Battle to Recapture Fallujah from Al Qaeda Forces Coming Up; War in Iraq a complete Failure; US is Biggest Threat to World Peace

The war in Iraq cost the lives of 4,489 Americans, with another 51,778 wounded. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed or injured. We wasted over a trillion dollars in the process.

Why? To remove Saddam Hussein.

Hussein was a brutal dictator, but that battle clearly was not ours. And at least under Hussein, religious freedom existed. It doesn't now. Chaldean Catholics are targeted and killed simply because they are Catholic.

There were no Al Qaeda forces in Iraq either. Hussein, a secular dictator, had no use for them.

Now, following the war Al Qaeda operates openly. They even control the town of Fallujah.

Please consider Iraq Forces May Soon Start Attack to Recapture Fallujah.

Iraqi security forces, militias or tribesmen may soon start an attack to retake the city of Fallujah from al-Qaeda-linked militants, a government official said.

“I believe that a final combat will take place soon,” Faleh al-Issawi, deputy head of the provincial council of Anbar, said by phone from Ramadi. “Fallujah city is totally controlled by militias and this extends to Garma,” a town about 15 kilometers (9 miles) away.

Forty civilians have died and 186 were wounded in the fighting, al-Issawi said, citing figures from hospitals in Ramadi and Fallujah. The attacking forces may include Iraqi troops, tribesmen, or militias, he said.

The U.S. is following the events in Iraq closely and is concerned by efforts of the “terrorist Al Qaida/Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to assert its authority in Syria as well as Iraq,” State Department Deputy Spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement yesterday.

“We would note that a number of tribal leaders in Iraq have declared an open revolt against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,” Harf said. “We are working with the Iraqi government to support those tribes in every possible way.”

Iraq’s air force carried out two air strikes on Fallujah and the nearby city of Ramadi that killed 55 al-Qaeda fighters, General Ali Ghaidan, chief of the country’s land forces, told al-Sumaria News. Maliki vowed to remove all “terrorist groups” from Anbar, according to a statement on his official website.

Secretary of State John Kerry earlier said the U.S. won’t send troops to assist Iraq. “This is a fight that belongs to the Iraqis,” Kerry told a news conference in Jerusalem today.

War in Iraq a complete Failure 

Iraq was NEVER a US battle. Strike that. Iraq SHOULD NEVER have been a US battle. But it was.

And we made things far worse for Iraq and the entire Mideast region thanks to war-mongering fools in the WhiteHouse.

Militarily, the US defeated Hussein, but we lost the far more important battle for hearts and minds, not just in Iraq, but also Pakistan, because of our inane drone policy that has taken the lives of thousands of civilians, including children.

US is Biggest Threat to World Peace 

It's absolutely no wonder a Gallup Poll shows the US is the Biggest Threat to World Peace.

In their annual End of Year poll, researchers for WIN and Gallup International surveyed more than 66,000 people across 65 nations and found that 24 percent of all respondents answered that the United States “is the greatest threat to peace in the world today.” Pakistan and China fell significantly behind the United States on the poll, with 8 and 6 percent, respectively. Afghanistan, Iran, Israel and North Korea all tied for fourth place with 4 percent.

Much of the animosity toward America comes from Muslim Middle Eastern and North African nations, all located in a region most likely to be affected by American military actions over the past decade. Forty-four percent of Pakistani respondents, for instance, voted America as the most dangerous nation, despite Pakistan’s acceptance of U.S. foreign aid. The Chinese and Russians rated the United States as dangerous even more than Pakistanis did, at 54 and 49 percent, respectively.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com