Perpetual Middle East Geopolitical Quagmire Megathread

[Kyle 207]

On 11/14/2018 at 11:18 AM, maninblack said:

Check out the NYT caption

"Now I don't care who you are, that's funny."

[atomheartbevo 90543]

19 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Not sure how much more against the administration you think Graham can go on this?

 

 

When I see Linda actually helping cut off arms sales to the Saudis, etc. I will believe it.  

Until then, let’s ask Lil Jeffie how much Graham’s support means. 

[maninblack 7975]

Who's the terrorists?

U.S. wants to continue support for Saudi-led coalition in Yemen

Spoiler

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - The United States wants to continue support to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen’s war and will remain engaged in efforts to combat Iranian influence and Islamist militancy in the Arab state, a State Department official said on Sunday.

Since the Oct 2. murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate, the U.S. administration has come under pressure at home over the nearly four-year-old conflict.

The Senate last month voted to advance a resolution to end U.S. military support, which includes arms sales and intelligence sharing, for the Western-backed Sunni Muslim coalition that intervened in 2015 against the Iranian-aligned Houthis to restore the internationally recognized government.

“There are pressures in our system ... to either withdraw from the conflict or discontinue our support of the coalition, which we are strongly opposed to on the administration side,” said Timothy Lenderking, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Arabian Gulf Affairs.

“We do believe that the support for the coalition is necessary. It sends a wrong message if we discontinue our support,” he told a security forum in the United Arab Emirates.

The United States last month halted U.S. refueling of aircraft from the coalition, which has been blamed for air strikes that have killed thousands of civilians in Yemen.

The U.S. official’s reassurances of continued support comes as Sweden hosts the first U.N.-led peace talks in two years between the warring parties and as Gulf Arab leaders hold an annual summit in Riyadh on Sunday, expected to discuss the war.

CONTAINING IRAN

Lenderking said peace talks launched last week were a “vital first step” in ending the conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and left millions facing starvation.

He said there were no illusions the process would be easy, but that there were signs of constructive talks and that Washington wants concrete results from the meetings focused on confidence-building measures and a transitional governing body.

“Looking down the road we seek a stable and unified Yemen that fosters rather than drains regional and global stability.”

“There is no place in a future Yemen for an Iranian-backed threat to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and vital international economic quarters,” he said, adding that the coalition was also combating al Qaeda and Islamic State militants in Yemen.

The Arabian Peninsula country lies beside the southern mouth of the Red Sea, one of the most important trade routes in the world for oil tankers.

The conflict, seen largely in the region as a proxy war between Riyadh and Tehran, pits the Houthi movement against other Yemeni forces loyal to the government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi backed by the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The Houthis, who have fired missiles on Saudi cities, control the capital Sanaa, after ousting Hadi’s government from there in 2014, and the most populous areas of the country. Hadi’s government has a base in the southern port of Aden.

Lenderking said that experts forecast there could be 1 million former combatants that need to be disarmed once a peace deal is reached, requiring security sector reform as well as restoring crippled infrastructure and shoring up the economy.

“Early recovery efforts are underway but full scale reconstruction can only occur in a peaceful environment. For that reason we want to close the space for malign Iranian influence.”

 

 

[Fozzz 152]

On American foreign policy:

“The American people are very much like the children of a Mafia boss who do not know what their father does for a living, and don’t want to know, but then they wonder why someone just threw a firebomb through the living room window.”

RIP William Blum. 

Edited December 12, 2018 by Fozzz

[Horn Under a Bad Sign 20834]

imgur

Edited January 2, 2019 by Horn Under a Bad Sign

[cactusflinthead 27626]

 

[WhatTheBuck 28904]

"Defeated" ISIS attacks US and Kurdish forces in Syria with suicide bomber. Unconfirmed reports have two Americans, one Kurd, and nine civilians killed. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-46892118

[Bama Chick 28596]

I mean, how many of us said ISIS would attack just to shove Trump’s “I TOTALLY BEAT ISIS!!” in his fat orange face?

And announcing military strategy on Twitter and having your military leadership learn about it at the same time as the enemy isn’t a great idea.

[InkaUtexas 26795]

Reports now are 4KIA, shitload wounded. 

[David Dennison 19440]

I look forward to DOTARD's statement blaming Obama.

[WhatTheBuck 28904]

Four Americans dead and three wounded according an unnamed U.S. Official. 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-blast/four-us-troops-reported-among-16-dead-in-north-syria-attack-idUSKCN1PA1GQ

[retread 2951]

 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

Pence isn’t known for his judgment 

[Fozzz 152]

Trump is right.  Get the troops out of Syria.  

[InkaUtexas 26795]

I hate the US Government (any administration) talking about the state of combat ops openly. Never give the enemy reasons to make propaganda. There is no "winning" in a guerrilla/anti-terrorist campaign. 

That said, even a cornered and dying rat can bite your ass. 

[Atx71 146]

17 minutes ago, Fozzz said:

Trump is right.  Get the troops out of Syria.  

Why are we in Syria, because it is a part of the chain reaction that started when we invaded Iraq with insufficient troops to control the populous after Hussein fell. Just as General Shinseki testified before Congress would happen before the invasion and led to Rumsfeld firing him afterwards. Military actions have consequences. Long ones.

[Fozzz 152]

2 hours ago, Atx71 said:

Why are we in Syria, because it is a part of the chain reaction that started when we invaded Iraq with insufficient troops to control the populous after Hussein fell. Just as General Shinseki testified before Congress would happen before the invasion and led to Rumsfeld firing him afterwards. Military actions have consequences. Long ones.

We were arming and training rebels in Syria years before Obama started to care about their presence there.  Some of those arms even ended up in the hands of ISIS.

Quote

The most extreme elements, the Al Qaeda offshoots Jabhat al-­Nusra and the Islamic State, not only used the weapons but also advertised them in videos that included beheadings, the hurling of gay men off towers to their deaths, the murder of American journalists and British aid workers, and the rape of Yezidi women. Charles Lister said that “all of the opposition worked with Nusra, because they were very good on the battlefield. But what was the result of that in London and Paris and Washington and elsewhere? We began to look at the opposition like they were all jihadis.”

https://harpers.org/archive/2019/02/american-involvement-in-syria/

[David Dennison 19440]

3 hours ago, Fozzz said:

Trump is right.  Get the troops out of Syria.  

And every other country while we're at it.

Oh, we can't.

Empire.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

 

[Fozzz 152]

Guess we'll be there forever then!

[InkaUtexas 26795]

1 hour ago, Fozzz said:

Guess we'll be there forever then!

nah, but we will go back when the French surrender...  

I kid, I kid... The French are holding their own across the Magreb and did some good work in Afghanistan. 

[LongestHorn 772]

On 1/16/2019 at 11:59 AM, WhatTheBuck said:

Four Americans dead and three wounded according an unnamed U.S. Official. 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-blast/four-us-troops-reported-among-16-dead-in-north-syria-attack-idUSKCN1PA1GQ

 

Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan Farmer, Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician Shannon Kent and DoD civilian Scott Wirtz died Wednesday in Manbij, Syria, as a result of wounds sustained from a suicide improvised explosive device.

Farmer, 37, was an Army Green Beret from Boynton Beach, Florida. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Farmer joined the Army on March 30, 2005. He graduated in 2007 from the Special Forces Qualification Course as an engineer sergeant and was assigned to 5th Group, where he remained throughout his career.  Farmer was selected to attend the Special Forces Warrant Officer Candidate School, where he earned his commission in 2016.

Farmer served on six overseas combat tours. Twice in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in October 2007 and January 2009; once in support of Operation New Dawn in August 2010; once in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in January 2012; and twice in support of Operation Inherent Resolve in January 2018 and January 2019 until his passing.

Farmer’s awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Purple Heart, the Army Commendation Medal with “C” Device, the Army Commendation Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Achievement Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Ribbon with one campaign star, the Iraqi Campaign Medal with three campaign stars, the Special Forces Tab, the Parachutist Badge and the Combat Infantryman Badge.

He is survived by his spouse, four children, and his parents.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/01/18/pentagon-identifies-three-americans-killed-in-syria/

[Brisketexan 106615]

Just now, LongestHorn said:

 

Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan Farmer, Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician Shannon Kent and DoD civilian Scott Wirtz died Wednesday in Manbij, Syria, as a result of wounds sustained from a suicide improvised explosive device.

Farmer, 37, was an Army Green Beret from Boynton Beach, Florida. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Farmer joined the Army on March 30, 2005. He graduated in 2007 from the Special Forces Qualification Course as an engineer sergeant and was assigned to 5th Group, where he remained throughout his career.  Farmer was selected to attend the Special Forces Warrant Officer Candidate School, where he earned his commission in 2016.

Farmer served on six overseas combat tours. Twice in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in October 2007 and January 2009; once in support of Operation New Dawn in August 2010; once in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in January 2012; and twice in support of Operation Inherent Resolve in January 2018 and January 2019 until his passing.

Farmer’s awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Purple Heart, the Army Commendation Medal with “C” Device, the Army Commendation Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Achievement Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Ribbon with one campaign star, the Iraqi Campaign Medal with three campaign stars, the Special Forces Tab, the Parachutist Badge and the Combat Infantryman Badge.

He is survived by his spouse, four children, and his parents.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/01/18/pentagon-identifies-three-americans-killed-in-syria/

Sorry, these deaths are not noteworthy.  Hillary can't be blamed for them on Fox news.  DOTUS out front shoulda told ya.

That snark aside, shitty news indeed.

[InkaUtexas 26795]

Looks like ISIS was watching. 

BEIRUT — For American troops posted in the dusty flatlands of northern Syria, the Palace of the Princes restaurant in Manbij offered a pleasant place to stop for grilled chicken, French fries or its locally renowned shawarma sandwich.

The Americans liked the food so much that they dropped in frequently, often many times a week, residents said. Visiting officials were welcomed to red booths and water pipes; two American senators dined there in July.

“They stop here for chicken and shawarma whenever they have a patrol in the city,” said Jassim al-Khalaf, 37, who sells vegetables nearby. “People here are used to it, so it’s not a new thing to see them.”

The jihadists of the Islamic State noticed, too, dispatching a suicide bomber who blew himself up at the restaurant on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people, including four Americans: two service members, a Defense Department civilian and a military contractor.

[zork 629]

This is good, right?

[TDunk 590]

35 minutes ago, zork said:

This is good, right?

Let me know, is ISIS defeated or is pussy undefeated?  That's your answer.  

[WhatTheBuck 28904]

It's really fucking stupid to think taking ISIS territory means defeating ISIS. ISIS, Al Qaeda, Al Shabaab, Boko Haram, etc. They're all faces of the same ideology and the home of that ideology is Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

After two weeks of efforts, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu succeeded in forming a united ultra right-wing party that will run in the April 9 elections, paving the way for Jewish supremacists from the "Jewish Power" party to make it into the next Knesset. 

Why it matters: This is an unprecedented development in Israel's history and is equivalent to a U.S. president cutting a political deal with David Duke, the former KKK leader. The prime minister and the ruling Likud Party are legitimizing a racist, xenophobic and homophobic fringe party in hopes of bolstering a right-wing bloc after the elections.

"Jewish Power" was formed by the followers of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the former leader of the Kach party, which was banned from running in Israel's 1988 elections and designated a terror organization by the Israeli government in 1994. Kach was also blacklisted as a terrorist organization in the U.S., Canada and the EU.

 

 

[Parliament 14556]

That can't be good.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

 

[Rougarou 594]

On 10/21/2018 at 7:53 PM, happyfunball said:

Word on da street is that Softbanks Vision 2 fund will fall apart as a result of the this event. While the US cedes it’s global role, the world can still do what is right despite us. 

Softbanks first vision fund was $100b with $400 coming from KSA

Mckinsey has now been implicated too

 

Whatever happened with this? I ask because I saw Softbank has a YUGE stake in WeWork and I saw recently that WeWork is hemorrhaging money and seems to be a Real Estate Theranos of overvaluation.

[tucker 238]

Oh Republicans

 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

16 minutes ago, tucker said:

Oh Republicans

 

Seems like I read that Ed Royce was in on the Michael Flynn/Russia/Saudi Arabia Nuclear Power Plant scheme. 

Oh yeah, I did...

https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/Timeline of Events with Flynn.pdf

[NowThis 931]

On 2/21/2019 at 4:59 AM, WhatTheBuck said:

It's really fucking stupid to think taking ISIS territory means defeating ISIS. ISIS, Al Qaeda, Al Shabaab, Boko Haram, etc. They're all faces of the same ideology and the home of that ideology is Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 

while we should always welcome Saudi regime bashing, those groups really hate & want to overthrow the regime. 

Meanwhile, anyone notice that Saudi beheaded 37 Shia opponents in one day last week. 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/saudi-arabia-beheads-37-prisoners-for-terrorism-crimes

Saudi Arabia beheads 37 prisoners for terrorism crimes

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia on Tuesday beheaded 37 Saudi citizens in a mass execution across the country for alleged terrorism-related crimes, publicly pinning one of the headless bodies to a pole as a warning to others.

It marked the largest number of executions in a single day in Saudi Arabia since Jan. 2, 2016, when the kingdom executed 47 individuals, including a prominent Shiite cleric whose death sparked protests in Iran and the ransacking of the Saudi Embassy there.

READ MORE: Why did Saudi Arabia want to silence Jamal Khashoggi?

The executions also come days after four Islamic State gunmen died trying to attack a Saudi security building north of the capital, Riyadh, and on the heels of Easter Day attacks that killed over 300 people in Sri Lanka and were claimed by the Islamic State group.

[bernorange 8385]

WaPo is behind paywall.  This source is not.  If you don't like this source (and I'm sure many don't), you can go read the WaPo page if you are a subscriber:

Quote

Jamal Khashoggi, the U.S.-based Saudi journalist murdered by Saudi operatives in Turkey last year, would have been disappointed to see the U.S. response to his killing, his fiancée told The Washington Post.

Khashoggi "had always championed the U.S." as "the place you went to challenge the status quo and speak truth to power," Hatice Cengiz said during a meeting Wednesday with Post journalists. "Jamal would have been most disappointed of all to see the U.S. response."

...

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/khashoggi-saudi-murder-journalist/2019/05/15/id/916182/

Quote

The CIA and foreign security services are warning friends and colleagues of Jamal Khashoggi that their efforts to continue the pro-democracy work of the slain Saudi journalist has made them and their families the targets of potential retaliation from Saudi Arabia, according to individuals appraised of the threats and security sources in two countries.

Three of those who were given security briefings in recent weeks––democracy advocates Iyad El-Baghdadi of Oslo, Norway; Omar Abdulaziz of Montreal, Canada; and a person in the U.S. who asked not to be named––were working closely with Khashoggi on politically sensitive media and human rights projects at the time of his killing inside a Saudi diplomatic facility in Turkey last October. Based on the security briefings, the advocates say they have been targeted because they have become especially vocal and influential critics of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, accusing him of ordering Khashoggi’s murder as part of a broader crackdown on Saudi dissidents worldwide.

The CIA was the source of the threat warning, according to an overseas intelligence official, Baghdadi and others involved with the briefings. A CIA spokesperson declined to comment, but the agency has a legal “duty to warn” potential victims of specific threats including murder, kidnapping and serious bodily harm, according to a 2015 directive signed by the Director of National Intelligence. ...

More:  http://time.com/5585281/cia-warned-jamal-khashoggi-associates/

 

[bernorange 8385]

Looks like world leaders caved (so far?) and MBS gets away with his power play.

Quote

A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced five people to death and jailed three others over the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year.

Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the Saudi government, was killed inside the kingdom's consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul by a team of Saudi agents.

The Saudi authorities said it was the result of a "rogue operation" and put 11 unnamed individuals on trial.

A UN expert said the trial represented "the antithesis of justice".

"Bottom line: the hit-men are guilty, sentenced to death. The masterminds not only walk free. They have barely been touched by the investigation and the trial," Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard wrote on Twitter.

A report released by Ms Callamard concluded in June that Khashoggi's death was an "extrajudicial execution" for which the Saudi state was responsible, and that there was credible evidence warranting further investigation that high-level officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, were individually liable.
...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50890633

 

[tx 3 putt 78468]

I’ll guess the 5 ‘hit men’ were paid off to take the punishment. 

[WhatTheBuck 28904]

13 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

I’ll guess the 5 ‘hit men’ were paid off to take the punishment. 

How much do you pay someone to take the punishment of death? I'll bet the 5 hit men sentenced to death are a fiction and no one will actually die because it was a hit ordered by MBS and carried out by Saudi intelligence officers. 

I should qualify that by saying that if any heads do roll, literally, it will probably be the people who were responsible for making sure the Saudi embassy in Istanbul wasn't bugged by the Turks. Somebody probably has to pay for that. 

Edited December 24, 2019 by WhatTheBuck

[atomheartbevo 90543]

Giving Trump something to do for his State of the Union

https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/30/middleeast/iraq-us-airstrikes-reaction-intl/index.html

Quote

Iran has warned the US of "consequences" after Washington carried out airstrikes against an Iran-backed militia group in Iraq.

The US has "openly shown its support to terrorism and shown its negligence to the independence and national sovereignty of countries," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mosavi , according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

"It must accept responsibility of the consequences of the illegal attacks," added Mosavi.

At least 25 people were killed and 51 wounded in the airstrikes that targeted five facilities controlled by Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria on Sunday.

Kataib Hezbollah is a militia group that falls under the Iran-backed Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq.

The strikes represent the first significant US military response in retaliation for attacks by the militia group that have injured numerous American military personnel, according to US officials.

 

[atomheartbevo 90543]

 

[gsoda3 3358]

so is this embassy storming in baghdad not a big enough news event for cnbc?  can't manage to crack in to coverage to mention it?

[4th&Five 41902]

 

[JohnnyRage 1617]

13 minutes ago, 4th&Five said:

 

To do what, move to America?

[Foosters 18223]

6 minutes ago, JohnnyRage said:

To do what, move to America?

Strait of Hormuz invasion. Makes sense when you think about it. We know Trump is working hand in hand with JFK JR., and who better to work with when planning an organic, militia led, coup by sea?

[bernorange 8385]

Iran, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Russia, Saudi Arabia, USA  - How badly will this escalate? 

[softlynow 1893]

7 minutes ago, bernorange said:

Iran, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Russia, Saudi Arabia, USA  - How badly will this escalate? 

I doubt much comes of this. We're fortunate to have a steady hand at the tiller, and not a dementia-addled would be fascist cornered by dreadful poll numbers and a looming election that might necessitate turning to violence and stoking fear as a means to continue his rule and avoid being held to account for his criminality. 

[F250 29171]

1 hour ago, 4th&Five said:

 

Is he talking to ISIS?

 

[WhatTheBuck 28904]

"We will be welcomed as liberators."

[WhatTheBuck 28904]

1 hour ago, 4th&Five said:

 

Like Dubya, he doesn't know the difference between Sunni and Shia, does he?

[Jive Turkey 12930]

we'll get updates when Trump is done with his round.