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Author: TriSec    Date: 06/27/2017 11:30:48

Good Morning.

Since we're ignoring the past, let's repeat it, shall we?


We'll start this morning back in Iraq. It's been a hot mess since we set foot there the first time on 15 February 1991. Do the math - 26 years, 4 months, 12 days.

Our old friends at Antiwar.com have tried to keep a running total of the Iraqi casualties over the past quarter-century, but it's really a lost cause. There is too much war, too much destruction, and too little accuracy to have any real numbers from that combat zone.

So when a single number leaps out, it does give me pause. It's three years ago now, but there was a horrific massacre of Iraqi military cadets by ISIS. Families of the dead are still looking to the US for an explanation. This didn't happen on Trump's watch, but nevertheless there are two administrations here that seem to be looking the other way.


It has come to be known simply as the "Speicher Massacre." But three years on, families whose loved ones were mercilessly murdered in the Iraq attack are calling on the U.S. to help them find some closure.

"ISIS called me from my son's phone and humiliated me. They said: 'Your son is killed and we threw his body in the river so come and get him,' then they hurled abuses at me," Um Hussein, the mother of a victim identified only as Hussein, recalled to Fox News from her home in a poor part of the southern Iraq city of Nasiriyah. "I didn't hang up. I held on. I held on with the small hope that they might tell me where to find my son's body."

While dozens have been held responsible for the attack, the families say that's not good enough. They want high-ranking government officials -- including the former prime minister -- to also be held responsible because, they claim, the officials abandoned and betrayed the mostly low-ranking military recruits killed in the attack.

On June 12, 2014, right after ISIS seized the country's second-largest city, Mosul, the Sunni Muslim group claimed responsibility for what would become one of the country's bloodiest single attacks on military members. As many as 1,600 unarmed Iraqi Air Force cadets outside Camp Speicher near Tikrit, the hometown of Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, were massacred.

...

"These soldiers went to Tikrit to protect the people and were instead betrayed by the people there. They were sold out to ISIS by local tribes. They were told that they would be helped to get back to their families but instead were handed straight to ISIS," Mohammed, who hails from the south-eastern Iraqi town of Amarah and lost his brother in the Speicher massacre, lamented. "Every commander all the way up the chain to the prime minister's office bears some responsibility for this. We want legal charges against every party responsible."

He, too, is calling on the U.S. and international community to help them re-open the case.

"It has been three years and the majority of families don't know what happened. We don't know who was working and coordinating this attack with the new (post-Saddam) Iraq government," Mohammad added. "This massacre has become a wound that won't close. We feel like our brothers and sons were sold out in a political bargain between corrupt officials and that is why they are trying to hide and close it forever."

Last week a spokesman for Inherent Resolve said in an email to Fox News that the Speicher massacre was "an internal matter for the government of Iraq."


But Iraq isn't the only CD that's on "Repeat" here. To be fair, we'll also do the math. It's also been a hot mess since we first set foot there on 7 October 2001 - 15 years, 8 months, 20 days.

Remember when we tried to get out of Aghanistan? From a combat high of some 90,000 troops, we've slowly petered down to around 8,000 remaining in Afghanistan, but we've never actually extricated ourselves. We once thought George Bush saw bogeymen behind every tree, but he's got nothing on the current guy. Of course there's talk of sending more troops.


Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford arrived in Afghanistan on Monday for a final assessment on whether to boost U.S. troop levels to counter a nationwide Taliban offensive and increasing terror attacks by the ISIS offshoot called Islamic State-Khorasan Province, or IS-K.

Dunford's report on the deteriorating security situation will weigh heavily in Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' decision, expected next month, on the long-standing request of Army Gen. John Nicholson, commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan and NATO and coalition troops, for an increase of 3,000 to 5,000 troops in the Force Management Level.

In House and Senate hearings last week, Mattis said President Donald Trump had given him authority to set the force level in Afghanistan, which now stands at about 8,400 troops. However, the SecDef said a "little under 10,000" are now in Afghanistan, possibly because of overlaps in regular troop rotations. Trump had already granted Mattis similar authority to set troop levels in Iraq and Syria.

NATO and coalition troops have about 5,000 troops in Afghanistan, and Mattis has signaled that he expects more commitment from allies, either with troops or funding.

Mattis also told Congress that he will present a revised regional strategy, in coordination with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, to Trump in mid-July. In doing so, he disputed published reports that he had already signed off on sending 4,000 more U.S. troops into the nearly 16-year-old conflict in Afghanistan.


Now, I know the Earth orbits the sun, and it also rotates on its axis - but the term "spinning our wheels" always seems most prominent in my mind here.








 
 

23 comments (Latest Comment: 06/27/2017 20:39:58 by Raine)
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Comment by Raine on 06/27/2017 13:12:34
Good Morning!


This is the first of a tweet thread that will make your heart proud to be a Dem.




Comment by wickedpam on 06/27/2017 13:24:50
Morning


Raine - 2nd tweet in the thread and I was weepy, got to watch part of it on Corey Booker's livestream. Totally amazing.

Comment by Raine on 06/27/2017 13:28:08
Quote by wickedpam:
Morning


Raine - 2nd tweet in the thread and I was weepy, got to watch part of it on Corey Booker's livestream. Totally amazing.


I was weeping as well!


Comment by Raine on 06/27/2017 13:33:03
This is not good at all:





Comment by Raine on 06/27/2017 14:15:39
I just shared this, and I think this part is CRITICAL to everyone who says that the ACA is crumbling -- show them WHY Insurance companies are leaving:


We have some specific questions for lawmakers who should consider how the bill specifically impacts their states:

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.):

You helped block most payments to insurers going through the risk corridors to compensate for excessive losses. Do you admit that this was a significant reason the exchanges have lost many insurers (in some cases, all of them)? Why would you support a bill now that explicitly makes the very same payments to insurers for two years that you sought to block? Oh, and how many Floridians in nursing homes or assisted-living facilities (AFLs) rely on Medicaid? (I will save him the trouble: “There are 683 licensed nursing homes in Florida, representing approximately 83,587 beds … [and 3,089 licensed AFL’s in Florida, representing approximately 92,000 beds.] … Medicaid, which covers health care costs for low-income individuals, pays for approximately 60 percent of all long-term care spending.”)



Comment by Mondobubba on 06/27/2017 14:29:28
Quote by Raine:
Quote by wickedpam:
Morning


Raine - 2nd tweet in the thread and I was weepy, got to watch part of it on Corey Booker's livestream. Totally amazing.


I was weeping as well!



But Corey is a corporate whore who takes money from Big Pharma! He is a turn coat sell out! :froths at the mouth:



In case you were wondering this is

Comment by Raine on 06/27/2017 14:38:05
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by Raine:
Quote by wickedpam:
Morning


Raine - 2nd tweet in the thread and I was weepy, got to watch part of it on Corey Booker's livestream. Totally amazing.


I was weeping as well!



But Corey is a corporate whore who takes money from Big Pharma! He is a turn coat sell out! :froths at the mouth:



In case you were wondering this is

He also may become our second Black Pres!

not sarcasm!

Comment by wickedpam on 06/27/2017 14:43:47
Quote by Raine:
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by Raine:
Quote by wickedpam:
Morning


Raine - 2nd tweet in the thread and I was weepy, got to watch part of it on Corey Booker's livestream. Totally amazing.


I was weeping as well!



But Corey is a corporate whore who takes money from Big Pharma! He is a turn coat sell out! :froths at the mouth:



In case you were wondering this is

He also may become our second Black Pres!

not sarcasm!



I have liked him since he gave out his phone number to people if they needed help shoveling out from those big snow storms.

Comment by BobR on 06/27/2017 14:51:16
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Raine:
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by Raine:
Quote by wickedpam:
Morning


Raine - 2nd tweet in the thread and I was weepy, got to watch part of it on Corey Booker's livestream. Totally amazing.


I was weeping as well!



But Corey is a corporate whore who takes money from Big Pharma! He is a turn coat sell out! :froths at the mouth:



In case you were wondering this is

He also may become our second Black Pres!

not sarcasm!



I have liked him since he gave out his phone number to people if they needed help shoveling out from those big snow storms.

I saw him in the lobby of the law firm where I work a couple weeks ago. Probably stopped by to confer with our retired congressman who works there (here).

Comment by Mondobubba on 06/27/2017 15:12:06
Quote by Raine:
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by Raine:
Quote by wickedpam:
Morning


Raine - 2nd tweet in the thread and I was weepy, got to watch part of it on Corey Booker's livestream. Totally amazing.


I was weeping as well!



But Corey is a corporate whore who takes money from Big Pharma! He is a turn coat sell out! :froths at the mouth:



In case you were wondering this is

He also may become our second Black Pres!

not sarcasm!


Indeed he might be. What I was trying point out was the ridiculousness of the purity test. People can be a bunch of different, seemingly conflicting things all at the same time.

Comment by Raine on 06/27/2017 15:15:34



Comment by Scoopster on 06/27/2017 15:37:20
Mornin' all..

Comment by Will in Chicago on 06/27/2017 15:39:35
Good morning, bloggers!!

I hope that everyone is doing well today.

I am not sure when we will have U.S. troops leave Iraq and Afghanistan. We still have bases in Europe, decades after World War II. We also have many troops in South Korea, whose leader with Donald Trump may stumble into war.

Comment by BobR on 06/27/2017 15:49:10
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by Raine:
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by Raine:
Quote by wickedpam:
Morning


Raine - 2nd tweet in the thread and I was weepy, got to watch part of it on Corey Booker's livestream. Totally amazing.


I was weeping as well!



But Corey is a corporate whore who takes money from Big Pharma! He is a turn coat sell out! :froths at the mouth:



In case you were wondering this is

He also may become our second Black Pres!

not sarcasm!


Indeed he might be. What I was trying point out was the ridiculousness of the purity test. People can be a bunch of different, seemingly conflicting things all at the same time.

The purity tests have been completely insane the past year. Apparently, Bernie Sanders is 100% pure, and anyone who is not Bernie Sanders is a "neo-liberal"


Comment by Mondobubba on 06/27/2017 15:50:34
Quote by BobR:
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by Raine:
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by Raine:
Quote by wickedpam:
Morning


Raine - 2nd tweet in the thread and I was weepy, got to watch part of it on Corey Booker's livestream. Totally amazing.


I was weeping as well!



But Corey is a corporate whore who takes money from Big Pharma! He is a turn coat sell out! :froths at the mouth:



In case you were wondering this is

He also may become our second Black Pres!

not sarcasm!


Indeed he might be. What I was trying point out was the ridiculousness of the purity test. People can be a bunch of different, seemingly conflicting things all at the same time.

The purity tests have been completely insane the past year. Apparently, Bernie Sanders is 100% pure, and anyone who is not Bernie Sanders is a "neo-liberal"


RE: "Neo-liberal:"

http://i3.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/010/692/19789999.jpg


Comment by Mondobubba on 06/27/2017 15:52:25
Scoop, have you seen this?


NSFW



Comment by Scoopster on 06/27/2017 17:17:44
Quote by Mondobubba:
Scoop, have you seen this?


NSFW




There's a part 2 after this that's even better...

btw if you haven't checked out the parodies done by Team Four Star do it nao!

Comment by Raine on 06/27/2017 17:51:01










!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Comment by Raine on 06/27/2017 17:53:56
MSNBC and WTOP are also reporting!


WOOT!

Comment by Mondobubba on 06/27/2017 19:00:05
Quote by Scoopster:
Quote by Mondobubba:
Scoop, have you seen this?


NSFW




There's a part 2 after this that's even better...

btw if you haven't checked out the parodies done by Team Four Star do it nao!



There is also Scottish Lilo and Stitch.

Comment by TriSec on 06/27/2017 20:32:01
Comrades...

'twas five years ago on this very day that I awoke from surgery to my new reality.

I am pleased to report that I had my annual physical this morning, and all is well. I had a large amount of blood work done in anticipation of my last six-month visit with my oncologist coming up in about ten days.

She's certain I'll be able to move to annual monitoring after next week. I don't even have a colonoscopy or CT scan scheduled at this time.

It has been a long road.




Comment by Raine on 06/27/2017 20:39:19
Watcing this again -- and it is damn glorious.

Huckabee is a bad person.




Comment by Raine on 06/27/2017 20:39:58
Quote by TriSec:
Comrades...

'twas five years ago on this very day that I awoke from surgery to my new reality.

I am pleased to report that I had my annual physical this morning, and all is well. I had a large amount of blood work done in anticipation of my last six-month visit with my oncologist coming up in about ten days.

She's certain I'll be able to move to annual monitoring after next week. I don't even have a colonoscopy or CT scan scheduled at this time.

It has been a long road.


This is really wonderful NEWS!