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Peter1469
06-13-2017, 04:22 PM
Commentary: Trump’s silver lining in Iraq (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-vanburen-iraq-commentary-idUSKBN1931SE)


I am not sure why the editors picked this title, it doesn't really fit. It is about Iraq after the Islamic State is pushed out. A small part of Mosul being the last stronghold.


There will be winners, like the Kurds. There will be losers, like Iraq’s Sunni minority. There will be gains for Iran, which backs the Shi’ite militias drafted to fight Sunni-dominated IS. And there may be a silver lining for the Trump administration - specifically in the form of Kurdish independence and permanent American bases in a Shi’ite-ruled Iraq. But any declaration of “victory” on the part of the United States depends on how the measure of those results is taken.

Kurds control a large part of northern Iraq and already are semi-autonomous. They may even vote for independence in September. I guess this where Trump comes in- prior US presidents did not support the Kurds.

The Sunni are losers. They are fragmented and surrounded by Kurds to the North, and Shiites to the South, to include a lot of Shiites directly controlled by Iran. They also don't have much oil.

The Shia will maintain the capital and much of Iraq- likely with US bases remaining in order to check Iranian power.

Iran likely won't actively resist since they have little to gain fighting over land outside of Iran. Especially a fight they can't win.

jimmyz
06-13-2017, 04:36 PM
Maybe Trump can get an agreement done to keep our bases and troop presence in Iraq unlike the one Obama didn't care to get approved. It might keep some semblance of peace?

Peter1469
06-13-2017, 04:56 PM
Maybe Trump can get an agreement done to keep our bases and troop presence in Iraq unlike the one Obama didn't care to get approved. It might keep some semblance of peace?

I don't think we should get involved in Iraqi internal affairs.

jimmyz
06-13-2017, 05:02 PM
I don't think we should get involved in Iraqi internal affairs.

Zero ground forces and air?

Peter1469
06-13-2017, 05:03 PM
Zero ground forces and air?

I never said that. I said bases for power projection in the region.

Let them govern their own nation.

jimmyz
06-13-2017, 05:22 PM
I may have misunderstood how it works. Does Iraq need to have an agreement to allow our bases to continue operating in country after they have defeated ISIL? Will the Iranian backed Shia militias have a political reason to resist our staying? Will we be militarily aligned with our friends the Kurds in an Iraqi vs Kurd conflict and hesitant to back the kurds with our power from our bases.

IMO Iraqi internal affairs has much to do with our force projection and when and whom we are backing in their country. Granted I am not big on Iraqi politics.

DGUtley
06-13-2017, 07:46 PM
The defeat should help the country stand on its own?

Peter1469
06-13-2017, 08:01 PM
I may have misunderstood how it works. Does Iraq need to have an agreement to allow our bases to continue operating in country after they have defeated ISIL? Will the Iranian backed Shia militias have a political reason to resist our staying? Will we be militarily aligned with our friends the Kurds in an Iraqi vs Kurd conflict and hesitant to back the kurds with our power from our bases.

IMO Iraqi internal affairs has much to do with our force projection and when and whom we are backing in their country. Granted I am not big on Iraqi politics.

Iraq doesn't need an agreement. The US does. We can them status of forces agreements. It covers a lot, but most importantly it gives the US jurisdiction over any military member who commits a crime in the host nation.

Peter1469
06-13-2017, 08:02 PM
The defeat should help the country stand on its own?

I am not sure about the author of the OP, but I would not advocate for the US getting involved in Iraq's internal affairs. If their various groups can't get along, that is their problem.

donttread
06-14-2017, 07:42 AM
Maybe Trump can get an agreement done to keep our bases and troop presence in Iraq unlike the one Obama didn't care to get approved. It might keep some semblance of peace?

We can't be everywhere. And we are too war mongering to call ourselves or act as peace makers anymore

waltky
11-12-2017, 11:37 PM
Mass Graves Found in Iraq Could Contain up to 400 Bodies...
http://www.politicalwrinkles.com/images/smilies/eek.gif
Mass Graves Found in Iraq Could Contain up to 400 Bodies
12 Nov.`17 - Iraqi security forces have found mass graves in an area recently retaken from the Islamic State group that could contain up to 400 bodies, an Iraqi official said Sunday.


The bodies of civilians and security forces were found in an abandoned base near Hawija, a northern town retaken in early October, Kirkuk governor Rakan Saed said. He didn't say when authorities will start exhuming the bodies from the mass graves. Iraqi security forces speak to shepherd Khalaf Luhaibi next to bones on the ground at an abandoned base near the northern town of Hawija, Iraq, Nov. 22, 2017.

Khalaf Luhaibi, a local shepherd who led troops to the site, said IS used to bring captives to the area and shoot them dead or pour oil over them and light them on fire. The area was strewn with torn clothing and what appeared to be human bones and skulls. Iraqi forces have driven IS from nearly all the territory it once controlled. Authorities have already uncovered several mass graves in other newly liberated areas.


http://cdn.bignewsnetwork.com/voa1510538713.jpg

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have driven the extremists from nearly all the territory they once controlled, with some fighting still underway near the western border with Syria. Bones lie on the ground in an area recently retaken from the Islamic State group, at an abandoned base near the northern town of Hawija, Iraq, Nov. 11, 2017.

On Saturday, Iraq's prime minister announced an operation to capture a patch of territory on the western edge of the country near the border with Syria. Hours later, Iraqi Defense Ministry announced capturing Romana area, saying the troops will head to nearby town of Rawa. According to Ahmed al-Asadi, a spokesman for the Shiite-majority paramilitary forces, Rawa is the last Iraqi town held by IS who still control some scattered small villages in mainly desert areas.

http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/255349016/mass-graves-found-in-iraq-could-contain-up-to-400-bodies

See also:

Anti-Daesh War Cost Iraq $100 Billion in Losses: PM
Sunday 12th November, 2017 | Losses from the war on the Daesh (also known as ISIL or ISIS) terrorist group have cost Iraq $100 billion, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said Saturday.


'Iraq has lost $100 billion in the anti-Daesh war, but we have achieved success in three battles; namely liberating the land, maintaining Iraq's unity and standing up to the threats,' al-Abadi said during a speech in the southern Karbala province, Anadolu Agency reported.

As for the crisis between Baghdad and northern Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), al-Abadi said 'we don't need mediation with our Kurdish people'. '[Kurdish] Peshmerga fighters enjoy patriotism, and we regret accusing those who did not fight against the Iraqi army of betrayal,' he said.

Tension escalated between the federal government in Baghdad and KRG following the Sept. 25 referendum on secession of the Kurdish region, which Baghdad insists is unconstitutional. The Iraqi premier said the country's parliamentary election would take place as scheduled in May.

http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/255337812/anti-daesh-war-cost-iraq-100-billion-in-losses-pm

waltky
03-20-2018, 06:30 PM
Bodies of 39 Kidnapped Indian Workers Found In Mass Grave In Iraq...
:shocked:
Bodies of 39 Kidnapped Indian Workers Found In Mass Grave In Iraq
March 20, 2018 - For years Harjit Masih has been talking about what happened outside of the Iraqi city of Mosul, the Associated Press reported. He and 39 other Indian men — all construction workers working on the Mosul University campus — had been kidnapped by members of ISIS as the extremist group waged its assault on the city.


The Sikh men were held captive for a handful of days then, Masih told Fountain Ink, they were forced to kneel shoulder to shoulder and shot multiple times at close range. Masih, who was shot in the thigh, was the lone survivor and managed to escape. Eventually, he made his way back to India, where until now the government's highest officials insisted there was no proof all the other prisoners were dead. "They were killed in front of my eyes," he said from his home in a northern Indian village on Tuesday, the same day India's foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj, told parliament that DNA analysis of remains found in a mass grave near the village of Badush prove that the men who were abducted in 2014 were killed, The Guardian said. "With full proof I can say these 39 are dead," Swaraj told reporters, adding that the missing workers had been murdered by ISIS, according to The Telegraph.


https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2018/03/20/ap_18079391582441-1821611a17247bbacd9f75817ed8750bc58ce222-s800-c85.jpg
Hardeep Sing (left) and Sushwinder Kaur (center) mourn holding portraits of their son Manjinder Singh, one of the 39 Indian workers whose bodies were found buried northwest of Mosul.

The AP said the bodies were found under a dirt mound after Iraqi authorities found evidence of the grave last summer using radar equipment. Once the bodies were exhumed, Indian authorities sent DNA samples from relatives of the missing workers. All but one have been identified. Among the artifacts discovered at the site were ID cards, non-Iraqi shoes and religious bracelets. In the days leading up to their disappearance, the AP reported many of the men made panicked phone calls to their relatives back in India, pleading for help to escape the ISIS-controlled region. As a result, as NPR reported, anxious families began swamping government hotlines. "A majority of the Indians kidnapped in Iraq hail from Punjab," Punjab's deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal told NPR. "We are really worried ... The federal government must take every necessary action to bring [them] back home," he said at the time.

But The Telegraph reported, the Indian government never received any ransom demands or other direct communication from the kidnappers. Swaraj, has been roundly criticized by members of the opposing party "for giving false hope to the nation." But she defended the decision to wait until this week to declare the men dead, insisting the government needed proof. "It would have been a sin had we handed over anybody's body claiming it to be those of our people, just for the sake of closing files," she said. The AP says dozens of mass graves like the one found outside of Badush have been discovered in territories previously held by ISIS. However, the Iraqi government says it doesn't possess the resources or trained personnel to examine all of them. The Indian government said the identified bodies will be flown home after formalities are completed in Iraq.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/20/595231816/bodies-of-39-kidnapped-indian-workers-found-in-mass-grave-in-iraq