COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Saturday, June 28, 2014

"We waited for 10 years for Baghdad to solve Article 140," he said, referring to the constitutional item which was meant to address the Kurds' decades-old ambition to incorporate the territory in their autonomous region in the north over the objections of successive governments in Baghdad. "Now its accomplished because the Iraqi army pulled out and our Peshmerga forces had to step in. So now the problem is solved. There will be more no more conversation about it.





Iraq's Kurds rule out retreating from Kirkuk


Massoud Barzani says ambition of incorporating city "achieved", amid growing calls for inclusive government in Baghdad.

Last updated: 28 Jun 2014 00:02

The president of the Kurdish region of northern Iraq has issued a defiant statement to the Iraqi government that there was no going back on autonomous Kurdish rule in the oil city Kirkuk.
Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, made the comments at a joint news conference in Erbil with visiting William Hague, British foreign secretary, on Friday.
"We waited for 10 years for Baghdad to solve Article 140," he said, referring to the constitutional item which was meant to address the Kurds' decades-old ambition to incorporate the territory in their autonomous region in the north over the objections of successive governments in Baghdad.
"Now its accomplished because the Iraqi army pulled out and our Peshmerga forces had to step in. So now the problem is solved. There will be more no more conversation about it."

Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from Erbil, said Barzani's statement was expected to put more strain on the Baghdad government.
"The Kurds see themselves in a position of strength, and say the Iraqi government's pullout forced Peshmerga forces to fill the security vacuum," she said.
Kurdish forces stepped in when federal government forces withdrew in the face of a Sunni rebel offensive led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) earlier this month.

The Sunni rebels made the gains as Iraq's flagging security forces were swept aside by the initial insurgent push, pulling out of a swathe of ethnically divided areas.

16 comments:

  1. Please support Kurdish people ,in gaining independence so that we do not live beside this horrible ISIS people
    We do not support this ISIS terrorist group ,who are trying to ruin everyone's life with their ugly way of thinking and changing our beautiful religion into a horrible one .Now days many thinks Muslims are all terrorist and they hate non Muslims which is NOT TRUE ! ...
    Those who are violent toward others because of their believes, for who they are and how they live are not Muslims I don't care what they believe in whoever does that they are racist however sadly this ISIS they do it in Islam name :(
    ...
    When did Islam say kill another person !!! in the Quran it does not say that at all ! When did Allah say force your wife to wear burka ! when did Allah say choose who your children marry !!!! Allah never ever said such thing ...
    In the Quran it tells man to respect their wife , tells women to cover up there hair but not their face it does say wear appropriate clothes but not cover everywhere !!!!
    it does say make sure the person your daughter is marrying is a good person but not force them !!!
    If someone is forced into covering their head or forced to do something without them wanting to do it Allah does not accept it they must believe in it to be accepted not be forced !!! and anyone knows that even if they don't believe in anything
    Us Muslims believe that Allah our God has creates us and his the only one who can take it away NO ONE has the right to kill another the one-time the Quran says you are allowed to kill another its for self defence whether its a Muslim person or non-Muslim we respect all if Allah don't like them he is most powerful he does not need anyone help or a terrorist group of some thousand people helping him !!
    If Allah wants to destroy anything or anyone or anywhere he does not need you to cut their head he can kill millions by just an earthquake so why go and cut peoples head ,hand and heart why go and destroy peoples life and beautiful family !!!

    I don't know why this ISIS stupid people are killing innocent people , raping women thinking its ok , making Muslim religion sound bad and trying to change the world to a bloody one it is the most ugly way of thinking ever .If Islam was like that i will never call myself a Muslim but its not like that

    Please help us Kurds we want a peaceful world support us to have independence we do not want to be apart of something ugly we respect every religion and want to live in peace we had enough of suffering we had enough of being sided with another place which we do not believe of their way of thinking and living we are nothing like them and we will do anything we can to make sure everyone knows that we respect everyone and everywhere
    However , we are tired of being called Arabs ,Turks,Syrian and Iranians .
    we are Kurds we are Kurdish and we will always be we want peace and we respect all others religion we do not want to be separated from each other we want all the Kurdish people to join together and live in a peaceful place a place with good rules ,no violence and no fear of ugly minded people such as the ISIS I pray Allah destroys each and everyone of them as they are taking away innocent peoples lives for no reason :'( :'(

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  2. Thank you.

    Most of us here do, especially our Jewish contributors.

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  3. From the first video one can see immediately the difference in the treatment of women there as contrasted to say in Iran, or Saudi Arabia and in other parts of the old Iraq.

    Women under arms, no burkas required, walking freely around......

    I hope they do well.

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    1. Abraham was a Chaldean, so the roots of the other place that has womenfolk for soldiers entwine with the Kurds. Now all they need is a UN resolution for partition, some permanent refugees from the three surrounding countries and they're off and running.

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    2. As always you are illiterate.

      Try again.

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    3. Why did we ever allow ignorant female twits to be soldiers here in the USA?

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    4. They aint real solders....

      They wash dishes, service the men...

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    5. And sometimes the other washer women, too.....

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    6. I only leave your comments up to help maintain and further establish your long-held credentials on being a first class Horse’s Ass.

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  4. 8:19 first video

    Right out of the movie 'Troy' if you remember the storming the beach scene by the 'special forces' of the day.

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  5. One hundred years ago today a teenage Serbian nationalist gunned down Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, and the dominoes were on their merry way.

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  6. France 24
    Latest update : 2014-06-28

    The US military is flying armed drones over Baghdad to defend American troops and diplomats in the Iraqi capital if necessary, the Pentagon said on Friday.

    The move comes after the United States deployed 180 troops as military advisers in recent days to help the Iraqi government army fend off the advance of Sunni extremist militants, who have captured territory north and west of the capital.

    The military for more than a week has been flying manned and unmanned aircraft over Iraq, averaging a few dozen sorties daily for reconnaissance.

    The flights involved "a few" drones and were ordered as a precaution to safeguard Americans in Baghdad, for what the military calls "force protection," a senior US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

    But officials said the armed drones would not be used to carry out offensive strikes on Sunni extremists, a move that would require a decision by President Barack Obama.

    The Pentagon acknowledged that among the aircraft flying over Iraq to carry out surveillance, some were carrying bombs and missiles – without specifying if those planes were drones.

    "The reason that some of those aircraft are armed is primarily for force protection reasons now that we have introduced into the country some military advisers whose objective will be to operate outside the confines of the embassy," spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told a press conference.

    ’Ready’ for airstrikes

    Using US air assets to target the leaders of the Sunni-led insurgency is one of the options being prepared for Obama as he considers what support to provide to Iraq, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, said in a radio interview.

    Protection of critical infrastructure is part of that option, he said.

    “We’re flying a great deal [of] manned and unmanned ... intelligence and reconnaissance assets, and we’re building a picture so that if the decision were made to support the Iraqi security forces as they confront [militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria movement, or ISIS], we could do so,” Dempsey said.

    Obama has so far not ruled out air strikes, but for the moment American forces are focused on gauging the state of the Iraqi military and its adversaries on the battlefield, he said.

    "The president has made no decisions about the use of kinetic force, but it would be irresponsible for us not to be planning, preparing and thinking and to be ready in case he should make that decision," Admiral Kirby said.

    (FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP)

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  7. You have to love this pentagonese phrase:

    ”The president has made no decisions about the use of kinetic force, but it would be irresponsible for us not to be planning, preparing and thinking and to be ready in case he should make that decision,” Admiral Kirby said.

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    1. The Boss hasn't decided to blow stuff up yet, but we've got the planes loaded in case he does when he gets off the golf course.

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  8. Very interesting developments with PEUUK - Putin/EU/Ukraine

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  9. A new post is up on the use of soft power by the EU.

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