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| "War Pigs" Anthony Freda Art |
With the recent and largely successful battle for Tikrit conducted by the Iraqi security forces combating Western-backed ISIS fighters who have controlled the city for some time, Iraq has once again forced itself into the brief headlines of international media. Yet the subsequent claims of war crimes committed by these security forces have also found their way into the public discussion, most notably in the West.
Thus, there are a number of questions that surround the events on the ground and the manner in which they are being reported in the West that must be looked at closely in order to fully understand the events that are transpiring.
Indeed, the manner in which the events unfolding in Iraq and Syria are reported in the mainstream Western press – if they are reported at all – is so convoluted, murky, deceptive and outright false that it is often difficult to blame any American for not fully understanding the details and particulars of the Syrian crisis and the spread of ISIS.
Even the so-called “independent” press – merely one public step further removed from major corporations, intelligence agencies, and government propaganda wings than the open corporate media – spins apparent criticisms of the administration and war in general while using the viewers’ own intellectual capacity against him and judo-ing him back in the same direction as the mainstream.
One such example would be left gatekeepers like Noam Chomsky who vigorously adhere to the“blowback” theory and claim that anyone who suggests that the United States is supporting ISIS is a “conspiracy theorist,” an insult that has served Chomsky well through much of his career.
Yet supporting ISIS is just what the United States is doing and what it has done since the organization changed its name from the IEIL and AQI nearly three years ago.
Without going into too much detail (see my article “The Roots of ISIS”) it should nevertheless be pointed out that the United States has been supporting, training, arming, and directing ISIS in both Syria and Iraq since the beginning of the crisis and even as it drops bombs on both countries under the pretext of fighting ISIS.
In Syria, however, these bombs are an attack against Syrian infrastructure. In Iraq, American bombing acts more as strategic death squad herding and a persistent threat to the Iraqi government and any potential closer relationship with Iran.
The Iraqi Success In Tikrit – Result of Lack of US Involvement
The Iraqi military/government and the United States had been in the planning stages of an assault against ISIS-held positions inside Iraq since January 2015. Yet, despite “assistance” coming from the most militarily advanced nation on the face of the earth, Iraqi officials complained that preparations for military plans were moving much too slow or either not at all. It appeared, for all intents and purposes, that the US was not as interested in eliminating strategic (to the Iraqi government) strongholds of ISIS as it was pretending to be in its press conferences and international speeches.
What is interesting, however, is the fact that, months before any such operations were ever launched, U.S. General Lloyd Austin, head of the US military’s CENTCOM, told the Wall Street Journal that the US and Iraq were planning a summer offensive to retake Mosul and cut supply lines to the ISIS fighters that control it. In other words, US General Austin revealed the war plans long before the actual operation took place, thus tipping off the potential targets to the upcoming military assault and creating even greater odds for the weak Iraqi forces to surmount.
Iraqi War Crimes – Real or Propaganda?
Another question that must be answered is whether or not the claims of war crimes on the part of the Iraqi military actually occurred. While photographic evidence and alleged video footage depict the commission of war crimes, the party responsible for those crimes is more open to question. The Iraqi military, of course, denies the claims. Instead, they claim that ISIS fighters committed the war crimes using Iraqi military uniforms in order to take photos and video for the purpose of providing propaganda against the Iraqi government.
In other words, the Iraqi government insists that the photos and videos were a type of propaganda false flag aimed at representing the Iraqi security forces as horrendous and, presumably, sectarian. As the Iraqi security force spokesman stated, Iraqi military uniforms can be purchased at shops all across the country by civilians. Even so, in war torn Iraq, particularly if your organization is being backed by the most powerful nations on earth (as is the case with ISIS), access to military uniforms is most certainly an easy accomplishment.
Obviously, considering the propaganda attempts made by ISIS with the assistance of the US and NATO, it may very well be the case that the photos in general may be staged or, at the very least, that the individuals in the photos do not belong to the Iraqi military but to outside forces – either ISIS or NATO. Of course, this is not to say that the Iraqi military is incapable of committing war crimes or even that it did not commit war crimes in this instance. The possibility that these photos were indeed staged, however, certainly exists. Given NATO’s past history, these odds are high enough to warrant an investigation into the possibility that the photos were indeed a clever ploy to discredit and weaken the Iraqi military.
Timing of War Crimes Photos and Reports Comes As US Drops Support For Iraqi Security Forces Fighting ISIS
Coming at a time in which the United States is clearly wary of an Iraqi government willing to cooperate with the Iranians on any level, the revelation of the reports of Iraqi military war crimes is quite “convenient” to say the least. This is because the reports now provide plausible justification on the part of the United States to remove certain amounts of funding for the Iraqi Security Forces as well as much needed arms and equipment.
Clearly, the United States would prefer its own puppet regime in Iraq. In the absence of the total puppet regime, however, the US and NATO will undoubtedly settle for its ISIS terrorist proxies wresting control of the country. Indeed, the entire idea behind ISIS in Iraq was not only to provide a forward operating base for heavier warfare inside Syria but also to destabilize the Maliki government since Maliki was in favor of closer ties with Iran.
It is for this reason that the US/NATO would like to see the ISIS continue its march across Iraq –minus a march across strategic oil fields controlled by Western companies of course. ISIS can thus be used as a tool to keep Iraq weak and pliable and to physically remove any government that may resist Anglo-American dictates. Even the Iraqi government recognizes this threat whether Western audiences are too thick to understand it or not. In February of this year, Iraqi lawmaker Nahlah al-Hababi stated that the United States’ purpose was to draw out the Iraqi ISIS conflict for as long as possible. Hababi stated,
The international coalition is not serious about air strikes on ISIL terrorists and is even seeking to take out the popular (voluntary) forces from the battlefield against the Takfiris so that the problem with ISIL remains unsolved in the near future.
The ISIL terrorists are still receiving aids from unidentified fighter jets in Iraq and Syria.The United States and NATO have long been documented creators, directors, and facilitators of ISIS in Syria and Iraq (see my article “The Roots of ISIS”). Only recently, the Iraqi military reportedly shot down a US helicopter and two UK planes that were allegedly dropping aid to ISIS.
Even the American bombing campaign against ISIS in Iraq is a farce as the US is, in reality, engaged in strategic death squad herding. In those areas where the US is actually bombing straggler ISIS units, it is merely those who may have wandered off the CIA reservation and who are endangering strategic locations such as dams and Western-owned oil fields.
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