BREAKING: U.S. either is bombing Iraq, or it isn't, or it will soon

[bigtree]

Breaking News: American Forces Said to Bomb ISIS Targets in Iraq http://t.co/AZJZzSX1TY

— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 7, 2014


Press reports that US has conducted airstrikes in Iraq completely false. No such action taken.

— Rear Adm. John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) August 7, 2014


More @CBSDavidMartin: Pentagon preparing for possible air strikes against ISIS around Erbil, Iraq where 150 US advisers may be in jeopardy.

— Charlie Kaye (@CharlieKayeCBS) August 7, 2014


Alexis Simendinger ?@ASimendinger 5m

ABC News website says: "Special Report: President Obama Delivers Statement." WH journos await solid info at 5:40 pm


emptywheel @emptywheel · 32m

Shorter NYT: Those airstrikes we reported aren't actually gonna happen until later this evening. But don't tell, okay?


Martha Raddatz ?@MarthaRaddatz 3h

The airstrikes US considering in Iraq would be separate mission from airdrops that will likely come soon, senior official tells @ABC


ComfortablySmug ?@ComfortablySmug 1m

3 confirmed facts we know about situation: 1) There is a country named Iraq 2) There are people in Iraq 3) That is all that is confirmed



headline: http://gawker.com/breaking-u-s-either-is-bombing-iraq-or-it-isnt-or-i-1617849789

[badtoworse]

1. ISIS needs to be stopped.

[bigtree]

3. when will people learn?

. . . U.S. military force in Iraq is counterproductive to any of the goals our government has expressed, including ISIS.

I'm old enough to remember when all of our intelligence agencies reported that our military forces and military action in Iraq was having the effect of creating more 'terrorists' than we were putting down.

. . . stupid facts.


2006 National Intelligence Estimate: U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq fueling terrorism - Agency: Iraq war creating worse threat
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025125128

[Cali_Democrat]

2. LBN thread on this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014864762

[bigtree]

4. So this happened

Zeke Miller ?@ZekeJMiller 2m
So this happened -> RT @petesouza: President Obama meets with his national security team today in the Situation Room: http://bit.ly/1mqFtgN

[maced666]

9. He looks calm, cool and collected.

As always.

[Lint Head]

5. Lindsey Graham is on CNN turning the ISIS problem with them having 40,000 people

surrounded into a political attack on Obama and his foreign policy. He is a shameless bastard.

[LittleBlue]

6. Airstrikes will do absolutley nothing

but make us feel better that "we did something".

[NuclearDem]

7. Whoda thunk arming the Syrian rebels could backfire?

[TwilightGardener]

11. Could someone please provide a link that states that the US intentionally

and knowingly ever supported or armed ISIS? Because I thought our fear of unintentionally empowering them was what held us back from a larger-scale effort to help the "good" (non-ISIS, non-Nusra) rebels. And yet I see this assertion everywhere, that the US armed ISIS rebels.

[1StrongBlackMan]

13. We didn't ...

but, you know ... good sound byte!

[TwilightGardener]

14. I don't think we did either. It's either myth or propaganda for some purpose.

[1StrongBlackMan]

15. I'll take "Bullsh!t claims for the uninformed", for $500, Alex." eom.

[sadoldgirl]

8. When will we ever learn?

ISIS is the response to our own interference in the first place. It may or may not run out of steam, but to start again would be madness. Can we never leave other peoples to decide their own fate? We payed/pay Israel for its war machine and see what that caused.

What is next? Huge supply of weapons to the Ukraine?

Let it be, let it be!

[Octafish]

10. Which one's Iraq again?

Is that the one buying aluminum tubes filled with yellowcake from Nigeria that the good Joe Wilson was talking about?

[Electric Monk]

12. It's the dictatorship sitting on all that oil that has been oppressing its people for decades.

Yes, that one. Not the other one you might have been thinking of....

[Octafish]

16. The one with the nice Ayatollah who helped out Big Time in that election thing other one?

Iraq. Iran. I get them confused. Like Niger and Nigeria. Dotsandcommasonamap.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

17. When I was a boy, there was a country called Cambodia. We secretly bombed it.

I figure all the bombs must have hit in really remote areas -- being that nobody noticed or anything like that. I think the secret bombing was part of President Nixon's secret plan to win the war.