FADED CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O IS BEING CALLED A LIAR YET AGAIN -- THIS TIME BY HIS HALF-BROTHER.
LITTLE BRO NOTES THAT BARRY O DREAMED OF HIS FATHER -- SOME SAY LUSTED FOR -- SO MUCH THAT HE OVERLOOKS THE FACT THAT BARRY SR. WAS A NASTY DRUNK WHO BEAT WOMEN.
BUT THAT'S WHO BARRY O DREAMS OF.
AND BOY DOES IT SHOW.
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
The Yazidis remain targeted in Iraq. In fact, 40,000 are said to be trapped on a mountain Laura Smith-Spark (CNN) explains:
When radical Islamist fighters stormed the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar over the weekend, the Yazidi minority who call it home fled into the surrounding mountains in fear of their lives.
Now, trapped without food, water or medical care in the summer heat, thousands of families are in desperate need of help.
It's already too late to save dozens of children who've died of thirst.
Martin Chulov (Guardian) notes that 40,000 are thought to be at the top of Mount Sinjar and quotes UNICEF's Juliette Touma stating, "It's not like this is a one-off incident. We are almost back to square zero in terms of the preparedness and the supplies. Enormous numbers of people have been crossing the border since June. The stresses are enormous, dehydration, fatique, people sometimes having to walk for days. The impact on kids is very physical, let alone the psychological impact."
We should note that Nouri reportedly attempted to drop supplies -- including water -- on the mountain top over the weekend. The drops failed. They missed the targets.
This does not instill confidence in Iraq's pilots. (Why helicopters were not used in the attempt is not known. Nouri used planes. Today, Al Jazeera reports helicopters were used by Nouri on Tuesday.)
Meanwhile the Financial Times' Borzou Daragahi Tweets:
You don't need to understand Arabic to be moved by #Iraq lawmaker breaking down in tears describing Yazidi plight http://english.alarabiya.net/en/webtv/reports/2014/08/06/Iraqi-politician-breaks-down-in-parliament-urges-solidarity.html …
Glen Carey (Bloomberg News) speaks with Housam Salim ("head of the Solidarity and Brotherhood Yezidi Organization") who states, "It is a humanitarian tragedy. Men were executed in the streets, women were kidnapped and raped. When we are captured, they kill us immediately, and they take our women." Time magazine's Bobby Ghosh (Quartz) points out, "Leaders of all these minority groups have sent increasingly desperate pleas—to the Maliki government, to the US, to the UN—for help. But while some appeals have gone viral online, and the UN has engaged in its usual pro-forma hand-wringing, the SOS has gone largely unanswered as the world focused on Gaza. Now that the ceasefire there appears (fingers crossed) to be holding, there’s no excuse not to respond."
The US government could help but US President Barack Obama chooses not to. This isn't about sending US forces into Iraq. This is about dropping supplies onto a mountain.
Mick Krever and Ken Olshansky (Amanpour, CNN) report:
The foreign minister of Iraqi Kurdistan on Wednesday issued a desperate plea for American and Western intervention to halt the advance of ISIS extremists.
“We are left alone in the front to fight the terrorists of ISIS,” Falah Mustafa Bakir told CNN’s Fred Pleitgen, in for Christiane Amanpour.
“I believe the United States has a moral responsibility to support us, because this is a fight against terrorism, and we have proven to be pro-democracy, pro-West, and pro-secularism.”
Tuesday, US Permanent Representative to the United Nations Samantha Power issued the following statement:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
I condemn in the strongest possible terms the Islamic State in Iraq
and the Levant’s (ISIL) recent attacks on Sinjar and Tal Afar in Ninewa
province that have reportedly led to the displacement of tens of
thousands of people, many from vulnerable minority communities,
deepening Iraq’s already acute humanitarian crisis. ISIL’s reported
abuse, kidnapping, torture and executions of Iraq’s religious and ethnic
minorities and its systematic destruction of religious and cultural
sites are appalling.The United States supports the Iraqi Security Forces and Peshmerga Forces working to defend these areas against ISIL. We urge all parties to the conflict to allow safe access to the United Nations and its partners so they can deliver lifesaving humanitarian assistance, including to those Iraqi families reportedly encircled by ISIL on Mount Sinjar. The United States is committed to helping the people of Iraq as they confront the security and humanitarian challenges in their fight against ISIL. Iraq’s leaders must move swiftly to form a new, fully inclusive government that takes into account the rights, aspirations and legitimate concerns of all of Iraq’s communities. All Iraqis must come together to ensure that Iraq gets back on the path to a peaceful future and to prevent ISIL from obliterating Iraq’s vibrant diversity.
###
That I don't like Samantha Power should be a known -- I've called her out here and in pieces at Third. I don't care for her.
But I'm not going to pick apart her statement (a) at least she said something and (b) I don't really expect to be as one mentally with Samantha.
But if the US 'stands' with Iraqis, why can't they organize an air drop for those suffering on top of the mountains?
It makes no sense, the refusal. Yes, US planes (commercial) are flying at higher altitudes over Iraq due to safety concerns, but the military could easily do a drop.
Not only would it be a humanitarian mission, it could also be used to do some spying on various groups as it passed over a portion of Iraq.
I don't care for Samantha Power, I think she argues for death and murder at the drop of a hat, I think she grossly misunderstood Rawanda as well as the after-effects. But a drop of supplies, is not a call for war. And if the administration cares, why is it Catholic Samantha speaking and only her?
What's happening to the Yazidis echoes what is happening to the Christians who were forced out of Mosul. Mike Stechschulte (Catholic News Service) reports the attack on the Mosul Christians led to a march this month in Detroit where participants shouted, "Obama, Obama, where are you? Iraqi Christians need you!" Another CNS report notes Chaldean Bishop Francis Kalabat in Southfield, Michigan:
Bishop Kalabat had especially pointed words for President Barack Obama, whom he said has not done much to address the problem.
"I don't understand President Obama's words, 'The situation is an Iraqi problem.' Since when? How many thousands of American soldiers were sacrificed? Bloodied, lost limbs, lost their souls, lost their lives. How is this not an American problem?" Bishop Kalabat said.
He said the inaction by the White House has prompted the Chaldean community to pursue direct humanitarian aid instead, including via bills currently before Congress.
"This community, you have responded in the most beautiful way," he said, referring to a $60,000 collection taken up by local Chaldean parishioners about a month ago. "It was a drop in the bucket (compared to what's needed), but it did help."
He thanked the senators and representatives who traveled to Iraq to visit with refugees, especially from Michigan and San Diego, where the two largest concentrations of Chaldeans exist in the United States.
Unlike Barack, some members of Congress have been willing to speak out. Catholic San Francisco notes a rally in San Francisco earlier this month:
Assyrian Catholics came via bus from the Central Valley and San Jose. Republican Rep. Jeff Denham of Fresno, whose district has 25,000 Assyrian Catholics, also spoke, criticizing leaders “for allowing a genocide to go on against the Christians of Iraq and Syria at the hands of ISIS without any action,” DeKelaita said.
But Barack won't address it and, as we saw in a State Dept press briefing this week, even when the targeting of religious minorities is raised to the State Dept, the spokesperson prefers to ignore the issue.
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"
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