Iraqi prime minister says he would ‘welcome’ Russian airstrikes in Iraq

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: Washington Post

As Moscow deepens its military involvement in the region, Iraq appears to be increasingly looking east for assistance in its fight against Islamic State extremists, with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi indicating Thursday that he would welcome a Russian bombing campaign.

In an interview with France 24 television, Abadi accused the U.S.-led coalition of a lack of support and questioned the will of Western leaders to defeat the Islamic State. He said Russian strikes were a “possibility” but had not been discussed.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, however, that there are no plans for Russia to strike Islamic State militants in Iraq.

The U.S.-led coalition has been bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq for more than a year, but Iraqi officials have repeatedly complained that the efforts are insufficient to decisively turn back the militants. The United States has spent more than $25 billion to train and equip Iraq’s military, but Abadi’s comments Thursday were the latest indication that the country is increasingly seeking support from other partners — particularly traditional U.S. rivals Russia and Iran.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iraqi-prime-minister-says-he-would-welcome-russian-airstrikes/2015/10/01/4177cf3c-684b-11e5-8325-a42b5a459b1e_story.html

[Demeter]

1. Oi vey!

He can't be serious.

Just divide the country into affiliations, and let people live. There is no Iraq, so we can stop pretending there is.

[SkyDaddy7]

2. Remember when Joe Biden proposed this in 2006?

Biden: Split Iraq into 3 different regions...Kurd, Sunni & Shia. The Cheney/Rumsfeld/Bush Administration & the media basically said he was naive & would be dooming Iraq to certain destruction. LOL!!!!!!!!!


From the article:
"In their essay Monday, Biden and Gelb wrote: "It is increasingly clear that President Bush does not have a strategy for victory in Iraq. Rather, he hopes to prevent defeat and pass the problem along to his successor."

...And that is EXACTLY what they did!!!

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-01-biden-iraq_x.htm

[happyslug]

12. Yes, give the biggest oil fields to the Shiite and the lesser ones to the Kurds

And leave the Sunni of Iraq, allied with the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia with no oil. Great plan except Saudi Arabia hated it for it strengthened Iran. A united Iraq can have the Sunni offset the Shiites in Iraq. A divided Iraq gives control of the oil fields of Iraq to the Shiites of Southeast Iraq, who have historically looked to Iran for leadership.

A divided Iraq seems to have been the plan from Day one of the invasion, but Saudi Arabia ended up vetoing it. Remember the main Arabia oil fields are in the SHIITE part of Arabia, just south of Kuwait and cross the Persian Gulf from Iran. A united Iraq with a strong Sunni internal group is more acceptable to Saudi Arabia then a strong independent Shiite republic that stops at Baghdad but centers around Barsa. Thus dividing Iraq was NOT acceptable to the House of Saud (but was acceptable to Iran).

[SkyDaddy7]

13. No, that is not how Joe Biden intended the division...

The Cheney/Bush Administration NEVER wanted a divided Iraq in any form. Biden called for 3 regions like what the Kurds had & still do that are self governed with a central government for national matters & oil money to divided in a fair way. "The Constitution must be amended to guarantee Sunni areas 20% (approximately their proportion of the population) of all revenues."

[happyslug]

16. But that was still unacceptable to the Saudis

The Saudis want the Sunni to be in charge not restricted to a 20% control, the Saudi wanted the oil to go ALL TO THE SUNNIS or at least the least amount of money to the Shiites. How that occurred the Sunnis did not care, it could be de facto (In fact) but not de Jure (In Law) i.e.it look like a joint control but the Sunnis control all the important parts.

As to Bush NEVER wanted a divided Iraq, that same group prepared a map showing such a division:



Thus officially Bush never wanted to divide Iraq, unofficially it was an open topic. The House of Saud kept vetoing it but the above map kept on coming back. The main reason it kept coming back is the smart money in DC do NOT see the House of Saud surviving 20 years and want to get its collapse over with.

The proposed "Arab Shiite State" would have most of the oil from Iraq, Kuwait, Iran and Saudi Arabia, again something the house of Saud opposes.

[jamzrockz]

5. And if someone

were to propose the same solution for the US, they would be dismissed as a kooky right winger. But hey, why not force that on another country that we would not tolerate for our country?

My solution would be to kick everyone who have ever supported the US (kurds), ISIS (some Sunnis) out of the country. That or give them a small piece of land with no natural resources whatsoever (barren desert land) and let them live in it. Maybe their leader can try the Lincoln approach and use great military force to unite the country. I would take Lincoln's solution as a plan B to my preferred solution of kicking the traitors out.

Betray the country by selling out to foreign invaders and you lose the right to be called a Syrian or an Iraqi. That should be the risk of being a traitor to your country.

[nyabingi]

8. No, how about you and Joe Biden

stop with the racist assumption that you get to decide the national boundaries of people living in the Middle East. It is up to Iraqis to decide what to do with their country, not arrogant assholes from Western countries who screwed up the Middle East in the first place after the Ottoman Empire ended.

I swear, many of you so-called "liberals" and Democrats are just as racist and chauvinistic as conservatives and Republicans, but at least the Republicans know they are racist and chauvinistic.

[karynnj]

11. Biden changed his proposal before it was passed by the Senate

The change was to have a summit where no outsiders were draw any lines. Many old links no longer work, but here are some nice excerpts from Kerry and Biden that a fantastic Duer excerpted long ago. (Note that Kerry is actually concerned with exactly what you are speaking of )

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=273x153969

What is hard to understand is that the reasons behind Biden (and Kerry's earlier calls for regional summits) still existed in 2009. It seems a lost opportunity that the US did not sponsor something of this sort to help Iraq create a government that would give the minorities enough power to keep them from welcoming ISIS.

[SkyDaddy7]

14. LOL!

The US should have NEVER invaded Iraq...Once we did it was OUR responsibility to the citizens of Iraq to help rebuild the mess we made or not? "You break it you fix it"!

Obviously you have NO CLUE what Joe Biden proposed that you call "racist" WTF!?!?...What he proposed was each have their own self governed region where they would feel safe policed by their own police & governed by their own leaders (Like the Kurds have & VERY MUCH ENJOY!!!) & central government in Baghdad for common national matters like defense of the nation as whole & the fair division of oil revenue.

[nyabingi]

18. If that sort of arrangement is to happen,

it shouldn't be because someone like Joe Biden wants it to happen, and that's what you don't seem to understand.

If we wanted to restitution to the people of Iraq (and we should), then we should pay them reparations, issue a public and official apology and promise to work with whomever they decide should be their leaders. The reparations (and I'm talking at least as much as we've spent since 2003 destroying their country) should be funded with a harsh tax on all of the military contractors and corporations who've directly profited off of Iraqi misery and suffering.

Joe is like any other Western leader who feels that paternalistic urge to decide what's best for the darker-skinned people of the world.

[SkyDaddy7]

23. You are so freaking UNIFORMED & NAIVE!

EXACTLY what you said is exactly what Biden wanted at the time...People like YOU give Liberals like me a bad name! You are no different than Tea Party dumb asses speaking from emotion about matters you no fucking clue what you're talking about. You take real problems from the past & broad brush everything in the present & future with with the same brush which solves nothing!! Dump a trillion US dollars in restitution on Iraq it changes NOTHING over there right now except the sophistication & amount of weaponry they use to kill each other!!

Joe Biden has always been about working with others NEVER been about the RACIST BULLSHIT CLAIMS your UNINFORMED LAZY wannabe "Liberal" self is making.

[Crowman1979]

3. More proof that we need to stop being the "World Police".

Let's just work on our f'ed up infrastructure, fix the education system, increase veterans health care, explore space, and drastically reduce our defense budget.

[bemildred]

6. Priceless. nt

[jwirr]

7. Can't say as I can blame them. We went in illegally, we have

been there for many years with no real results, we have destroyed their country, we have set up our own rulers, we have repeated the profits from their oil industry and we are still there.

Russia has been their neighbor forever and what have they done to them that compares?

If Russia does go in there is no reason to believe that they will not continue doing what we did to them but I see why they think otherwise.

And Biden's suggestion that the divide the country up is just another American suggestion. Has anyone asked them?

[Puzzledtraveller]

19. All true

but more amazed that the general attitude among many of my personal fellow Dems is that Iraq doesn't matter anymore. They are paying no attention to our continued rat fucking of Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya and middle east in general. The ptbs's have succeeded in silencing a large part of the anti-war outcry and even created a few war hawks who are now all anti-russia like McCarthy era propagandists. You don't have to like Putin, but heck I don't think Russia can do any worse than us at the very least.

[nyabingi]

9. Iranian news sources have long been reporting

that US and UK forces have been ineffective in their "war" against ISIS because they are actually assisting ISIS directly. Iraqi forces on the ground have repeatedly reported seeing US helicopters dropping aid directly to ISIS forces.

No wonder the Iraqis are hoping for Russian help and looking at US help as "insufficient".

[Lychee2]

10. Russia has moved into US oil turf in Syria. Will the US allow this in Iraq?

Does the US have a choice?

[davidn3600]

20. Sure...world war III

Which can easily happen if Russia pushes hard enough.

[Lychee2]

21. Yes.

We are already in another cold war with Russia.

[Marrah_G]

15. The Iraqi military was a massive waste of money

Incredibly corrupt, undisciplined and inept. I feel very badly for the innocent women and children caught in that particular hell. You cannot force men to want to fight for their homes/freedom and you can't bribe them to want to fight for their homes/freedom. Either they want to or they don't. The ones that do want to fight are constantly undermined and betrayed by corrupt leaders.

[Lychee2]

22. Yes. Because their hearts aren't in it.

Contrast the Iraqi Army with ISIS, where morale and motivation are very high. The difference? They believe in what they're doing. This makes a big difference in warfare. That's what we saw in Vietnam, too, where the paycheck-seeking South Vietnamese Army was crushed by the true-believer Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army.

[bemildred]

17. PM says Iraq ready to share anti-Daesh intel with Russia

BAGHDAD

Iraq is ready to share anti-Daesh intelligence with Russia, Iran and Syria if they ask for it, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Saturday.

“We have been fighting Daesh more than a year and we have some important security information that no other country has regarding Daesh,” Abadi said during a press conference at the presidential office in capital Baghdad.

Referring to Russia’s latest airstrikes in Syria -- allegedly targeting Daesh, the prime hinted that his government would welcome military equipment assistance from its neighbors Iran and Syria, or Russia.

“There aren’t any obstacles preventing the coalition of four [i.e. Russia, Syria, Iran and Iraq] from arming the Iraqi military against Daesh,” he said.

http://www.aa.com.tr/en/guncel/pm-says-iraq-ready-to-share-anti-daesh-intel-with-russia/408814