Althouse: "The senior Shiite cleric in Iraq issued an urgent call to arms on Friday..."

June 13, 2014

"The senior Shiite cleric in Iraq issued an urgent call to arms on Friday..."

"... telling all able-bodied Iraqis to help the government fight Sunni militants who have seized broad stretches of Iraqi territory, in a sign of the growing desperation of the country’s Shiites and its shaky central government."

19 comments:

SGT Ted said...: If anybody can rally the Shiites, it's Al Sistani.

I was stationed at Karbala in 2003 and Al Sistani played a huge role in keeping the peace.; 6/13/14, 8:09 AM
The Drill SGT said...: civil war.

There are only three effective forces left in Iraq now:

ISIL
Kurds
Iranian Quds

The morale of the Iraqi Army has been broken...

I foresee Kurdistan and an Iranian client province, along with a failed Sunni State...; 6/13/14, 8:17 AM
Monkeyboy said...: Karbala has the Imam Hussein Shrine and Najaf and Sammara also are holy sites. ISIS has threatened those, as well as the Turkish Shrine in Lattakia and Christian places in Maaloula Syria. They consider it idolatry like the Bamyan Buddahs.
Expect Iran to go in hard to protect those places. If ISIS reaches them all hell is going to break loose, and not just in Iraq.; 6/13/14, 8:25 AM
Mark O said...: It's all part of Obama's brilliant plan.; 6/13/14, 8:45 AM
Michael K said...: "I foresee Kurdistan and an Iranian client province, along with a failed Sunni State…"

The Kurds have a beef with Iran, as well as Turkey. Both have been harshly suppressing Kurdish minorities for many years. This may be the chance for a real Kurdistan. I would sooner help them than the feckless Shia that have wrecked their army by dismissing officers trained by the US in favor of Shia hacks. That is the traditional cause of Arab army failures.; 6/13/14, 8:47 AM
Wince said...: Best thing we did there was let every household keep an AK-47 machine gun.; 6/13/14, 8:53 AM
Fernandinande said...: call to arms
fight
militants
desperation
shaky central government

The reversion to their natural state took a lot longer than I expected.; 6/13/14, 9:09 AM
Anonymous said...: Blogger SGT Ted said...
If anybody can rally the Shiites, it's Al Sistani.

I was stationed at Karbala in 2003 and Al Sistani played a huge role in keeping the peace.

6/13/14, 8:09 AM
__________________________________

I wonder where 'Mookie' is?
(Muktada al Sadr).; 6/13/14, 9:14 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: The Drill SGT said...
I foresee Kurdistan and an Iranian client province, along with a failed Sunni State.

So did the Vice President, although he was relentlessly mocked for that observation.; 6/13/14, 9:32 AM
Scott M said...: Feta-eating surrender monkeys...

After two wars with us (with surrenders on an unprecedented scale) and now this...a state army unable to respond to gaggles of what amount to brigands, it's easy to picture the French watching this and hoping that the mantle of shame is passing from their brow.; 6/13/14, 9:53 AM
George M. Spencer said...: For what it's worth, I'll repeat something I posted last night about Iraq that I'd never heard of until yesterday.

There is a massive dam near Mosul, the Mosul Dam.

It is said to be the most dangerous dam in the world. If it fails, it will unleash a wall of water so titanic Mosul will be under 25 feet of water and parts of Baghdad will be under 5 feet of water.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has estimated that if the dam fails 500,000 deaths will results.; 6/13/14, 10:04 AM
Jaq said...: AReasonableMan finally says something reasonable.

I hope these guys rally to the fight and really build a nation.; 6/13/14, 10:19 AM
Drago said...: ARM: "So did the Vice President, although he was relentlessly mocked for that observation."

Sure, if you let Iraq go to the wolves that is what would happen.

Which is what was mocked.

And rightly so.

And obama has.

Of course, Biden is also the rocket scientist who told us that united, free and democratic Iraq was going to be Obama's greatest achievement!; 6/13/14, 10:19 AM
Rusty said...: Our president just finished his sdpeech on our position vis a vis Iraq.

The short version;
Iraq. You're fucked.; 6/13/14, 11:07 AM
Mark said...: Is Obama "Deeply Concerned" yet?; 6/13/14, 11:22 AM
Monkeyboy said...: So the President abandons Iraq and they now have to look to Iran to save them...

I wonder what lesson the mainland Chinese and Taiwanese are taking from this episode. If I were China I'd start something in the Spratleys and move to invade from there sence we've signaled we don't help allies. If I were Taiwan I'd start learning Russian.; 6/13/14, 11:59 AM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: Where's Andrew Sullivan with a "meep meep" when you need him?

Good luck to the civilians. Seems like there's a point to be made about regular citizens being able to keep and bear arms, but given the situation I'll leave that one alone.; 6/13/14, 1:26 PM
JackWayne said...: Anyone who says that Biden was the only one suggesting a tri-partite Iraq needs to look at it again. A lot of neo-cons were derisive but it's note-worthy that Bush let the Kurds have their own "country".; 6/13/14, 4:14 PM
Anonymous said...: Sweet! Looks like the Shiites and Sunnis are going to get to have their own Thirty Years War. Couldn't happen to a more deserving group of people.; 6/15/14, 10:51 PM