Cranky's up for anything!

THIS JUST IN! CRANKY'S UP FOR ANYTHING!

BULLY BOY PRESS &    CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL AID TABLE

 BAD NEWS FOR CRANKY CLINTON IN A NEW POLL.


 42% FIND HER TRUSTWORTHY WHILE 47% OF AMERICANS DO NOT FIND HER TRUSTWORTHY.

37% OF AMERICANS VIEW HER UNFAVORABLY WHILE 26% VIEW HER FAVORABLY. 

 6 IN 10 AMERICANS SAY IT WAS WRONG FOR CRANKY TO USE HER OWN PERSONAL E-MAIL FOR SECRETARY OF STATE DUTIES.


REACHED FOR COMMENT BY THESE REPORTERS, CRANKY SNORTED AND SAID, "37% VIEW ME UNFAVORABLY?  HONEY, I HAD HIGHER UNFAVORABLES WHEN I WAS BAPTIZED AND I OVERCAME THOSE AS WELL!"


FROM THE TCI WIRE:


The battle has underscored how weak Tehran is militarily with the few hundred estimated Islamic State fighters being able to outstrategize Tehran and Baghdad.


 Michael Hess (UK Blasting News) puts it this way:

The US military is providing aerial intelligence to Iranian forces working against Islamic State (IS) in Tikrit, Iraq in a bid to break the hold on the besieged city. Tikrit was overrun by IS which on June 14th, 2014 committed atrocities, including the massacre of at least 800, on Iraqi Air Force trainees at the former U.S. base Speicher, converted into an air force training college. Tikrit was the site of Saddam Hussein's tomb but it has since been destroyed in the fighting.  


The Tehran alliance was supposed to provide Baghdad with a decisive victory which could be used to rally the military.  That's why Tikrit was chosen in the first place.  It was to be the red flag waved before the charging bull.  But the 'bull' lumbered towards the city for days and, when it finally got outside the city, the bull took a long, long nap.

Nancy A. Youssef (Daily Beast) offers, "The Tikrit campaign was launched with a patchwork force of 20,000 Shiite militiamen, 3,000 Iraqi troops, and a bevy of Iranian troops, tanks, weapons and missile strikes. And in the early days of the campaign, Gen. Qassem Suleiman, leader of the Iranian Quds force, was on the ground in Tikrit."

Pete D'Amato (Daily Mail) offers:

Iran has provided artillery and other weaponry for the Tikrit battle, and senior Iranian advisers have helped Iraq coordinate the offensive. 

Iraq pointedly did not request US air support when it launched the offensive in early March and recently, the offensive has lost momentum. 

Col Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said Wednesday the Iraqi forces have encircled Tikrit but not yet made significant inroads into the heavily defended city limits.

'They are stalled,' he said.

Before today's announcement was made, Michael B. Kelley (Business Insider) noted:

"There's just no way that the US military can actively support an offensive led by Suleimani," Christopher Harmer, a former aviator in the United States Navy in the Persian Gulf who is now an analyst with the Institute for the Study of War, told Helene Cooper of The New York Timesrecently. "He's a more stately version of Osama bin Laden."

Suleimani's Iraqi allies — such as the powerful Badr militia — are known for allegedly burning down Sunni villages and using power drills on enemies.

"It's a little hard for us to be allied on the battlefield with groups of individuals who are unrepentantly covered in American blood," Ryan Crocker, a career diplomat who served as the US ambassador to Iraq from 2007 to 2009, told US News.

In addition, Michael Crowley (POLITICO) explains US officials are nervous about two potential scenarios in Iraq which, "[i]n either case, U.S. officials fear, Iran could direct the Iraqi Shiite militias under its control to attack U.S. troops aiding the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant."

That fear may make Barack Obama's decision even more controversial.  But the decision to drop bombs and assist the  Baghdad-Tehran alliance -- led by Iranian general Qassem Soleimani (identified by the US government as a terrorist) -- was already controversial and questionable due to Soleimani's presence.

Spencer Ackerman (Guardian) reports:

Deep consternation exists in Washington, among both political parties, over the appearance of US warplanes providing close air support for Shia militias and their Iranian sponsors. Some US-trained Iraqi military units and Shia militias are under investigation for committing atrocities, similar to those of Isis. The Iranian general Qassem Suleimani is believed to be playing a leadership role in what has devolved into a grinding fight to recapture Saddam Hussein’s birthplace from Isis. 
“There’s going to be some tightrope-walking in saying this is an Iraqi security forces offensive and not an Iranian militia offensive,” said Christopher Harmer, a retired US navy officer and analyst with the Institute for the Study of War, who said he was “astonished” at the development.

Since 2001, the US government has identified Suleimani as a terrorist.




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