilian contractor was killed and several service members and Iraqi personnel injured Friday in a rocket attack on a base in Iraq, military officials said.

The attack on the base in Kirkuk occurred Friday morning, said Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, which is tasked with fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. The base is hosting coalition troops, the military said in a statement.  –  Kirkuk is in the northeastern part of the country, south of Erbil. (LINK)

Press Briefing by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper

President Trump is silent for three days as Secretary Pompeo, Secretary Esper and JCS Milley inform the media of new issues in/around Iraq.

The evidence of Iranian involvement against the Kirkuk base is a located abandoned truck with unfired rockets -with Iranian labels- located near the origination of the attack.

♦ The U.S. response to the airbase attack takes place 300+ miles from the Kirkuk incident.  Secretary Pompeo calls the retaliatory strikes “defensive” operations against Iranian -back proxy militias.

The Department of Defense took offensive actions in defense of our personnel and interests in Iraq by launching F-15 Strike Eagles against five targets associated with Kata’ib Hezbollah, which is an Iranian-sponsored Shiite militia group. The targets we attacked included three targets in Western Iraq and two targets in Eastern Syria that were either command and control facilities or weapons caches for Kata’ib Hezbollah.

~Def Sec Esper

♦ Iranian-inspired proxies inside Iraq then use the U.S. retaliatory strikes to mount a protest against the U.S. embassy in/around the “green zone” in Iraq.   Chaos ensues.  U.S. troops are dispatched to reinforce the massive embassy compound.

♦ As a result of the increased risk and hostility to U.S. interests in/around the U.S. embassy in Iraq; and as a result of escalating friction caused by the original Iranian-militia attack; and as a result of the two U.S. air strikes in response to that initial attack; and out of an abundance of caution that our U.S. embassy in Iraq does not turn into another Benghazi-like outcome; we are now sending 4,000 more U.S. troops into Iraq.

All of this, we are told, is the result of rockets fired into an airbase in Kirkuk by “Iranian” militia; who our intelligence services identified from an abandoned truck and un-fired missiles with Iranian stickers.

You decide…

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

  — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2020

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[JonPreston]

The sooner DJT scrapes the neocon crap off his shoes the better off America will be.

[bert]

Absent kinetic attack, the effort is of no value against Iran

[McGruff]

Aurora Intel @AuroraIntel

Video shows the large numbers of #Iraq|i Special Forces guarding the compound and the #US Forces within the compound.

https://twitter.com/AuroraIntel/status/1212342908197752832

It appears this “protest” is ending.

[Bratch]

[Vermont Lt]

Yes, in a defensive posture 750 would be able to control about 3,000 folks, 750 for an offensive posture is way, way too few.

[CincyRichieRich]

I hope we can determine the cause and specifically who in our CIA started this. Get a rope.

[exnavy]

got it. thank you

[conservativesister]

Not being bitchy just pointing out a problem.......You want GOD to keep your grandson safe but you won’t acknowledge his name?

MAN UP!

[NonValueAdded]

LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS