Walt Whitman, A Child Said, What is Grass? Tenderly will I use you curling grass, It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men, It may be if I had known them I would have loved them; It may be you are from old people and from women, and from offspring taken soon out of their mother’s laps, And here you are the mother’s laps.
Thomson ReutersFree Syrian Army fighters prepare mortar shells before firing towards forces loyal to Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad on the outskirts of Doreen town, in Jabal al-Akrad area in Syria's northwestern Latakia province
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government forces and allied militia have repelled an insurgent attack on a village in western Syria of strategic importance to both sides, with dozens of combatants killed, a monitoring group said on Thursday.
A Syrian military source also said the army had repelled the attack on Wednesday on Doreen, some 30 km (20 miles) east of the Mediterranean coast. The army took Doreen a week ago from groups including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.
Doreen is important because of its high elevation overlooking surrounding areas. It lies in the coastal area seen as a priority for Damascus as the government tries to consolidate its control over territory stretching north from the capital through Homs and Hama and then west to the Mediterranean.
Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, said the insurgents entered Doreen on Wednesday night but were driven back to its outskirts. More than 50 combatants were killed on both sides, he said.
The Syrian military source said between 25 and 40 insurgents were killed and a small number of Syrian soldiers suffered light wounds.
A statement posted on an official Nusra Front Twitter feed on Wednesday said its fighters had expelled enemy forces from Doreen. But it had not been updated on Thursday.
The Nusra Front is the strongest insurgent group in western Syria, but was dealt a heavy blow early this month when its top military commander was killed in an air strike that the Syrian army said it carried out.
(Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Tom Heneghan; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
This article originally appeared at Reuters. Copyright 2015. Follow Reuters on Twitter.
Iranian and Iraqi forces are in the center of Tikrit and seem likely to route Islamic State forces from the city. 3/11/15. images of Tikrit will give you some idea of what is at stake: Maps
Saddam's presidential palace in Tikrit:
File:US Navy 030419-M-9124R-015 7th Marine Regiment Chaplin, Father Bill Devine speaks to U.S. Marines assigned to the 5th Marine Regiment during Catholic Mass at one of Saddam Hussein's palaces in Tikrit
Isis 'beheads three men for homosexuality and blasphemy' in Iraq A religious authority reads out the death sentence.
If you are puzzled about what position your country should take about the Southern Movement in Yemen, please encourage your government to take any position opposed by the Saudis.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal
Saudi Arabia has affirmed that its position on Yemen's national and regional unity, as well as its independence and sovereignty, remains "constant" in Saudi policy.
The comment came in a statement issued by a Saudi Foreign Ministry official and quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on Sunday, in order to clarify an earlier statement made by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal in which the term "South Yemen" was used.
The source said that Al-Faisal's use of the term during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry last Thursday – in which he referred to the transfer of the legitimate government of the Republic of Yemen to South Yemen – specifically meant the transfer of the legitimate government to the southern city of Aden following the Houthi's coup in the capital Sanaa.
The source said that the Saudi stance on Yemen's national and regional unity, independence and sovereignty remains constant in its policy. The source added that Saudi Arabia continues to call on Yemenis to preserve their national unity amidst the country's various social, religious and political factions and movements, and not to make any decisions that would dismantle the social fabric of Yemen and stir up internal strife.
Last Thursday, during the joint press conference with Kerry, Al-Faisal was asked about the role of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) towards of the Shiite Houthi group in Yemen. The Saudi foreign minister responded that the GCC states have taken various actions in this regard since "the Houthis seized the Yemeni government and detained the President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi."
He noted that the Gulf countries continue to emphasise the importance of legitimacy in Yemen, saying that it is the only way forward for the country's internal security. They are also happy with the presence of the Yemeni president in South Yemen and the statements he made from there, Al-Fasial added.
He explained that the Kingdom and the GCC states are in support of the Yemeni president's stance and his announcement of a meeting between Yemeni factions outside Yemen, probably in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi foreign minister also noted that there is an agreement at the international level on the rejection of the Houthi coup and their attempts to impose a de facto situation on the ground.
Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi arrived in Aden, south of Yemen, on 21 February after he fled the house arrest that was imposed on him in Sanaa by the Houthi militia who control the northern half of the country.
North and South Yemen were unified on 22 May 1990, followed by a four-year civil war during which the then-Vice President, Salem Al-Bayd (aided by Saudi Arabia) unilaterally announced secession.
The Southern Movement, which has demanded secession since 14 October 2014, has recently staged open sit-ins in Aden and Makla (the largest cities in Hadramount).
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Yemen's former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, vigorously supported by the Saudis and the US, was nevertheless forced to flee Hemen by popular uprising, with a mer $5,00,000,000 of Yemen's sorely-needed money in his possession. Saleh's family:
The people who oppose him
The Saudi who support his keeping his Five Billion Dollars.
(Theodore Roosevelt was our first great Trust Buster. May he not be the last)
(A principle of particle physics: Two things indistinguishable from each other is the same thing. The principle applies to Netanyahu and Bushco then and now . And now John McCain and Mias Lindsay Graham want us in a ground war in Syria.)
“There is no question whatsoever that Saddam is seeking and is working and is advancing towards the development of nuclear weapons – no question whatsoever,” Netanyahu, then a private citizen, told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on September 12, 2002. “And there is no question that once he acquires it, history shifts immediately.”
A video clip from the 2002 hearing has been making the rounds of the Internet over the past few days, after it was posted by American blogger Jim Lobe at almost the same time as Netanyahu was addressing the United Nations General Assembly last week.
During last week’s speech, Netanyahu stressed that if Iran is not stopped, it will be on the verge of producing a nuclear weapon by next spring, or by summer at the latest. Therefore, Netanyahu argued, a red line must be drawn to stop the Iranian nuclear program.
Netanyahu’s remarks during the 2002 congressional hearing sounded very similar to his UN speech. The arguments are the same, the intonation is the same, even the advisers are the same – Netanyahu’s current diplomatic adviser, Ron Dermer, who wrote the prime minister’s UN address, can be seen in the 10-year-old video sitting behind Netanyahu in the congressional hall.
Aside from the fact that both Dermer and Netanyahu look 10 years younger, the primary difference between the two videos is one word: 2002’s Iraq has been replaced by Iran in 2012. Here are some more quotes:
“There’s no question that [Saddam] has not given upon on his nuclear program, not [sic] whatsoever. There is also no question that he was not satisfied with the arsenal of chemical and biological weapons that he had and was trying to perfect them constantly…So I think, frankly, it is not serious to assume that this man, who 20 years ago was very close to producing an atomic bomb, spent the last 20 years sitting on his hands. He has not. And every indication we have is that he is pursuing, pursuing with abandon, pursuing with every ounce of effort, the establishment of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons. If anyone makes an opposite assumption or cannot draw the lines connecting the dots, that is simply not an objective assessment of what has happened. Saddam is hell-bent on achieving atomic bombs, atomic capabilities, as soon as he can.”
“Today the United States must destroy the same regime because a nuclear-armed Saddam will place the security of our entire world at risk. And make no mistake about it — if and once Saddam has nuclear weapons, the terror networks will have nuclear weapons.”
“Two decades ago, it was possible to thwart Saddam’s nuclear ambitions by bombing a single installation. But today, nothing less than dismantling his regime will do, because Saddam’s nuclear program has fundamentally changed in those two decades. He no longer needs one large reactor to produce the deadly material necessary for atomic bombs. He can produce it in centrifuges the size of washing machines that can be hidden throughout the country. And I want to remind you that Iraq is a very big country. It is not the size of Monte Carlo. It is a big country. And I believe that even free and unfettered inspections will not uncover these portable manufacturing sites of death.”
Six months after that congressional hearing, the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003 and overthrew Saddam’s regime. Then U.S. President George W. Bush justified the war by claiming that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and had to be prevented from using them. But despite extensive searches conducted all over Iraq, no evidence of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons or weapons development was ever found.
In the years following the invasion, there was heavy criticism of both Israel and of pro-Israel lobbyists in the U.S., who were accused of dragging America into the war with Iraq, which cost the lives of thousands of U.S. soldiers.
In recent months, similar allegations have been heard regarding Netanyahu’s exertion of pressure on U.S. President Barack Obama on the issue of Iran’s nuclear program. Such criticism is being voiced by senior American commentators, as well as on blogs and in social media.
The fact that the 2002 video is going viral now is evidence that many in the United States – especially those identified with the Democratic Party – believe that in the same way Netanyahu pushed the Bush administration into a war against Iraq, he is trying today to press Obama to launch military action against Iran.
It certainly isn’t fair to suggest that the Iranian nuclear program, or its desire to acquire nuclear weapons, is the product of Netanyahu’s feverish imagination. One need only read the reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency to understand that Iran’s nuclear ambitions are real and a serious problem.
Still, it seems at times that Netanyahu has been using the Iranian issue as a hammer with which to browbeat both the U.S. administration and his domestic political rivals.
Iran Gains Influence in Iraq as Shiite Forces Fight ISIS
Photo
Iranian-backed militias, working with Iraqi security forces, gathered on Thursday in Samarra, Iraq, during their counteroffensive against Islamic State militants in Tikrit.CreditAhmad Al-Rubaye/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
AWJA, Iraq — All along the green irrigated plains in the heart of what American occupying troops used to call the Sunni triangle, lampposts and watchtowers are flying the flags of the Badr Organization, a Shiite militia long hated and feared by many Iraqi Sunnis.
The road from Baghdad to Tikrit is dotted with security checkpoints, many festooned with posters of Iran’s supreme leader and other Shiite figures. They stretch as far north as the village of Awja, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein, on the edge of Tikrit, within sight of the hulking palaces of the former ruler who ruthlessly crushed Shiite dissent.
More openly than ever before, Iran’s powerful influence in Iraq has been on display as the counteroffensive against Islamic State militants around Tikrit has unfolded in recent days. At every point, the Iranian-backed militias have taken the lead in the fight against the Islamic State here. Senior Iranian leaders have been openly helping direct the battle, and American officials say Iran’s Revolutionary Guards forces are taking part.
Iraqi officials, too, have been unapologetic about the role of the militias. They project confidence about their fighting abilities and declare that how to fight the war is Iraq’s decision, as militia leaders criticize American pressure to rely more on regular forces.
On Thursday, as they showed journalists around the outskirts of the battle, leaders of militias and regular forces alike declared that there was no distinction between the two; that the militias were a legitimate force under the government’s chain of command. And like the militiamen, many police officers and soldiers decorated their checkpoints and helmets with Shiite slogans and symbols.
What has been conspicuously absent in this fight, in the eyes of some Iraqis, has been the United States, whose airstrikes have assisted in earlier battles to roll back the Islamic State but have not been brought to bear in this new and crucial battle.
On Thursday, one of the militiamen, Mohammad al-Samarrai, 28, stood near a ruined mosque in the village of Muatassim, southeast of the city of Samarra, that he and his comrades had taken back from Islamic State militants on Monday. His face brightened at the sight of an American reporter, and he explained that he loved to see Americans because his brother had worked as an interpreter for American troops and now lives in Virginia.
But now, he said, he was confused that the United States did not seem to be throwing its full weight behind Iraq’s fight against the militants.
“After Saddam fell, American policy was helping the Iraqi people,” he said. “So why now are they helping the very same enemy that used to kill the American soldiers? If only they would remember the American soldiers killed by Al Qaeda.”
Kareem al-Jabri, a former teacher who now heads an artillery unit for the militias, known as popular mobilization committees, explained the new order of things more directly: “Iran is the principal supporter of Iraq, for the people and the army,” he said. “Iran is a real, true partner.”
How has ISIS, a 21st-century terrorist organization with a retrograde religious philosophy, spread from Iraq to Syria, Libya and beyond?
Video by Quynhanh Do on Publish DateDecember 13, 2014.
Mohannad al-Ikabi, a spokesman for the militias, declared: “Iran is the only country that is actually responding to what is happening.”
But the commander of the Badr Organization, Mueen al-Kadhumi, joked that Americans had contributed to the fight — on the other side. He was referring to the Islamic State’s claims that an American suicide bomber had carried out an attack for the group on Monday. Near Muatassim, militiamen pointed to a crater that they said came from that explosion. A Badr flag has been planted beside the hole.
During the operation, Iraqi state television has sought to emphasize the competence and cooperation of militia and regular forces. While militias make up the bulk of ground forces, the Iraqi Air Force has carried out strikes, and Iraqi news channels have shown grainy pilot’s-eye footage of bombs hitting their targets — much like the ones often released by the Pentagon.
Thursday’s trip made apparent the complex nature of Iraq’s war effort. So far it has heavily relied on the Shiite militias, who are powerfully motivated by ISIS’s belief that Shiites are apostates who deserve death. But the militias’ involvement carries a risk of further inflaming sectarian tensions that ISIS has exploited — as has already happened in some places where Sunni residents have reported abuse or summary executions by the militias.
Officials said that as many as 5,000 local Sunnis had joined the counteroffensive for Tikrit. But Mr. Jabri, the artillery commander, and other militia leaders said their main function was not fighting, but providing intelligence and basic guidance to the militia fighters, who are mostly from Baghdad and southern Iraq and do not know the area.
Even as militia leaders declared that they were inseparable from the Iraqi state, the Shiite identity of the combined forces marching on Tikrit was on vivid display — jarring in an area long known as a Sunni stronghold.
The tour convoy began at the Badr Organization’s headquarters in Baghdad. There, over a breakfast of bread dipped in tahini, fighters embraced visiting clerics and recounted missions to Syria to defend the shrine of Sayeda Zeinab, holy to Shiites.
ISIS massacred hundreds of Iraqi military recruits in June 2014. Ali Hussein Kadhim survived. This is his improbable story. [Includes graphic images.]
Video by Mike Shum, Greg Campbell, Adam B. Ellick and Mona El-Naggar on Publish DateSeptember 3, 2014. Photo by Bryan Denton for The New York Times.
The fighters showed enthusiasm, expressed in both patriotic and religious terms. Many said they had left jobs to volunteer in the militia after Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s most senior Shiite cleric, called on all Iraqis to join the effort.
Vehicles were draped with the Badr flag and Shiite slogans. Religious battle songs blared from a sound system atop a bus; on its rear window, “God is Great” was spray-painted in pink.
The first stop along the road was Samarra, a mixed Sunni-Shiite city that was once a hub of Sunni insurgents fighting the Americans. Qaeda insurgents bombed a revered Shiite shrine there in 2006, provoking years of tit-for-tat sectarian attacks. Its dome, now half-rebuilt, glimmers gold beneath a scaffolding, and towering portraits of the Shiite imams Hussein and Ali now stand in a main traffic circle.
At federal police headquarters, there was a spread of grilled fish served beside Samarra’s reservoir, as the smoke of battle rose in the distance.
Many villages along the road seemed nearly empty, except for a few residents and shepherds who cautiously approached checkpoints on foot, holding white flags. The tour provided no time to talk to local Sunnis. But some said in separate interviews that they supported the effort and even the militias.
“They left their provinces to help us,” said Saleem al-Jabouri, 28, a government employee. “No one else has helped to liberate our areas, not even our tribal neighbors.”
At the edge of Tikrit, a blocked road marked the beginning of Islamic State territory. Militiamen worked a base that looked out on the city and Saddam’s palaces, once occupied by American soldiers, and more recently by ISIS.
At the base, Nizar al-Asadi, a militia member and engineer, compared the war effort to the battles of Imam Hussein 1400 years ago, adding, “His history is repeating itself.”
“Iraq is defending the whole world,” he said. “Your freedom is assured as long as you are with us.”
Thomson ReutersFree Syrian Army fighters prepare mortar shells before firing towards forces loyal to Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad on the outskirts of Doreen town, in Jabal al-Akrad area in Syria's northwestern Latakia province
