Events Leading to WWII List, Italian Colonialism in Africa & Current Events Libya

Gol (gol = river) Noticed the list of events leading to WWII while I was reading about the Russians fighting off the Japanese invaders of Soviet Russian/Mongolian territory. Came across the Khalkhin Gol battles while reading about Russia's Georgy Zhukov, who is said to have excelled at operational and strategic command (wikipedia). Was interested in him because I'd seen him in the WWII Germany footage. Source: Wikipedia Khalkhin Gol doesn't get a mention in the list, maybe because it was an undeclared war.  It would be part of Japan's expansionism attempts, which would have started with the invasion of Manchuria 1931 (above).  No, scratch that.  It looks like the Japanese were at it in 1918-22 when they invaded Siberia while Russia was in revolutionary turmoil (but maybe historians aren't counting Japanese expansionist attempts from there).  Scrap that as well.  The Japanese in Siberia scenario appears to have been spurred on by the West (British-US sending warships to Vladivostok) to counter the communist revolutionaries, and the Japanese wanted the action.  The 'international coalition' withdrew its forces but the amassed Japanese troops (and thousands of civilian settlers) moved inland and stayed on).  Looks the Japanese pulled out because (a) the Bolsheviks got the upper hand in Russia and (b) the occupation came at a high cost for Japan (over half the national budget for 2 years).  The following were also players in the Khalkhin Gol battles: Grigori Shtern (shot/executed after confessing under torture that he had been German spy).  Shtern was in charge of the front line & in command of Zhukov, if I understand correctly. Yakov Smushkevich (in charge of aviation, shot/executed 1941) Khorloogiin Choibalsan (Mongolian nationalist) source:  wikipedia Grigori Shtern (shot/executed 1941, left) and Georgy Zhukov (right). Khorloogiin Choibalsan (centre). Wikipedia on Smushkevich and Shtern indicates they were both executed and both subsequently 'rehabilitated' in the early 1950s, so I guess that means their honour was restored. Smushkevich's daughter recalled the arrest in an interview with Moscow News, concluding that maybe Nazi intelligence services had the Soviet Russians convinced that 'faithful fighters are enemies' (here). Finding the who's who hard to follow.  Problem with remembering the names.  Find it hard to keep the names straight.  Some of the histories are quite involved as well.   The list of WWII lead-up events will keep me busy with look-ups, but I'll only be skimming the surface.  Even though it's only surface information, the embarrassing part is I'll probably not take a great deal of this in.  But something's better than nothing (and it's interesting information), so I'll keep checking things out. Italian colonialism in Africa struck me as extremely brutal: Italian Somaliland Colony 1889-1936 from 1936 > = Italian East Africa colony ie Italian Somaliland + Italian Eritrea + Ethiopian Empire No probs killing monks & nuns at monastery, plus 30,000 Ethiopians in 3 days. [see wikipedia] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_East_Africa Right now the Italians are agitating for military intervention in Libya, so the guess is Italian industrialists have investments there and their politicians are pushing for intervention to protect Italian corporate interests.  So it's like colonialism has never ended. The push for intervention comes after an alleged ISIS execution of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya, which is quite a convenient event for the Western backed Tobruk government (yes, there's two Libya governments:  Tripoli (not recognised by West) and Tobruk), and convenient for those in the West that seek to intervene in the region. Having a hard time believing this event is genuine (rather than staged).  On the other hand, maybe it is genuine.  I don't know.  It's just weird that it plays into the hands of those who seek Western military intervention. The video is said to have come out of the Al Hayat Media Center (HMC), which is supposed to be Islamic State controlled.   Back in June 2014, Daily Mail reported that IS were publishing an English language propaganda magazine via "AlHayat Media Center - the propaganda wing of ISIS".   So maybe the Libya report is genuine.

Asia, Africa, Middle-East

ASIA #China trial began : Ilham Tohti, critic of govt policies towards ethnic Uighurs (Muslims) in Xinjiang. http://goo.gl/aXg9py #Thailand - coup generals order name of self-exiled billionaire former PM Thaksin Shinawatra’s to be erased from text books. / Economist How Alibaba measures up  #IT #Business - >> http://goo.gl/GfNAWG  - cool graph - #China e-commerce craps on everyone else #China - Central bank injects ($81 billion) into financial system via loans 2 big banks for stimulus / http://goo.gl/BuXrtY  / Heaps info -----------------------------------------------------  AFRICA #Zimbabwe: Mugabe appoints 17 new ambassadors http://goo.gl/6YNJbE - serve 4 yr terms, conditionally renewable #Nigeria 15 pp killed after gunmen attacked teacher-training college>> http://goo.gl/aXg9py - 12 soldiers 2 firing squad over May mutiny #SouthSudan foreigners (excl. diplomats & govt aid agencies) OUT w/in month / RETRACTED amid criticism it would disrupt aid progs /Economist International Organisation for Migration "estimates that 3,000 migrants have died trying to cross the sea to Europe so far this year" / Economist -----------------------------------------------------  MIDDLE-EAST "... where the Press is ‘free’ the problem today is that there is in fact no truly free media. " >> http://goo.gl/ytgMjs  Gulf News I’d have to disagree and say that while the alternate press many not be unbiased, it is at least free to publish a non-establishment point of view. For me, the issue is biased, sneaky, establishment & foreign-interest slanted media in the *mainstream*. R T>> "Turkey would join anti-ISIL coalition if the U.S. had a clear-cut strategy to take out Assad." >> Why Assad? Source - Twitter commentary (Mahir Zeynalov, journalist) -----------------------------------------------------  COMMENT As I understood it, some sort of slowing of China economy:  hence the injection for stimulus.   Noticed the European press refers to 'migrants' or 'immigrants' in news that is about refuge seekers.   There's probably an essay about corporate globalism, imperialism, NGOs and the role of media distortion right there. Still don't know enough about the Middle East to figure out why Assad is such a target for the West.  But I expect I'll get there eventually.  Don't read enough of the Middle East news at the moment.

Pentagon wants eternal Global War on Terror - NATO long-term survival assured by "unifying threat". Translation: Russia.

Sep 5, '14 THE ROVING EYE Will NATO liberate Jihadistan? By Pepe Escobar Drive your cart and your plow Over the bones of the dead …      - William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Caliph Ibrahim, aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, self-declared leader of Islamic State, formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, really sports a mean PR vein. When the show seemed scheduled for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to save Ukraine and Western Civilization - at least rhetorically - from that Evil Empire remixed, Russia, The Caliph, accessing his expensive watch wisdom, intervened with - what else - yet another "off with their heads" special. Eyebrows were properly raised until the United States' intel alphabet soup solemnly concluded that Islamic State (IS) really beheaded yet another American journalist on video (US President Barack Obama: "An horrific act of violence"). And then, out of the blue, The Caliph doubled down, proclaiming to the whole world his next target is none other than Russian President Vladimir Putin. Was he channeling the recently ostracized Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, aka Bandar Bush? In thesis, everything would be settled. The Caliph becomes a contractor to NATO (well, he’s been on to it, sort of). The Caliph beheads Putin. The Caliph liberates Chechnya - fast; not the usual, deeply embarrassing NATO quagmire in Afghanistan. The Caliph, on a roll, attacks the BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The Caliph becomes NATO’s shadow secretary-general. And Obama finally stops complaining that his calls to Putin always end up on voicemail. Ah, if geopolitics was as simple as a Marvel Comics blockbuster. Instead, The Caliph should know - even as he is largely a Made-in-the-West product, with substantial input from Gulf Cooperation Council petrodollar cash - that NATO never promised him a rose garden. So, predictably, those ungrateful Obama and David Cameron, the British Prime Minister - oh yes, because the "special relationship" is all that matters in NATO, the others are mere extras - have vowed to go after him with a broad (well, not that broad) "coalition of the willing" with the usual GCC suspects plus Turkey and Jordan, bombing Iraqi Kurdistan, parts of Sunni Iraq and even Syria. After all, Syrian President "Bashar al-Assad must go", rather "Assad brutality" in Cameron’s formulation, is the real culprit for The Caliph’s actions. And all in the name of the Enduring Freedom Forever-style Global War on Terror. Now get me that Slavic Caliph NATO’s outgoing secretary-general Anders "Fogh of War" Rasmussen was somehow rattled. After all, this was supposed to be the "crucial moment", at the NATO summit in Wales, when NATO would be at its Cold War 2.0 best, rescuing "the allies", all 28 of them, from the dark gloom of insecurity. One just had to look at the replica of a glorious Eurofighter Typhoon deployed in front of the NATO summit hotel in the southern Welsh town of Newport. To round it all off, that evil Slavic Caliph, Vlad Putin himself, designed a seven-point peace plan to solve the Ukrainian quagmire - just as Kiev’s appalling army has been reduced to strogonoff by the federalists and/or separatists in the Donbass. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko - who until virtually yesterday was screaming "Invasion!" at the top of his lungs - breathed long sighs of relief. And as an aside, he disclosed Kiev was receiving high-precision weapons from an unnamed country that could only be the US, the UK or Poland. The whole thing posed a problem, though. What is NATO to defend Western Civilization from when all that threat embodied by "Russian aggression" dissolves into a road map to peace? No wonder the 60 heads of state and government with their Ministers of Defense and Foreign Relations who performed a soft invasion/breaching of the "ring of steel" protecting Newport from protesting hordes were also somehow dazed an confused. Over 11 years after Shock and Awe, we are still living in a Rumsfeldian world. It was the former Pentagon head David Rumsfeld under George "Dubya" Bush who conceptualized "Old Europe" and "New Europe". "Old" were Venusian sissies; "New" were vigorous Martians. "New" totally supported Shock and Awe, and the subsequent invasion/occupation of Iraq. Now they support, in fact beg, for NATO to stare down Russia. "Old", for its part, was trying at least to save a negotiating space with Putin. And in the end dear prudence, especially by Berlin, was rewarded with the Putin peace plan. Just in case, not to rattle the Empire of Chaos too much, Paris announced it won’t deliver the first of two Mistral helicopter carrier battleships to Moscow according to schedule. And of course NATO strongly condemned Russia on Ukraine, and the European Union followed up with yet more sanctions. As for Fogh of War, predictably, he kept juggling his "Mars Attacks!" rhetoric (see Asia Times Online, September 3, 2014). It was all Moscow’s fault. NATO is nothing but an innocent force of appeasement - powerful and solid. At the same time, NATO would not be foolish to start depicting Russia as an enemy outright. So, as Asia Times Online reported, NATO at best will help train Kiev’s forces; the Donbass performance showed they badly need it. But there will be no Ukraine "integration" - for all the hysteria deployed by Kiev and well as Poland and the Baltic states calling for permanent bases. The new element will be the remixed NATO Response Force (NRF) which, by the way, was never used before. NRF even comes with a catchy slogan: "Travel light and strike hard". An 800-strong battalion will be able to strike in two days, and a 5,000-strong brigade between five and seven days. Well, by those "travel light" standards it would hardly be enough to prevent The Caliph from annexing larger parts of Jihadistan with his gleaming white Toyota combo. As for "strike hard", ask Pashtuns in the Hindu Kush for an informed opinion. So Wales yielded NRF; permanent "rotation" and permanent forward bases to "protect" Central and Eastern Europe; and everybody shelling out more cash (no less than 2% of their GDP each, for all 28 members, from here to 2025). All this in the middle of the third European recession in five years. Now compare the astonishing combined NATO military budget of US$900 billion (75% of all expenses monopolized by the US) with only $80 billion for Russia. Yet Moscow is the "threat". Needless to add, even under so much sound and fury, Wales did not yield NATO sitting on a Freudian divan - analyzing in an endless monologue its abject failure in both Afghanistan and Libya. In Afghanistan, the Taliban basically run rings around NATO’s bases and "strike hard" movements, demoralizing them to oblivion. That was NATO in GWOT mode. And in Libya, NATO created a failed state ravaged by militias and called it "peace". That was NATO in "Responsibility To Protect" mode. NATO liberating Jihadistan? The Pentagon couldn’t care less. The Pentagon wants eternal GWOT. US Think Tankland is ecstatic at NATO finding a "renewed purpose" and its long-term survival now assured by a "unifying threat". Translation: Russia. So The Caliph is not exactly quaking in his Made-in-USA desert boots. He’s even dreaming of taking on the Slavic Caliph himself. How come Marvel Comics never thought about that? Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007), Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge (Nimble Books, 2007), and Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009). http://atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-03-050914.html

Love this guy's article.

Lots of info. & humour. Perfect.

Article: 'The 9 Biggest Myths About ISIS'

The 9 Biggest Myths About ISIS By Zack Beauchamp http://www.vox.com Posted 2014-08-23 06:14 GMT http://www.aina.org/news/20140823021434.htm

Appears an interesting overview.

Don't know enough about the Middle East to assess how accurate that overview is.

However, there's no mention of the US role in stirring up the conflict in the Middle East, so this could just be a one-sided US biased view.

Anyway, it's one for the Middle East politics buffs, I guess.

UK - Will not join forces with Syria against Islamic State

Philip Hammond: We will not enter into a 'poisonous' alliance with Assad Foreign Secretary says that 'my enemy's enemy is not my friend' as he rules out sharing intelligence with Assad to take on Islamic State forces By Steven Swinford, Senior Political Correspondent 2:16PM BST 22 Aug 2014 Britain will not enter into a "poisonous" alliance with Syria in its fight against Islamic State forces, the Foreign Secretary has said. Ministers have faced calls from Tory MPs and military leaders to liaise with Bashaar al Assad's government on the basis that "my enemy's enemy is my friend". However Philip Hammond has ruled out an alliance with the Syrian regime because it would "poison" Britain's relationship with moderate Sunnis. "We may very well find that we are aligned against a common enemy but it would poison what we're trying to achieve in separating moderate Sunni opinion from the poisonous ideology of Isil if we were to align ourselves with Assad." He made the comments after Lord Dannatt, the former chief of general staff, highlighted how David Cameron has been open to a relationship with Iran in dealing with the conflict. He said: "The old saying 'my enemy's enemy is my friend' has begun to have some resonance with our relationship with Iran. "I think it's going to have some resonance with our relationship with Assad. I think whether it is above the counter or below the counter, a conversation has got to be held with him. "Because if there are going to be any question of air strikes over Syria airspace it's got to be with the Assad regime's approval." Mr Hammond said that the government will review whether it provides moderate rebels fighting against the Syrian regime with weapons. France has already announced that it has been supplying them and accused Britain and the West of bearing a "heavy burden of responsibility" for failing to intervene a year ago. Mr Hammond also said that Britain will not put "boots on the ground" in Iraq. He said: "Putting western boots on the ground to fight would not only be something we would be very unlikely to get consent for but something that would not be helpful and has not been asked for. [...] EXTRACT - FULL @ SOURCE http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11051137/Philip-Hammond-We-will-not-enter-into-a-poisonous-alliance-with-Assad.html

Bit of an interest in Middle East again.
Don't know what I'm on about, but I give it a shot understanding what's going on.  LOL.

Thought it a rather odd statement from Hammond - ie the 'poisonous' bit.

Take it he simply doesn't want to get moderate Sunni Muslims off-side by getting on-board with Assad?

Given the mention of Iran, checked to see where they stand.  Iran is Shia, so it's not Iran that's the issue?

Anyway, the statement didn't sound too friendly to me and I wonder why.  What's the problem with Syria?

Looking at the article again, he's referring to the ISIL ideology as 'poisonous', so the headline is a bit misleading even though he said 'poison' to what UK is trying to achieve.

The word poison reminded me of the chemical warefare accusations against Syria.  From what I understand, Syria has been cleared.  It has in fact been suggested in a rather impressive article that I read just yesterday, I think it was, that the chemical projectile was a CIA job (if I understood correctly).

That headline's really shitting me now.  Unless they haven't quoted Hammond entirely, he's not saying he's not entering into a 'poisonous alliance' - he is merely saying that an alliance would poison to the end result they're aiming for.  Even so, bit of an odd choice of words - not very diplomatic.  Or am I wrong?

I don't know if I'm over-analysing this.  It's getting like some brain twister.  LOL.

Anyway, no boots on the ground and no holding hands with Assad.

But the bit about providing moderate rebels with weapons has me confused.  Which ones?  If they're the rebels in Syria, isn't that in violation of the Assad regime's sovereignty?

Bear with me, I'm new and don't know what's going on.  LOL.

Anyway, I found it interesting.

WIKILEAKS CABLE - SYRIA - US LET ISIS GROW

WIKILEAKS   Link to WikiLeaks - here.

Bit of an information overload for me, but if anyone wants to view the details, the link's above.

It's a cable that relates to:

Syrian General Intelligence Director (GID) General Ali Mamlouk

and US 'letting ISIS grow'.

But, as I said, I haven't read it.

OBAMA - AUTHORISED AIRSTRIKES AGAINST ISLAMIC RADICALS IN IRAQ

Obama, With Reluctance, Returns to Action in Iraq By PETER BAKERAUG. 7, 2014 WASHINGTON — In sending warplanes back into the skies over Iraq, President Obama on Thursday night found himself exactly where he did not want to be. Hoping to end the war in Iraq, Mr. Obama became the fourth president in a row to order military action in that graveyard of American ambition. The mandate he gave to the armed forces was more limited than that of his predecessors, focused mainly on dropping food and water. But he also authorized targeted airstrikes “if necessary” against Islamic radicals advancing on the Kurdish capital of Erbil and others threatening to wipe out thousands of non-Muslims stranded on a remote mountaintop. [...] “I know that many of you are rightly concerned about any American military action in Iraq, even limited strikes like these,” he said. “I understand that. I ran for this office in part to end our war in Iraq and welcome our troops home, and that’s what we’ve done. As commander in chief, I will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq.” [But what about the airstrikes?] [..] In June, he sent in 300 special forces troops not to fight but to assess the situation, an assessment that has yet to be completed, and he increased surveillance passes over Iraq. But Mr. Obama rebuffed calls, including those from within his administration, to quickly send in air power to hit ISIS forces. [...] To longtime opponents of the Iraq war, the president’s decision represented a step back down a dangerous path, one that may once again entangle the United States in a bloody and destructive venture. Far better, in their view, to find alternatives like urging the United Nations to help the Iraqis conduct their own humanitarian airdrop mission. “This is a slippery slope if I ever saw one,” said Phyllis Bennis, a scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, a research organization for peace activists. “Whatever else we may have learned from the president’s ‘dumb war,’ it should be eminently clear that we cannot bomb Islamist extremists into submission or disappearance. Every bomb recruits more supporters.” [...] “This is about America’s national security,” said Ryan Crocker, who was ambassador to Iraq under Mr. Bush and to Afghanistan under Mr. Obama. “We don’t understand real evil, organized evil, very well. This is evil incarnate. People like Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” the ISIS leader, “have been in a fight for a decade. They are messianic in their vision, and they are not going to stop.” [...] “Nobody has the sense about why in some cases and not in others,” said James B. Steinberg, a former deputy secretary of state under Mr. Obama and now dean of the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. “His last news conference just leaves you scratching your head. Yeah, we can’t do everything. But what matters to us?” Iraq, of course, offers a special case, given the amount of American blood spilled since Mr. Bush’s invasion in 2003. Beyond that, Mr. Obama said that this was an instance where there was a genuine calamity in the making; the government of the country requested help, and the United States had the capacity to step in and make a difference. “The United States cannot and should not intervene every time there is a crisis in the world,” he said. But in this case, he added, “I believe the United States cannot turn a blind eye.” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/world/middleeast/a-return-to-action.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LedeSum&module=a-lede-package-region&region=lede-package&WT.nav=lede-package&_r=1

What's the bet that there was some strong lobbying from Israel?

Hey, didn't  NATO's Rasmussen just accuse Russia of being on the 'brink of war', and supposedly angling to go into action in Ukraine on 'humanitarian grounds'.

Look what's happening here:  humanitarian grounds + military action.

Double standards?

ISRAEL - Hamas Bashing - Propaganda or Israel defending real threat to the West?

PM: We're Fighting for the West, Not Just for Us In interviews with international media Thursday, Prime Minister Netanyahu said Israel's fight against Hamas was not just for Israel. By Yaakov Levi First Publish: 8/8/2014, 12:55 AM In interviews with international media Thursday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pressed Israel's case on defending citizens from Hamas' terror attacks. By fighting Hamas, the leading edge of Islamist terrorism, Israel is defending not only itself, but the entire Western world. Speaking to Fox News, Netanyahu said that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) “is taking swaths of Iraq and Syria. It's now pushing into, right close to Lebanon and perhaps into Jordan. That's very, very dangerous and ISIS is basically a sister movement of al-Qaeda. You have Hezbollah, radical Shiites fighting radical Sunnis; you have Hamas; and you have in Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and in North Africa a plethora of Islamist terrorist groups. “They're all fighting among themselves, but they all agree that once they destroy, vanquish their Muslim moderates who are there who don't share their views and they behead them and do horrible things to them. And then they have to get to Israel, which is the Western country in the region…but we're the Small Satan. For all of them, you're the Great Satan. The radical Shiites are backed by Iran. The radical Sunnis have various backers and so on, and these people fight among themselves who'll be the king of the hill. But one thing they agree on, it's going to be an Islamist hill and it's going to be a world dominated by their unforgiving creed, their violent ideology which rejects modernity, rejects human rights, rejects, puts women as chattel, all minorities are subjugated or eliminated,” Netanyahu said. Speaking to German network ZDF, Netanyahu said “Hamas is part of a movement, an Islamist movement that wants to reconstruct an Islamic dominion without human rights, without plurality, women as chattel, no rights for minorities, for gays, you name it. They either don’t exist or they should be executed. This kind of unforgiving creed has anti-Semitism as part of its horrible doctrine. And that, when we see that spreading in parts of Europe, we‘re grateful when we see strong leaders like Angela Merkel, and some others in Europe, stand up forcefully against this anti-Semitism. I think that’s, we need support for Israel, but also the fight against anti-Semitism, and the liberal values that we all share. Support for the liberal values that we all share." http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183838

Don't suppose Hamas is going to give an interview to Fox News and German ZDF network, so we can hear their side of the story?

Israel is NOT a European/Western country.  It might have European settlers of mixed and Semitic origin, but it is a Middle-Eastern country.

I'm not religious and I don't understand how people can be religious or why they seek to impose their own take on religion on others, so I don't understand why the fundamentalists are so full on or what threat they allegedly pose to Europe.

But I'm inclined to think it's some propaganda bogeyman, because it's unlikely that one group of Arabic people will ever dominate another group of Arabic people and it is more likley that there will *always* be a struggle between the various groups' beliefs and that there will never be a united Arab (or Islamic) world.

If Israel were to disappear there'd be missiles to send from Turkey or wherever else, so I don't know what he's talking about. 

The appeal to the fight against 'anti-Semitism' combined with the emphasis on 'shared liberal values' is a brilliant move by Netanyahu.

Not too many in the West are likely to sympathise with picture of extremist, unforgiving head loppers coming their way -- soon.

How real is that threat?  Who knows?  I've only just started watching politics.  On an emotional level, the spectre Netanyahu raises is very hard to shake off.  It's undeniably scary.



...........................................................................

*** NOTE reference to 'entire world' in opener.

Exaggerations like that are always a bit suss.

IRAQ - CHALDEAN CATHOLICS - LOBBY OBAMA FOR US ASYLUM & DRONE STRIKES

San Diego Chaldean business leader cancels Washington trip Posted: Aug 07, 2014 1:20 PM Updated: Aug 07, 2014 1:20 PM SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A San Diego business leader who sounded the alarm over the persecution of Christians in northern Iraq decided Wednesday to cancel a trip to Washington, D.C., where he was set to meet with top administration officials. Mark Arabo, CEO of the Neighborhood Market Association, leads a coalition of people who represent Chaldean Catholics in the Middle East. The coalition is still scheduled to meet with National Security Advisor Susan Rice on Thursday, but Arabo decided to stay home and participate by phone, a spokesman said. He said Arabo had traveled a lot recently and was pleased with a United Nations resolution this week to condemn the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, known as ISIS. Coalition members plan to tell Rice that they hope President Barack Obama will recognize the situation in Iraq as a refugee crisis, to immediately increase visas and to raise the annual asylum ceiling for Middle Easterners from 10,000 to 40,000. They will also ask for targeted drone strikes against ISIS. Thousands of Christians fled the Iraqi city of Mosul, where they traditionally live side-by-side with Muslims, after being threatened with death by the fundamentalist Islamic fighters. ISIS swept through northern Iraq in late May and early June and were advancing on Baghdad before their offensive stalled. Witnesses said ISIS has instead imposed strict Islamic law in the regions they control. ... http://www.kusi.com/story/26218551/san-diego-chaldean-business-leader-cancels-washington-trip

Chaldean (Iraq Catholic) lobby urging US drone strikes.
Wonder if Obama will go for it.

IRAQ - TOWNS TAKEN BY ISLAMIC STATE - 1,500 DEAD - PANIC

1,500 Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered, Obama Administration Issued a Statement By Nina Shea National Review Online Posted 2014-08-07 03:01 GMT On Wednesday, Qaraqosh, the largest Christian town in northern Iraq's Nineveh province, came under assault from the Islamic State, and all 50 to 60,000 of its residents have fled to Erbil in Kurdistan. ... The enormity of the humanitarian crisis of the cascading exodus from Nineveh was overshadowed, though, by the early reports indicating genocide is taking place against the people of Sinjar, who are mostly followers of the Yazidi religion but also include some Christians. ... Meanwhile, 500 more Yazidi families were taken to Tel Afar, Iraq, where they are being used as human shields in the Qalaat Tel Afar (the city's old castle) and in schools. In response yesterday, U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power issued the highest level statement so far by the Obama administration on the two-month-long attack against non-Sunnis in Iraq by the Islamic State. Still relying on the formation of a new Iraqi government as the principal solution, she appealed to "all parties to the conflict," stating: We urge all parties to the conflict to allow safe access to the United Nations and its partners so they can deliver lifesaving humanitarian assistance, including to those Iraqi families reportedly encircled by ISIL on Mount Sinjar. The United States is committed to helping the people of Iraq as they confront the security and humanitarian challenges in their fight against ISIL. Iraq's leaders must move swiftly to form a new, fully inclusive government that takes into account the rights, aspirations and legitimate concerns of all of Iraq's communities. All Iraqis must come together to ensure that Iraq gets back on the path to a peaceful future and to prevent ISIL from obliterating Iraq's vibrant diversity. Meanwhile, I just received word that residents of Erbil are now fleeing in panic. My contact writes at 4:41 p.m. today: People now all leaving Erbil to go a bit more to the northeastern part of Kurdistan. There have been fight in Khabour for the last two days and apparently ISIS is winning, peshmerga is giving in, and they are closing on Erbil. People are freaking out and Security is on every other meter on the streets. Checkpoints everywhere and they are stopping everybody.  ... EXTRACTS ONLY - FULL @ SOURCE http://www.aina.org/news/20140806230136.htm

Looks like the US isn't going to intervene and they're hoping the Afghan government will come up with the solution?

From previous reports, US is quietly providing arms to the Kurdish side.

IRAQ - ISLAMIC STATE - ISIS - KURDS - SINJAR

TWITTER New Yorker link - here.

Noticed this appears to be Carnegie Endowment retweeted.

Imagine Carnegie Endowment aren't friends of Palestine.

Carnegie Endowment is a foreign policy 'think tank'.  Would you believe they've got a Moscow centre?

Don't know about these NGOs (or is it a GO ... haven't checked funding).  Who would want foreign influence in their countries?

Sinjar is a town on the Iraq-Syria border.

Like what's happening anywhere else in the world changes what's happened in Gaza!

Gaza's like shooting fish in a bucket.

Sinjar's either Iraq or Kurd.

ISIS has a fair bit of weaponry by the sound of it.  Hey, they've also changed their name, I think.  Now they're the Isamic State, as far as I know.

The New Yorker writes:

Yesterday, a senior U.S. official told me that the Obama Administration is contemplating an airlift, coördinated with the United Nations, of humanitarian supplies by C-130 transport planes to the Yazidis hiding in the Sinjar mountains. There are at least twenty thousand and perhaps as many as a hundred thousand of them, including some peshmerga militiamen providing a thin cover of protection.  The U.N. has reported that dozens of children have died of thirst in the heat. ISIS controls the entrance to the mountains. Iraqi helicopters have dropped some supplies, including food and water, but the refugees are hard to find and hard to reach.

ISIS rolls over local forces and consolidates power. ISIS is not Al Qaeda. It operates like an army, taking territory, creating a state. The aim of the Sinjar operation seems to be control of the Mosul Dam, the largest dam in Iraq, which provides electricity to Mosul, Baghdad, and much of the country. According to one expert, if ISIS takes the dam, which is located on the Tigris River, it would have the means to put Mosul under thirty metres of water, and Baghdad under five.

One way to protect the innocent and hurt those who are terrorizing them would be for the U.S. to launch air strikes on ISIS positions. That option has been discussed within the administration since the fall of Mosul, in June, but it runs against President Obama’s foreign-policy tendencies. “The President’s first instinct is, ‘Let’s help them to do it,’ ” the official told me. “The minute we do something, it changes the game.” This time, unlike in Syria, it isn’t hard to figure out how to “help them to do it”: send arms to the Kurds, America’s only secular-minded, pluralistic Muslim allies in the region, and the only force in the area with the means and the will to protect thousands of lives.  

It seems delusional to imagine that there is such a thing as an Iraqi central government that should be given priority over stopping ISIS and preventing a massacre. That dream of the American project in Iraq is gone. But perhaps the Obama Administration is being more realistic. Yesterday, I also learned that the U.S. is, in fact, sending arms to the Kurds—just not openly. This was even more welcome news, though it’s too bad that the weapons didn’t reach the peshmerga in time to defend Sinjar. The U.S. Joint Operation Center in Erbil is helping peshmerga ground troops and the Iraqi air force to coordinate attacks on ISIS, providing intelligence from the sky. It’s a breakthrough that the Kurds and the Iraqis are cooperating at all. “For the moment,” the senior official said. “And it could all fall apart, because it’s lightning in a bottle.”

*Yazidi is Kurdish people linked to Zoroastrianism.  I think Zoroastrianism was the original faith in Iran (Persia).  How cool's that!  Didn't think there were any beyond India, where they fled to centuries ago, I think it was.  Find them interesting.

That sounds pretty full on.

If ISIS/IS operate as an army, what do al-Qaeda do?

It would seem odd to overtake territory and then to just leave it, which I'm guessing is what happens.

LEBANON, SYRIA - MILITANTS IN ARSAL, LEBANON

Militants set Lebanese policemen free to solicit cease-fire talks  August 05, 2014, Tuesday/ 14:54:20/ AP / REUTERS / / BEIRUT  Hard-line militants, who seized the Lebanese town of Arsal at the weekend, released three policemen on Tuesday as a “goodwill gesture” to allow Sunni Muslim clerics to broker a deal to end four days of fighting near the Syrian border.  At least 16 Lebanese soldiers and dozens of civilians and militants have been killed in the fighting in Arsal in the most serious spillover yet in three years of civil war in Syria.  The militants are still believed to be holding about 40 members of the security forces - both soldiers and policemen.   ...  Lebanese security officials say the fighters include members of al-Qaeda's Syria branch, the Nusra Front, and an al-Qaeda splinter group, the Islamic State, which has seized swathes of land in Syria and Iraq.  Although Lebanon - a country of about 4 million, bordering Israel - has avoided the full-scale war afflicting Syria and Iraq, regional conflicts have rekindled decades-old tensions. Tripoli [Libya] has seen frequent clashes between local Sunni Muslims and members of the Shiite-derived Alawite minority, and on Monday night fighting broke out after news that several Sunni clerics had been wounded as they entered Arsal to try to broker a ceasefire between the army and the militants.  Men blocked several Tripoli roads on Tuesday, and most shops were closed and streets empty after militants opened fire on a bus carrying soldiers, wounding at least six. ...  While Lebanon has officially tried to distance itself from Syria's conflict, its powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah has sent fighters to aid President Bashar al-Assad, an Alawite. Assad, like Hezbollah, is backed by Shiite power Iran.  The rebels fighting to overthrow Assad are overwhelmingly Sunni and have received support from regional Sunni powers including Saudi Arabia. Rocket fire, suicide attacks and gun battles connected to Syria's war have plagued Lebanon and the conflict has worsened Lebanon's perennial political deadlock between officials divided largely along sectarian lines.  More than 170,000 people have been killed in Syria's war, which started in 2011 as a peaceful protest movement, then degenerated into civil war after a government crackdown.  Violence went on unabated in Syria, where air strikes at the weekend in Damascus killed at least 64 people, a monitoring group said. Fighting regularly claims more than 150 lives a day.  EXTRACTS ONLY - FULL @ TODAY'S ZAMAN  - HERE

* Fighters challenging the Lebanese security forces include:

1. al-Qaeda (Syria branch)
2. al-Nusra Front (aka al-Jabhat an Nusra); and
3. Islamic State (al-Qaeda splinter group)

which have been seizing territory in both Syria and Iraq.

[ Tripoli, Libya - Sunni vs Shiite-derived  (Alawite) minority ]

Arsal, Lebanon (border town):


* Militants holding 40 - soldiers and police.
* 16 Lebanese soldiers killed
* Dozens civilians and militants killed

* Militants release x3 policemen (Sunni clerics to mediate between parties)



Lebanon -  powerful Shiite movement (Hezbollah)

President Assad (Syria) is also Shiite (Alawite)

Rebels in Syria seeking to overthrow Assad are mainly Sunni
(and rebels are backed by other countries, including Saudi Arabia).

Hezbollah have sent fighters to help Assad in Syria

Hezbollah and Assad (both Shiite) are helped by IRAN.

Iran official religion is:  Shia Islam.

170,000 killed in Syria since 2011