What’s interesting in the news today?
1. As I’ve said before, there are no good guys here.
From TheLongWarJournal “The US-led military Coalition in Iraq is openly supporting Iranian-backed Shiite militias and Iraqi forces who are battling Islamic State fighters entrenched in Tikrit. Many of the Shiite militia commanders are listed by the US as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, and one militia is listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Many of the commanders and militias are responsible for killing US, Coailition, and Iraqi troops and civilians during the occupation of Iraq.
Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) announced today that “operations to support Iraqi Security Forces in Tikrit have commenced after a request from the Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al Abadi,” in a press released issued by the US-led command.
“The Coalition is now providing direct support to Iraqi Security Forces conducting operations to expel ISIL [Islamic State] from the city. CJTF-OIR is providing air strikes, airborne intelligence capabilities, and Advise and Assist support to Iraqi Security Force headquarters elements in order to enhance their ability to defeat ISIL,” the statement continued.
The US and CJTF-OIR have claimed that the airstrikes and other support is benefiting “Iraqi Security Forces,” when in reality more than two-thirds of the personnel opposing the Islamic State are comprised of Shiite militias, all of which are backed by Iran.”
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2. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are sending ground forces into Yemen.
From Time “Egyptian security and military officials say Saudi Arabia and Egypt will lead a ground operation in Yemen against Shiite rebels and their allies after a campaign of airstrikes to weaken them.
Three senior officials tell The Associated Press that forces would enter by land from Saudi Arabia and by sea from the Red Sea and Arabian Sea. They said Thursday that other nations will also be involved.
They would not specify troop numbers or say when the operation would start, only that it would be after airstrikes weaken the rebels and allied forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.”
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3. The oil market is reacting to the turmoil.
From Fortune/MSN “There’s nothing like a scare about the safety of middle-eastern sea-lanes to send oil prices higher, particularly when the scare involves fears of a conflict between the region’s two biggest powers.
Crude oil prices were back at their highest in two weeks at $51.32 a barrel by midmorning in Europe, after Saudi Arabia and its allies launched airstrikes against the Houthi rebels who have overrun much of Yemen, including a military airbase that was used until recently by U.S. forces.
Prices have now surged 8% in the last 48 hours. The impact of the flare-up has been magnified by the fact that many participants in the market have bet on prices staying low all through the year. Those caught in ‘short’ positions have had to cover those positions in a hurry as the price rebounds. Fundamentally, though, the market remains oversupplied, and U.S. stocks of crude and fuel are at record highs.”
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4. What a spiteful little man-child.
From TheWeeklyStandard “On February 12, the Pentagon quietly declassified a top-secret 386-page Department of Defense document from 1987 detailing Israel’s nuclear program – the first time Israel’s alleged nuclear program has ever been officially and publically referenced by the U.S. authorities.
In the declassified document, the Pentagon reveals supposed details about Israel’s deterrence capabilities, but it kept sections on France, Germany, and Italy classified. Those sections are blacked out in the document.
The two main exceptions in the international media that wrote about the declassification at the time were the state-funded Iranian regime station Press TV and the state-funded Russian station RT.
Both these media were rumored to have been tipped off about this obscure report at the time by persons in Washington. (Both the RT and PressTV stories falsely claim that the U.S. gave Israel help in building a hydrogen bomb. This is incorrect.)
Israel has never admitted to having nuclear weapons. To do so might spark a regional nuclear arms race, and eventual nuclear confrontation.
The declassification is a serious breach of decades’ old understandings concerning this issue between Israel and its north American and certain European allies.”
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5. Two US men were arrested, including a soldier, for planning an attack on a US base.
From Yahoo/Reuters “A U.S. Army National Guard soldier and his cousin have been arrested on charges of conspiring to support Islamic State in a plot that included an attack on a military installation in Illinois, the Department of Justice said on Thursday.
The two Chicago-area men, both U.S. citizens, spoke of using army uniforms and military knowledge to get into an Illinois National Guard facility, the department said in a statement.
“Disturbingly, one of the defendants currently wears the same uniform of those they allegedly planned to attack,” Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said in the statement.
Army National Guard Specialist Hasan Edmonds, 22, was arrested at Chicago Midway International Airport Wednesday night while attempting to fly to Cairo, the Justice Department said. His cousin, Jonas Edmonds, 29, was arrested at his Aurora, Illinois, home. Both arrests were made without incident.
Both defendants met with an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation employee and presented a plan to carry out an armed attack against a northern Illinois military facility where Hasan Edmonds had been training, the Justice Department said.”
What I don’t understand is why the charges are so minor. This is treason, so why isn’t the Obama DoJ making that the charge?
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6. This one comes with a CONTENT WARNING!!!!!
I wasn’t going to post this one due to the nature of this so-called reporters other work. I find it disgusting. What I also find disgusting is that this is the only kind of interviewer and interviews that Obama does. The green haired lady in the fruit loop bath was nothing compared to this freak show.
Again, CONTENT WARNING!!!!!
From MRCTV “The latest man to score an interview with President Obama, Shane Smith, has conducted some hard-hitting interviews, including one with a Japanese sex doll.
You’re not misreading that; in a video from 2008, founder and CEO of Vice media Shane Smith pays to have sex with a doll in a Tokyo doll brothel.”
“The company Smith founded, Vice.com, “revels daily in hard drug use, weird sex and every sort of bodily effluvium,” reports Forbes….”
“Yet this man just conducted an 18-minute sit-down interview with the Commander in Chief, the most coveted interview of a journalist’s lifetime and one once reserved for the most hard-bitten and veteran of the White House press corps.”
Obama should be embarrassed, but I doubt he is.
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Wandering Views 
I think there has been talk of getting rid of the monarchy in England to end that king and queen system for something more modern. Do you think that Obama is making a farce of the President’s position because he wants to be our last one? He sinks that place of honor so low. He had the possibility of being honorable and respectable but he has forever wasted his chance with such shenanigans and keeping of bad company.
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I understand Democrats siding with Obama on domestic matters, but why are they siding with him on foreign matters?
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About Obama being embarrassed, did he get his morning newspaper?
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Bob,
“I understand Democrats siding with Obama on domestic matters, but why are they siding with him on foreign matters?”
Because unlike us, they’re not racists? 😯
😆
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/barack-obama-yemen-isil-middle-east-116440.html
“Barack Obama faces a slew of Middle East crises that some call the worst in a generation, as new chaos from Yemen to Iraq — along with deteriorating U.S.-Israeli relations — is confounding the president’s efforts to stabilize the region and strike a nuclear deal with Iran.
The meltdown has Obama officials defending their management of a region that some call impossible to control, even as critics say U.S. policies there are partly to blame for the spreading anarchy.
“If there’s one lesson this administration has learned, from President Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech through the Arab Spring, it’s that when it comes to this region, nothing happens in a linear way — and precious little is actually about us, which is a hard reality to accept,” said a senior State Department official.
Not everyone is so forgiving. “We’re in a @#$%&@ free fall here,” said James Jeffrey, who served as Obama’s ambassador to Iraq and was a top national security aide in the George W. Bush White House.
For years, members of the Obama team have grappled with the chaotic aftermath of the Arab Spring. But of late they have been repeatedly caught off-guard, raising new questions about America’s ability to manage the dangerous region.”
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