Why U.S. strategy to take on ISIS isn’t working ?

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Since ISIS drove the Iraqi army out of Ramadi, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has authorized the deployment of Shia paramilitaries to wrest back control of the mainly Sunni province. (Reuters)
Since ISIS drove the Iraqi army out of Ramadi, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has authorized the deployment of Shia paramilitaries to wrest back control of the mainly Sunni province. (Reuters)

By Andre Mayer, CBC News
The recent capture of Ramadi in central Iraq by ISIS fighters has prompted heated discussion around the world about the significance of the city – just 120 kilometres from Baghdad — in the fight against the Sunni jihadists.

Many military analysts say Ramadi’s capture represents a devastating blow to the anti-ISIS coalition, while the U.S. government casts it as only a minor setback.

Most experts agree, however, that losing Ramadi – in the heartland of Sunni Iraq — raises serious questions about the efficacy of the current U.S. strategy.

The takeover of Ramadi “is a significant victory for ISIS that essentially shows the failure of the U.S. effort,” says Marina Ottaway, a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington, D.C.

The feeling is that the U.S. reliance on airstrikes and an unstable Iraqi army has not had the desired outcome of degrading ISIS, she says.

Peter Mansoor, a retired U.S. Army officer, says the loss of Ramadi is ultimately the responsibility of the Iraqi government. But it does show that “the U.S. strategy to defeat ISIS is simply not working. It’s too little and not sustained enough.”

Fighters with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria captured the city, which had been defended by Iraqi forces, on Sunday. It was the culmination of a campaign that began in October.

The capital of Anbar Province, Ramadi is a key communications hub along the Euphrates River corridor that links ISIS territory in Syria with central Iraq, says Mansoor.

It is also the heartland of important Sunni tribes, many of whom have felt sidelined in recent years because of their former support for Saddam Hussein and the recent shift to Shia-controlled Baghdad in post-invasion Iraq.

iraq map ramadiFor its part, the Obama administration has played down the significance of Ramadi’s fall, with White House spokesman Josh Earnest saying the existing strategy has “yielded important successes.”

Earlier this week, however, former U.S. defence secretary Robert Gates lamented, “We don’t really have a strategy at all. We’re basically playing this day by day.”

Lack of trust

The U.S. joined the fight against ISIS last summer, after the Sunni militants stunned the world by conquering a swath of northern Iraq, including larger centres such as Tikrit and Mosul, and threatened to take the capital, Baghdad.

Since then, the U.S. has been part of a wide-ranging multinational coalition that includes the Iraqi army as well as countries such as Great Britain, France, Canada and Jordan.

All along, U.S. President Barack Obama has expressed reluctance to put American soldiers on the ground, arguing that Iraqi security forces are best positioned for close combat.

However, reports suggest the Iraqi army more or less abandoned Ramadi in the face of encroaching ISIS fighters, much as it did in when ISIS bore down on Mosul last summer.

The capability and resolve of the Iraqi army, which has been largely trained by the U.S., has been an ongoing concern. The U.S. effectively shut down the Iraqi military, particularly its senior Baathist Party ranks, after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Since being rebuilt, it has been seen as a largely Shia fighting force, and does not command the trust of many of Iraq’s Sunnis, says Ottaway.

Hit and run

The fall of Ramadi has also brought on a surge of criticism of Washington’s tactical strategy, which has been essentially to repel and degrade ISIS forces in Iraq through targeted air strikes.

Up until now, the U.S. has been wary of the participation of Shia militia, such as the Asaib Ahl al-Haq (The League of the Righteous), pictured here, in the fight against the Sunni militants of ISIS. (Haidar Mohammed Ali/AFP/Getty Images))

While air support has helped the Iraqi military retake Tikrit, it is inherently limited, says Seth Jones, director of the International Security and Defence Policy Centre at the Rand Corporation in Washington.

Trying to take out large numbers of extremists from above is only possible when fighters mass in large groups.

But Jones says that since last summer, ISIS has become more agile, travelling in smaller, stealthier groups that can more easily evade enemy aircraft.

“In trying to hold ground or even expand, they’ve conducted a guerilla campaign, which means eschewing large formations and using hit-and-run tactics,” including suicide bombings, says Jones.

The New York Times reported earlier this week that during its offensive on Ramadi, ISIS took advantage of a sandstorm that grounded U.S. warplanes — thereby depriving Iraqi forces of air support — to finally seize the city.

Code language

One of the sticking points for the U.S. has been the involvement of Shia militias, most of which are funded, if not directed, by Iran. Many of them have a fearsome reputation as fighters, and given the sectarian battles that ISIS has been waging, Shia paramilitaries are highly motivated.

For a long time, the U.S. has been unwilling to conduct airstrikes in support of Shia militia at the risk of looking like Iran’s air force, says Mansoor, the author of Surge: My Journey with General David Petraeus and the Remaking of the Iraq War.

But the White House may be changing its tune, he says.

“What I’ve seen coming out of Washington in recent days is that we will provide air power to whatever formation the Iraqi government deems it necessary to support.

“And I think that’s code language to basically say that we will support the Shia militias when they go in and try to retake Ramadi.”

Regardless of what the U.S. decides to do next, the bigger problem is that, dating back to at least the first Gulf war, the Americans have misunderstood the ethnic, sectarian and tribal dimensions of the region, says Noumane Raboudi, a specialist in Middle East politics at the University of Ottawa.

“They’re always obliged to declare another war to correct the mistakes of the last war, and it’s not working.”
CBC News

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135 responses to “Why U.S. strategy to take on ISIS isn’t working ?”

  1. cook2half Avatar
    cook2half

    The U.S. strategy isn’t the problem. The problem is the INCOMPETENT Iraqi army which leaves weapons behind every time it loses. Sounds mean but these suckers don’t deserve to win.

    1. Andre Avatar

      I agree, the US strategy is not the problem, and the US couldn’t give a shit, nor should it. It’s up to the local nationals to stand up and fight for their well being, if they want too that is. We all know where loyalties lie! You can’t fight a pack of hyenas with goats.

      1. Hend Abyad Avatar
        Hend Abyad

        The Syriac priest who succeeded father Paolo (decapitated in 2013), kidnapped in Homs.. thank you US EU.. and YaLibnan.
        I wonder who let the hyenas out.

        http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3093007/Priest-kidnapped-Homs-region-Syria.html

  2. wargame1 Avatar
    wargame1

    Obama strategy is to capture those sunni areas which were already lost to the tribal sunnis in Iraq. Maliki brought the ISIS thugs in those areas and equip them with heavy weapons. ISIS started killing the tribal sunnis. Now Iraqi shits have created a pretext that they want to bring Iranian shia militia to confront ISIS but their ulterior motive is to capture those sunni areas. The Iraqi sunni tribe asked arms as they can defend themselves. This cunning strategy was implemented on Syria but the FSA came out strong. The Iraqi sunnis are in great danger as they are facing the Khawarij dogs and the Shits from Iran.

    1. Daesh Before Daesh: How Iran Spreads Its Empire through Terrorist Militias and Proxies

      Yes absolutely! Sure you must have wondered how conveniently the Iraqi army which constitutes mostly Shiites flee leaving heavy sophisticated weaponry behind for Daesh!?!? And to add to the Iranian political/strategic comedy you will see this overplayed scenario again and again, once her proxy, Daesh enters and takes over Sunnis areas then Iranian Shiite militias invade on the false pretext of countering Daesh and liberating the area. Ironically and appalling it may sound, the Daesh never gets vanquished for good but rather Sunnis are massacred, women raped, children and elders killed, their properties ransacked, looted, and burnt.
      Daesh in reality is doing its job it was created for to help Iranian Shiite militias to capture the Sunnis areas which otherwise were impossible to takeover and banish Sunnis from their land and to help Iran in establishing it’s long cherished dream and goal of a Persian empire/Shi’ite crescent/Wilayat Al-Faqih.
      No wonder why Daesh never attacks Iran or its establishments/Infrastructure or Shi’ite areas but only attacks Sunnis and takeover their areas using the weaponry left behind by the fleeing shiite Iraq army. What a Qom’d marriage of convenience between Daesh, Shi’ite Iraq army, Shiite militias, and Iran and it’s revolutionary guards, you must say?!?!

      In Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere, Tehran has perfected the art of gradually conquering a country without replacing its flag.

      The Middle East is witnessing the birth of a new Persian empire, under the aegis of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In fact, when Iranian officials gloat over their control of four Arab capitals, they are being uncharacteristically modest. Tehran’s hegemony has spread far beyond Baghdad, Beirut, Damascus, and Sana’a. But this latest incarnation of Imperial Iran is unique in that it is virtually invisible. Iranian flags do not fly above the centers of government in these capitals, and the foot soldiers of the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps – Quds Force (IRGC-QF) do not march in their streets. Tehran has contracted this clandestine conquest out to an ever-expanding list of loyal proxies. They mutate and fracture into new entities, adopt new names, and operate in different roles and locations; but this constellation of proxies orbits around Iran, effectively masking the Islamic Republic’s increasing control over the Middle East.

      Tehran coordinates and provides a wide array of support and aid to its proxies, mainly through the IRGC-QF and its commander, Qassem Suleimani. It seems important, then, to recall that the U.S. Treasury Department has designated the IRGC-QF and its commander for activities related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and support for terrorism, accusing the Quds Force in 2007 of providing material support to the Taliban and other terrorist groups. The Justice Department cited the group as “conduct[ing] sensitive covert operations abroad, including terrorist attacks, assassinations and kidnappings, and is believed to sponsor attacks against Coalition Forces in Iraq.”

      To understand the nature and danger of Iran’s ever-multiplying proxies, one must understand their ideology: Most are Shi’a Islamists who adhere to the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s extremist concept of “Absolute Wilayat al-Faqih” (Guardianship of the Jurist), which maintains that all issues, including the governance of a country, must be in the hands of the Jurisprudent Ruler, who is the vicar of the Awaited Mahdi. In many ways at odds with traditional Shi’a jurisprudence—which emphasized political quietism—Khomeini’s innovated ideology declared Islamic jurists to be the only true source of religious and political authority. Their pronouncements must be obeyed “as an expression of obedience to God,” and their rule takes “precedence over all secondary ordinances [of Islam] such as prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage.”
      As the spiritual father of the Islamic Republic, Khomeini was the first to hold the post of Rahbar (Supreme Leader), and since his death in 1989, his worldview and political thought made their way into Iran’s post-Revolutionary constitution, and have continued to hold sway over the Islamic Republic’s domestic and foreign policies. Indeed, politicians like Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s current Rahbar, strive to adhere to his teachings as much as possible in their decision-making.

      Hatred of the West and combating its various founding ideologies—capitalism, secularism, communism, and Zionism—was integral to Khomeini’s ideology, who considered “export[ing] our Revolution to the whole world” one of “the great goals of the revolution,” for the purpose of “establishing the Islamic state world-wide.” And until such time when the world submitted Iran’s Revolutionary twist on Islam, “there will be struggle.”
      Khomeini singled out the United States for special opprobrium. This was a theme he constantly preached over the course of his religious and political career, expressing his hope and confidence that, “The Iranian people…will keep alive in their hearts anger and hatred for…the warmongering United States. This must be until the banner of Islam flies over every house in the world.” America received this place of dubious honor in Khomeini’s worldview because he considered it the “foremost enemy of Islam” and “a terrorist state by nature that has set fire to everything everywhere….Oppression of Muslim nations is the work of the United States.”

      Tehran’s conquest of the Middle East has been contracted out to an ever-expanding list of proxy groups.
      Ayatollah Khamenei has not abandoned his predecessor’s ideological path, and over the past three decades—first as president and then as Supreme Leader—he has expressed his contempt for the U.S. with remarkable consistency. Many, though not all, of his closest confidantes have claimed that this is an outgrowth of his adherence to Khomeini’s belief that the Islamic Republic and the United States can only have a relationship akin to that between “a wolf and a sheep,” with Khamenei emphasizing that “the conflict and confrontation between the two is something natural and unavoidable.” This, he believes, is because Washington is intrinsically hostile to Iran due to “the Islamic identity of our system.” Any other issue on which America expresses opposition to Iran—Iran’s nuclear ambitions, hostility toward Israel, and support for Hezbollah—are simply excuses for America to further its anti-Islamic goals.
      Therefore, he thinks Iran “needs enmity with the United States” in order to prevent America’s supposedly corrupting influence and lax morals from seeping into the country and weakening the Islamic Revolution. In fact, he rarely misses an opportunity to express the Iranian regime’s unyielding opposition to “Global Arrogance,” his favorite term for the United States, only slightly less damning of a title than Khomeini’s “Great Satan” label. And so, at a time when Khamenei was willing to entertain former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s efforts to improve Iran’s relations with its Arab neighbors and European countries, he was rigidly opposed to any such rapprochement with the United States, an intransigence based on Khamenei’s belief that combating America’s influence, specifically, was one of the primary goals of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
      This overt hostility is not confined to the current Supreme Leader and his predecessor—who hold absolute authority over any government—but has become ubiquitous among Iranian government officials. Even a touted “moderate” like President Hassan Rouhani—who would not have his post unless he were completely loyal to the Islamic Revolution’s ideals—has said, “Saying ‘death to America’ is easy. We need to express ‘death to America’ with action.” These views have been echoed repeatedly by members of Rouhani’s cabinet.

      In short, Iran’s anti-Western animosity and enmity—particularly focused against the United States and Israel—is a critical component of the Islamic Republic’s political culture and policies. Its Shi’a proxies, which by and large have sworn fealty to the Iranian Supreme Leader, echo the views of the man whose words they view as, in essence, the vicarious and infallible word of God.

      Iran’s Revolution led to an “awakening” of Shi’a Muslims worldwide, hijacking the traditionally politically quietist religious sect and injecting a militancy into its theology, imbuing it with temporal demands. As such, Iran has spawned numerous Shi’a proxies across the Arab and Muslim world.
      Perhaps the most striking example of this turn from quietism is Yemen’s Ansarullah, better known as the Houthis, currently the country’s de facto rulers. The Houthis differ from most of Iran’s other Shi’a proxies in the nuances of their theological history. Yet they are now acting at the behest of Iran – causing panic in neighboring Saudi Arabia – and their banner carries the same “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” slogans regularly chanted by the Tehran regime’s loyalists in Iran, Lebanon, and Iraq. Despite their shared enmity with the United States towards Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the Houthis held an uncompromising opposition to the government’s alliance with the United States.

      Though there is no public evidence of the Houthis espousing adherence to Absolute Wilayat al-Faqih, the group’s founder, Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, spent considerable time in Iran. There he was influenced by the Khomeinist theology, believing that the Iranian model could be applied in Yemen as well. Iranian officials have confirmed these ties, which includes financial and military support for the Houthis, with a senior Iranian official saying that the Quds Force even placed “a few hundred” members in Yemen to train the Houthis. When the Houthis overran Sana’a, Iranian officials boasted that Yemen’s capital was now in Iran’s possession.

      But while the Houthis have made the most recent noise, Iran has been using proxies to dominate other countries since the 1980s. Lebanese militia-cum-political party Hezbollah remains the most successful and most prominent Iranian revolutionary export. Indeed, Gilbert Achcar of the University of London has called it “the most prestigious member of the regional family of Khomeinism.” The Lebanon-based terrorist group is cut from the same ideological cloth as the Islamic Republic, which, according to former CIA intelligence analyst Kenneth Pollack, is Hezbollah’s model and inspiration. Eitan Azani, the deputy executive director of the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at IDC Herzliya, has said that Khomeini and his successors serve as Hezbollah’s ultimate source of religious, political, and ideological guidance and authority. Hezbollah fully accepts the concept of Absolute Wilayat al-Faqih, and openly acknowledges Khomeini as its faqih, leading Augustus Richard Norton of Boston University to call Khomeini Hezbollah’s “undisputed, authoritative leader.”

      Hezbollah itself acknowledged this fact in their 1985 Open Letter, stating, “We obey the orders of one leader, wise and just, that of our tutor and faqih, who fulfills all of the necessary conditions: Ruhollah Musawi Khomeini.” With the death of Khomeini, Hezbollah did not end its submission to Iranian authority, but reaffirmed its allegiance to the current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah himself declared in May of 2008 that he was “proud of being a member of the Wilayat al-Faqih party.”

      Hezbollah’s connection to Iran is not limited to professions of ideological fealty. In his book Deadly Connections, Daniel Byman, Research Director of the Brookings Institution’s Center for Middle East Policy, notes that Hezbollah does not only accept the concept of Absolute Wilayat al-Faqih in a general sense, but also subscribes to Iran’s particular worldview and its enmity toward the United States and Israel. Hezbollah’s implementation of its Islamist strategy is closely linked to Iran’s policy of exporting the Islamic Revolution abroad while consolidating and expanding it at home. In effect, this makes Hezbollah an arm of Iranian foreign policy. Indeed, Hezbollah has repeatedly fought wars that, in effect, solely benefited Iran. Whether combatting Israel, participating in the Syrian civil war, or sending its militants to Iraq, Hezbollah is at the service of its masters, often at the expense of its own, or Lebanon’s, interests.

      Hezbollah is unquestionably the most prominent Iranian proxy on the international scene, having carried out a series of attacks abroad through what Matthew Levitt, Director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, has called “Hezbollah’s international terrorist wing.” Known alternatively as the Islamic Jihad Organization or External Services Organization, it has received strong support from the IRGC and Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence. But perhaps the most telling example of the close relationship between Iran and Hezbollah is that Hezbollah has also operated within Iran itself, reportedly helping the regime to crush internal dissent. Indeed, Hezbollah sent approximately 5,000 of its fighters to participate in the suppression of the “Green Revolution” in 2009.

      But while Hezbollah has been the most famous Iranian proxy, Tehran has also established a number of loyal militias in neighboring Iraq—to the point where (with the exception of the autonomous Kurdish region in the north) the entire country’s security infrastructure has come under the sway or even direct control of Tehran. The Badr Organization, which, like Hezbollah, has molded itself into a political party while retaining its military capabilities, is probably the most prominent. Indeed, it is particularly telling that the logo of Badr’s military wing is almost identical to that of the IRGC, Hezbollah, and other Iranian terrorist franchises.

      The Badr Organization was formed in November of 1982—shortly after the Iran-Iraq War broke out—as the Badr Brigades, the military wing of an Iran-based Shi’a Islamist party called the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Badr was comprised of defectors from the Iraqi army who fled to Iran and joined SCIRI, and were originally recruited, trained, and equipped by the IRGC. Badr fought on the side of Iran during the war, and its current leader, the unabashedly pro-Iranian Hadi al-Amiri, was among its ranks. After the war ended, Badr participated in the uprisings against Saddam Hussein in the early 1990s, during which, according to al-Amiri, the group received Iranian support just as “Iran supports Iraq now.”

      Al-Amiri, now Iraq’s Transportation Minister, makes no secret of his loyalty to Iran, and has openly stated, “I believe in the principle of Wilayat al-Faqih, the Absolute Wilayat al-Faqih, as it currently exists in Iran.” He has been photographed with Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani on multiple occasions, and has called Suleimani his “dearest friend.”
      Another prominent Iranian proxy is Kata’ib Hezbollah (KHA). Established in 2003, it is an offshoot of the “Special Groups”—Iranian-backed elements of radical Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army—though it is now an entirely separate entity. It is a designated foreign terrorist organization, and receives funding and training, as well as logistic and military support, from IRGC-QF and Hezbollah. Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an adviser to the IRGC-QF’s commander Qassem Suleimani, is known to be one of the group’s senior leaders, and has been designated by the Treasury Department as posing a “threat to the stability of Iraq,” which said that al-Muhandis and KHA “have committed, directed, supported, or posed a significant risk of committing acts of violence against Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces.” Michael Knights, Lafer Fellow at the Washington Institute, has noted that KHA is “firmly under IRGC-Quds Force control.” Like the aforementioned groups, KHA espouses the Khomeinist ideology of Absolute Wilayat al-Faqih.

      Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), established sometime in July of 2006, is another Iranian-controlled proxy in Iraq that operates under the patronage of Qassem Suleimani. It considers Ayatollah Kazem al-Haeri, a Khomeinist scholar of Iraqi origin residing in the Iranian holy city of Qom, to be its spiritual leader. On his personal website, Ayatollah Haeri states in a fatwa, “I believe in the Absolute Wilayat al-Faqih.” AAH has also boasted about launching a 2012 poster campaign promoting Ayatollah Khamenei throughout Iraq. Under Iranian orders, this group is now fighting in Syria on behalf of Bashar al-Assad’s Iranian-backed regime.

      It is not alone. Liwa Abu Fadl al-Abbas (LAFA) is perhaps the most important Iranian proxy in Syria. It first made its appearance in the fall of 2012 and, as Phillip Smyth of the University of Maryland has noted, fights in Syria under the pretense of defending the Sayideh Zainab Shrine and surrounding Shi’a neighborhoods in southern Damascus. It is made up of a small number of native Syrian Shi’a, but the majority of its members are foreign Shi’a fighters. Smyth further noted that these fighters are mostly drawn from Iranian-backed organizations like the aforementioned Kata’ib Hezbollah and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq. LAFA also openly identifies with Lebanese Hezbollah. The original parties to which LAFA’s foreign fighters belonged were themselves ideologically loyal to Iran and its Absolute Wilayat al-Faqih ideology, indicating both direct Iranian involvement in LAFA’s creation and its ideological fealty to Iran.

      Through these proxies, Iran has managed to gain direct control over certain areas of Iraq. According to Sadeq al-Husseini, the head of the Diyala provincial council’s security committee, former Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki placed Diyala under the control of Hadi al-Amiri and his Badr Organization after the virtual disintegration of Iraq’s army.

      Reportedly, Iran soon dispatched 500 IRGC members to Diyala in order to fight alongside Badr, though Iran’s Foreign Ministry has denied this.

      A few months later, however, Iran allegedly played a major role in retaking the city of Jurf al-Sakher in Diyala’s neighboring Babil province from ISIS. Pictures circulated online showing Suleimani at the site, along with Shi’a militia fighters and al-Amiri. A local police officer, who spoke anonymously to reporters, said Iranian fighters were present on the battlefield, and a Washington Post reporter heard Farsi being spoken at a military base. Sheikh Qassem Sudani, a commander with Kata’ib Hezbollah—another Iranian-backed militia fighting in the area—partially admitted to the Iranian presence.

      1. The presence in and, in some areas, domination over parts of Iraq by these groups should not be viewed as a local or even regional issue. Their worldview and ambitions are international. Indeed, their animosity toward the West, its allies, and Israel is not only ideological, but has manifested itself in some of the deadliest terrorist attacks committed against Western targets in recent times, almost all at Iran’s behest and mostly carried out by Hezbollah. A list of the attacks committed by Iran and Hezbollah is too long to be detailed here in its entirety, but a few of the major incidents deserve mention.

        On November 11, 1982, a Hezbollah suicide bomber drove a car filled with explosives into an IDF headquarters in Tyre—from which the IDF was running its Lebanon War operations—killing 75 soldiers. On April 18, 1983, an explosive-laden van rammed into the U.S. embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people, including 17 Americans, among whom was the CIA’s chief Middle East analyst, Robert C. Ames. After the attack, a pro-Iranian group calling itself the Islamic Jihad Organization—a cover name for Hezbollah’s terrorist wing—claimed responsibility, saying that the attack was “part of the Iranian Revolution’s campaign against imperialist targets throughout the world.” On October 23, 1983, the Islamic Jihad Organization carried out simultaneous attacks against the U.S. Marine and French army barracks in Beirut—both forces had been sent to Lebanon as peacekeepers—killing 241 Americans and 54 French. Hezbollah recently boasted about its responsibility for the attack in a nasheed it produced to commemorate the slain Jihad Mughniyeh, son of Hezbollah’s terrorist mastermind Imad Mughniyeh. The song included the lyrics, “I am Jihad, son of the hero, who led columns of the defiant; the one who felled elite soldiers, marines, and well-armed armies.”
        Iran’s animosity toward the West is not only ideological, but has manifested itself in some of the deadliest terrorist attacks committed against Western targets in recent times.

        On November 4, 1983, Hezbollah carried out another attack against the Israeli headquarters in Tyre, resulting in the death of 28 Israeli soldiers. On December 12, 1983, Iran tasked 17 members of the Iraqi Shi’a Da’wa party—supported by the Islamic Jihad Organization—with carrying out attacks against targets in Kuwait. These attacks, notes Levitt, were “in explicit service of Iran, rather than in the group’s immediate interest.” Within two hours, they carried out a series of six coordinated bombings against the American and French embassies, the Kuwaiti airport, the Raytheon Corporation’s headquarters, a Kuwait National Petroleum Company oil-rig, and a government-owned power station. The shoddy assembly of the explosives ensured that the death toll was relatively low, with five people killed. On September 20, 1984, Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad Organization bombed the newly re-opened U.S. embassy in East Beirut—the second such attack in less than a year—killing 23 people, two of whom were Americans. After the attack, the CIA stated that “an overwhelming body of circumstantial evidence points to the Hizb Allah, operating with Iranian support under the cover name of Islamic Jihad.” Through satellite reconnaissance, U.S. intelligence discovered that a mock-up of the target had been created at the IRGC-run Sheikh Abdullah barracks in Baalbek, Lebanon in order to train for the attack.

        On December 3, 1984, four Hezbollah members—including Mughniyeh—hijacked Kuwait Airways Flight 221, diverting it to Tehran. Two USAID employees, Charles Hegna and William Stanford, were killed before Iranian security forces seized control of the plane and arrested the Hezbollah operatives. Levitt notes that the “rescue was apparently a farce, engineered by Iran to give the hijackers a way out.” The BBC noted that American and Kuwaiti authorities “suspected that the hijackers were acting in league with leading members of the Iranian regime,” possibly based on passenger testimony that the hijackers received additional weapons once they landed in Tehran. The suspicions were reinforced by Iran’s refusal to extradite the hijackers and helping them go into hiding, and later confirmed by subsequent developments in Iran’s relationship with Mughniyeh, as he reported directly to Iran, was dispatched to Lebanon by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence to supervise the reorganization of Hezbollah’s Palestinian Affairs security apparatus, and worked as a liaison between Hezbollah and Iranian intelligence.

        On June 14, 1985, Islamic Jihad Organization/Hezbollah terrorists hijacked TWA flight 847 after it took off from Athens, Greece, killing United States Navy diver Robert Stethem and throwing his body on to the tarmac. As a result, Mughniyeh was indicted by the United States, along with alleged collaborator Hassan Izz al-Din, a prominent Lebanese member of Hezbollah, for the hijacking and murder. In 1985 and 1986, the group was also directed to carry out several attacks in France—coordinated by Wahid Gordji, an Iranian intelligence official—due to French support for Iraq. “In essence, Hezbollah acted as part of Iran’s intelligence and security forces,” Byman wrote.

        On April 5, 1988, Hezbollah operatives, including Izz al-Din, hijacked Kuwait Airways flight 422, forcing it to initially land in Mashhad, Iran, in order to free 17 Shi’a Muslims held in Kuwait for their role in the 1983 bombings. Two Kuwaiti passengers, Abdullah Khalidi and Khalid Ayoub Bandar, were shot dead in Larnaca, Cyprus (the plane’s next stop) by the hijackers and dumped on the tarmac, before the hijackers finally surrendered to Algerian authorities at their final destination in Algiers.
        The next attacks occurred in 1992 and 1994 in Argentina. They targeted the Israeli embassy, killing 29, four of whom were Israelis; and the AMIA Jewish community center, killing 85. Both attacks were assisted by Iran’s embassy in Buenos Aires, and Iran and Hezbollah’s joint responsibility was confirmed by the CIA, Mossad, and Argentina’s SIDE.

        Then came the attack on the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 American airmen. An official U.S. statement said that Hezbollah al-Hejaz—a Saudi-based proxy—was responsible, and in 2006, a U.S. court found Iran and Hezbollah guilty of orchestrating the attack. Ahmed Ibrahim al-Mughassil, the head of the group’s military operations, and Abdelkarim Hussein Mohammed al-Nasser, another of the group’s leaders—both indicted by the United States—are now living in Iran. Hezbollah al-Hejaz was a Saudi Shi’a cleric-based group that formed in 1987, aligning itself with Iran and modeling itself on Lebanese Hezbollah. Backed by Iran, it operated in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain, and followed the marja’iyya (authority) of Ayatollah Khomeini, and later Khamenei, completely embracing the principle of Absolute Wilayat al-Faqih. Its long-term political goal was the establishment of an Iranian-modeled Islamic Republic in the Arabian Peninsula. The group was thought to have been entirely dismantled by the Saudi crackdown that followed the Khobar bombings, but it has reemerged after Saudi Shi’a pilgrims were attacked by religious police in 2009.

        On October 11, 2011, the United States uncovered an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador, Adel al-Jubeir, and bomb the Israeli and Saudi embassies in Washington, DC. The planners were Gholam Shakuri, a commander in the IRGC-QF, and Manssor Arbasiar, a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen.

        Finally, on July 18, 2012, a suicide bomber in Burgas, Bulgaria committed a terrorist attack against a passenger bus carrying 42 Israeli tourists, mainly young people. The explosion killed five Israelis and the Bulgarian bus driver. In February of 2013, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, Bulgaria’s interior minister, said that there was “well-grounded” evidence that Hezbollah was behind the attacks, and Europol noted that forensic evidence and intelligence information pointed to Hezbollah and Iran.

        It should be noted that Hezbollah has no qualms about targeting or killing Israeli civilians, as stated by Hezbollah apologist and supporter Amal Sa’ad-Ghorayeb in her rather frank 2002 book Hizbu’llah: Politics & Religion. Sa’ad-Ghorayeb noted that Hezbollah sees all of Israeli society as an anti-Islamic, racist Zionist monolith, with Israeli civilians viewed as “hostile, militant Zionists” who are an extension of the Israeli army. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has said, “In occupied Palestine there is no difference between a soldier and a civilian, for they are all invaders, occupiers, and usurpers of the land.”

        Disturbingly, even Israeli children are not considered an exception, as Hezbollah also views them as “occupiers.” Muhammad Raad, a party ideologue, member of its executive committee, and elected by the Iranian legislature as Lebanon’s only representative in the IRGC, stated, “We know the emotions and sympathy associated with the [killing of Israeli] children differ from those associated with adults. But in the end, they are all serving one project….One day this child will become prime minister.”

        Iran’s Shi’a proxies have also wrought havoc against American and Western targets in Iraq. In fact, the attacks by Iran’s Shi’a proxies became so pronounced—one statistic states that they caused two-thirds of American casualties in Iraq in July 2007—that General David Petraeus established a special division of the anti-terrorist Joint Special Operations Command specifically tasked with “countering Iranian influence.” It did so mainly by targeting Shi’a militias, but also by pursuing the IRGC-QF operatives arming and supervising their attacks on U.S. troops.

        KHA and AAH have carried out numerous attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq, subsequently boasting about them in propaganda videos. AAH has claimed responsibility for over 6,000 attacks in Iraq, including the October 10, 2006 attack on Camp Falcon, the assassination of the American military commander in Najaf, the downing of a British helicopter on May 6, 2006, and the October 3, 2007 attack on the Polish ambassador. The most famous incident occurred in January 20, 2007, when they attacked the U.S. Army’s Karbala province headquarters, killing one soldier and abducting four more who were later killed also.

        The Badr Organization has played a role in attacking American personnel as well. Prior to 2003, Badr served as Iran’s most important proxy inside Iran, and was considered an official component of the IRGC-QF, receiving weapons and training from the IRGC-QF and Lebanese Hezbollah. During the U.S. occupation, many of Badr’s senior individuals played important roles in funneling weapons to associated militant groups fighting the U.S. and coalition forces. While it attempted to hide its role in attacks against Americans, Smyth notes that, in spring 2014, “the Badr Organization … announce[d] on its al-Ghadeer TV network and official social media that it had attacked U.S. forces in Iraq.” It did so “as propaganda to recruit fighters in Syria.”

        Yet this hostility toward America’s presence in the Middle East is not only directed against the U.S. presence in Iraq. In a twist that would be ironic in any other region besides the Middle East, recent reports have indicated that Iran is once again turning to al-Qaeda as a proxy, using Hezbollah to coordinate with al-Qaeda offshoot Jabhat al-Nusrah in order to attack U.S. interests in the region.
        The U.S. is not the only target of these groups. They have also committed atrocities against local Sunnis in Iraq and elsewhere, exacerbating the country’s sectarian tensions and damaging the United States’ stated policy of furthering sectarian reconciliation.

        This violence is nothing new, and has been known to U.S. officials for some time. During the U.S. occupation of Iraq, a 2009 U.S. embassy cable indicated that the Badr Organization had infiltrated the Iraqi security forces and was carrying out a widespread campaign of terror and murder against Sunnis. Hadi al-Amiri may have been personally responsible for ordering the killing of up to 2,000 Sunnis. One of his “preferred methods of killing” was “using a power drill to pierce the skulls of his adversaries,” a method used by lower-ranking Badr militiamen as well.
        The sectarian violence did not end with the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in 2011 or the election of Iranian-endorsed Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on a platform of reconciliation with Iraq’s Sunnis. Though it was al-Maliki who put Diyala under the command of al-Amiri and his militia forces, al-Abadi—who holds strong pro-Iranian sympathies—has allowed al-Amiri’s divisive influence to grow, resulting in serious human rights violations. For example, Iraqi government and Western intelligence sources claim that Shi’a militias, including Badr, tortured and executed a number of what it claimed were ISIS fighters. After pushing the Sunni terrorists out of Jurf al-Sakher, Badr Organization militiamen decided to exact revenge on captured ISIS fighters and dragged their bodies through the streets. One need not sympathize with ISIS fighters to see that these actions demonstrate the similarity between the Sunni terror group and Iran’s Shi’a proxies.

        These horrific actions have also extended to civilians, with the Badr Organization and others killing Sunni residents it accused of being sympathetic to ISIS. Reports surfaced in January that Shi’a militiamen arrived in the town of Barwanah in 10 Humvees, took Sunni residents—some up to age 70—from their homes, led them in small groups to a field, made them kneel, and then shot them one by one. At least 72 Iraqi Sunnis were killed by what witnesses called a collection of Shi’a militiamen and security forces, identified by their black-and-brown uniforms and green headbands emblazoned with the slogan, “Ya Hussein!” The militias and associated security forces subsequently encircled the village, preventing anyone from leaving. One of the residents, Abu Ahmed, said that the town was “surrounded for days. We have no food. We have nothing.”

        These are only a handful of examples of the countless incidents of horrific violence perpetrated by Iran-sponsored Shi’a militias. Human Rights Watch has issued a series of reports chronicling these systematic abuses against Iraq’s Sunnis, which rival ISIS in their barbarism and cruelty. Though al-Amiri tried to blame these abuses on the lack of discipline among new recruits, Erin Evers—a researcher with Human Rights Watch—was unconvinced due to the Badr Organization’s “bloody history.” Evers has accused Badr of “systematic” abuses that “range from the Badr Brigade kidnapping and summarily executing people, to expelling Sunnis from their homes, then looting and burning them, in some cases razing entire villages.”

        1. With their ideological allegiance to Iran and the concept of Absolute Wilayat al-Faqih; their ideologically motivated hostility to the United States, the West, and its allies; and their list of human rights atrocities and terrorist acts over the course of the last three decades, one would assume that these groups would be sidelined and marginalized, if not placed in the same category as ISIS.

          Yet, the opposite seems to be true. General Martin Dempsey, the former supreme commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, has said that the expansion of “Iranian influence will be a net positive.” Making matters worse, President Obama’s desired Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against ISIS and its accompanying explanatory letter propose using American forces in a support role for “our partners on the ground” and “local forces.” Any astute observer of the Iraqi and Syrian battlefield can readily see that Iran’s Shi’a militia proxies are the only groups fitting those descriptions that are leading the fight against ISIS. In effect, with the best of intentions, the AUMF is calling for the inadvertent support of some of the United States’ staunchest enemies.

          Despite the old adage “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” such a policy can only backfire. Every inch of territory acquired by these groups has not been liberated from ISIS occupation, but conquered by Iran, which is a far more formidable enemy. Such a strategy is counterproductive, and supporting groups committing unspeakable atrocities against Sunnis is not a viable alternative to fighting ISIS. It will only add fuel to the sectarian fires already raging in Iraq and elsewhere, severely hindering U.S. foreign policy goals in the region. The same applies in Yemen, where the United States turned its back on its ally, President Abed Rabbo Mansour al-Hadi, and after signaling its openness to working with the Houthis, actually formed indirect ties with them, according to the White House and the group’s commanders. Houthi commanders said the U.S. has indirectly provided them with intelligence and logistical support against AQAP. This happened despite the group’s allegiance to Tehran, opposition by Saudi Arabia and the fact that the group stands poised to ignite heretofore minimal to non-existent Sunni-Shi’a tensions in the country. April Longley Alley, senior Arabian Peninsula analyst for the International Crisis Group, notes that the “most worrisome” part of the rise of the Houthis is that “by taking the lead in the fight against al-Qa‘ida, the Houthis are opening the door to a sectarian conflict that the country has never experienced.” These fires will spread, fueling recruitment by extremist groups of all stripes, and consuming the lives of countless innocents.

          Most importantly, supporting Iran’s proxies aids in the expansion of Iran’s influence throughout the region, furthering Tehran’s imperialist ambitions. Iran wishes to be the hegemonic power in the Middle East, and is consciously using its many proxies to further this ambition. Ultimately, supporting Iran’s proxies could well lead to the emergence of a new Persian empire that would place much of the Middle East under the influence of a fervently anti-Western and anti-American theocracy that is, ultimately, a far greater threat than even its most brutal enemies.

          Iranian funded and armed proxy Daesh if unchecked, the expansion of this terrorist group would serve Iranian interests in Syria and beyond. Media outlets in the Gulf countries, citing their own intelligence sources, also warned of this scenario.

          To some analysts and policymakers in the West, these claims might seem puzzling. Some might even dismiss them as yet another conspiracy theory emanating from the Middle East.

          However, aside from the intelligence on Iran’s creation, the Daesh, past Iranian actions and the consequences of the rise of Daesh can be cited in support of those claims.

          First, Iran’s support and funding of various terrorist groups throughout the Middle East is well known. For example, in a report by the Library of Congress on Iran’s Minister of Intelligence and Security it is stated that Iran “provides financial, material, technological, or other support services to Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), all designated terrorist organizations under U.S. Executive Order 13224.”

          While the Iranian regime adheres to a fundamentalist interpretation of Shiite Islam and is in conflict with the Sunnis, Tehran has on numerous occasions supported terrorist Sunni groups to destabilize strategically important countries in the Middle East. Iranian infiltration of and support for Daesh should therefore come as no surprise.

          Second, once the Iranian regime and its Syrian ally realized that secular forces who were taking the lead in the fight against the combined forces of Assad, Iran and Hezbollah could become a viable opposition force, they capitalized on Daesh’s split from al-Qaida and in various ways made sure that Daesh – which had set out to eliminate all other opposition groups – could become the dominant group in Syria. At the same time, Iraq’s former prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, released many members of Daesh from prison that subsequently joined the group in Syria. Iran, the Shiite-dominated government in Iraq and the Assad regime in Syria were fearful that the secular forces in Syria could become an ideologically attractive ally for the Western powers.

          To discredit the Syrian opposition and paint it as a radical Sunni movement dominated by a vicious terrorist organization like Daesh, their aim was to compel the Western powers to reconsider their plans for regime change and accept the Assad regime as the lesser evil compared to a possible Daesh takeover in Syria. To this end, Iran and the Assad regime gave Daesh free leeway to establish its control over Raaqah in Syria, from where it later could expand into other parts of Syria and, as it turned out, even Iraq. Although this too might sound as bizarre, reports had for some time indicated that the expansion of Daesh was indeed facilitated by Iran and Syria. For example, the Washington Post reported on June 10, 2014, the following: “Moderate rebel groups complain that ISIS’s rise has been aided by the relative disinterest shown by Syrian government forces in the areas under the group’s control, which are rarely subjected to airstrikes and bombardment. That has helped the group set up its own version of a government.”

          Third, irrespective of whether one finds existing intelligence in that regard as credible, the rise and expansion of Daesh have as a matter of fact served the interests of the Islamic regime in Iran. In other words, irrespective of Iranian intentions and schemes, the consequences of Daesh’s emergence as a formidable fighting force in Syria and, later, its expansion into Iraq has served the interests of the regime in Tehran.

          Although Iran is allied with some Shiite groups in Iraq, the regime in Tehran has defined its strategic interests in Iraq in three ways. The first is to preclude the emergence of a federal democracy in Iraq that is stable and economically and politically strong enough to become a regional power with the capacity to block Iranian hegemony. Although the regime in Tehran is rhetorically committed to “friendly” relations with Iraq, it pursues a policy of divide and conquer toward its Shiite-dominated neighbor. The second strategic objective of Iran in Iraq is to make sure that democracy does not take root. In fact, Iran’s concerted effort is to make sure that democracy is associated with chaos and instability. The third Iranian strategic interest in Iraq is to undermine the Kurdistan regional government and make sure that the Kurds do not progress further. Iran is fearful of the Kurdistan regional government and its drive toward independence because of its demonstration effect on other parts of Kurdistan.

          It is noteworthy that Daesh first stated that it would seize Baghdad once it consolidated itself in Mosul. However, Daesh instead attacked Iraqi Kurdistan. This came at a time when the Iraqi-Kurdish leadership called for a referendum on independence.

          In short, Daesh’s expansion into Iraq, which was facilitated by Iran, the Assad regime and the Maliki government, has made Iraq even weaker and thus more amenable to Iranian control. The Iraqi army has been reduced substantially. Meanwhile, Shiite militias that answer to Iran have become the most powerful military forces in Iraq. These militias terrorize the Sunni population and thus perpetuate the sectarian conflict between Shiites and Sunnis. In fact, Daesh has helped the Shiite government in Iraq in this regard by eliminating prominent figures and tribal leaders within the Sunni community, thus making the Sunnis even more vulnerable. At the same time, the Kurdistan region’s war with Daesh has drained the limited resources of the Kurdish government, resulted in hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons, several thousand dead and injured Peshmergas, as well as other dangerous consequences for Iraq at large and the Kurdistan region in particular.

          In the midst of all this, there are naive journalists, pundits and even some government officials in the Western world who have bought into the propaganda by the Iranian regime’s lobby that it is a force for “stability” in the region. The regime in Tehran, which is the major source of instability throughout the Middle East, is painted in some circles as a possible stabilizing factor in Iraq and elsewhere.

          However, as warned by General David H. Petraeus, former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, the strategic threat to stability, democracy and western interests in Iraq and Syria is the Iranian regime. According to Gen. Petraeus, Iran is on the verge of creating a terrorist proxy similar to Hezbollah in Lebanon, thus posing a strategic threat to the balance of power in the region.

          In spite of the economic siege on Iraqi Kurdistan, the Kurdish government and the brave Peshmerga forces have managed to not only withstand the multiple military attacks by Daesh, but also to push back this terrorist group from Kurdish territory. Once Daesh is defeated, a war between the Peshmerga Forces and the militias of Iran in Iraq is likely. This is likely to start in Kirkuk and other strategically important places.

          To prevent a situation where the West has to decide whether to fight a war with Iran’s proxies in Iraq, the United States and its allies should increase their support for the Kurdistan region. Only through a visible presence in combination with financial and military support for the Kurdistan region can the West undermine Iran’s drive for hegemony in the Middle East.

          The profusion of Iran-trained Shiite militias in the region (particularly in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen) is unprecedented and represents the height of Iran’s support to militia groups. The incentives to recruit Shiite fighters can be either driven by financial means or religious/sectarian motives.

          The emergence of this new Shiite Crescent has unintended consequences for regional and global powers. Currently, an estimate of 120,000 Shiite militants are fighting in Iraq and Syria including fighters from Abo Al-Fadl Al-Abbasbrigade, Al-Imam AlHossein brigade, Tho Al-Faqar brigade, Kafil Zainab brigade, Asaib Ahl Alhaq, Ammar Bin Yasser brigade, Hezbollah Al-Nujaba’ movement, to name a few.

          The use of these Shiite militia groups are not only restricted within a boundary of one state. As transnational non-state actors, they are mainly intertwined across borders. For example, several of Iraqi Shiite militias have been utilized in Syria to fight alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and vice versa.

          In addition, the employment of militants are not limited to solely Arab Shiite groups. Most recently, Pakistani and Afghan Shiite fighters, which are part of the Iranian-backed “Operation Quneitra Martyrs named for Gen. Ali Allah Dadi,” have been brought to the Golan Heights in Syria, near the border of Israel.

          The Success of the New Shiite Crescent:

          While the international community, primarily the United States, has been putting all of its eggs in one basket in regards to the Islamic State’s fighters, the growth and increasing number of pro-Iran Shiite militias can pose a daunting, long-term task to tackle in the future.

          In other words, the international community might succeed in defeating the Islamic State, but they will lose Iraq and other parts of the region to the Iranian-supported Shiite militias.

          There are several reasons for the growth and success of Shiite fighters.

          First of all, while dozens of countries are relying on aerial attacks to address the threat of the Islamic State, or other extremist groups that might pose instability to the security of the region, the Iranian-supported Shiite militias are among the few groups that are actually fighting on the ground.

          The Shiite militias can be seen on the front lines of the battles in Syria and Iraq fighting other oppositional groups. As “boots on the ground,” these militias groups become much more appealing to the leaders of countries who like to consolidate their power and obtain military support. One cannot ignore the fact that these Shiite militia groups have often made significant advances in Iraq and Syria, outperforming the Iraqi and Syrian armies and security forces.

          As a result, the Iraqi government is more likely to tilt towards the Islamic Republic than the United States (or other governments) due to the fact that Tehran can provide Baghdad with forces on the ground. In addition, solely airstrikes have shown to be ineffective and often counterproductive to increasing territorial gains.
          Secondly, Iran’s proximity to Iraq and Syria, as well as the transnational nature of these Shiite militia groups, make it much easier for Tehran to support the emergence of Shiite fighters across the region. Third, Iran has been successful at building close ties with both Arab and non-Arab Shiite populations in various countries in the region.

          Shiite Jihad and the “Hezbollzation” of the Region:

          Although the Iranian-trained Shiite militias have made advances in territories in Iraq and Syria, ignoring the profusion of these militants in the region could pose a long-term security dilemma to regional nations.
          The common argument made by Iranian leaders and some of Shiite militia groups is that these militias are protecting the religious Shiite shrines, including Sayyida Zaynab, Sayyida Ruqayya, and shrines in Najaf.

          Nevertheless, the operations of these groups in various countries reflect their effective role in tipping the balance of power in favor of the Syrian government, as well as taking over the security and military operations of both Iraqi and Syrian governments.

          Secondly, as pawns for the Islamic Republic’s regional hegemonic ambitions, the continuing support of Iran to organize, coordinate and financially support the Shiite militants will create formidable Iranian-backed Shiite proxies in the region in the long-term. This might be called the “Hezbollazation” of the region. As time passes, defeating these organized proxies will be a much more strenuous task.

          Finally, in the future, the growth of Iranian-trained Shiite militias will further instigate and sharpen the sectarian and the Sunni-Shia split. For instance, recently, Iraqi Sunni lawmakers have announced that they will boycott the Iraqi parliament until the government controls the growing influence of the Shiite militia groups.

          If the international community succeeds in defeating the Islamic State, they will soon encounter a much more taxing challenge: The long-term security threat posed by the Shiite militias. Even if many countries are capable of driving the Islamic State out of Syria and Iraq, they will soon come to the realization that they have lost Iraq, Syria, and other territories in the region to the Iranian-trained Shiite militias.

          1. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Long… but good. And ‘Supremes’ I’m sure, pass along the ideology … so it doesn’t really matter when an Imam comes out of his cave – and the speed at which ‘the plan’ proceeds is irrelevant to ‘the process’ … and Nastyrallah (deciple of #1) may even aspire to being the ‘Next Supreme’ and carrying on the slightly modified ‘traditions’.

          2. Buddy you are one of the most intelligent AND HONEST commentators I’ve come across.
            PS: I know who you are 😉

          3. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Oh Dear … she knows … Ms. Critical Analysis ……

          4. fake O … you disgusting shite tranny, hind. Everyone knows too, that’s its you.

      2. Hend Abyad Avatar
        Hend Abyad

        Here you are again Guest Majoos…

        1. Its you, quit calling an urban legend who doesn’t exist beside of course your evil twisted shite brain. You’re that and caribbean, whistleblower, among other of your avatars. No one falls for your lies, anyways. Stick to the thing you do the best, tranny dancing.

  3. Barry Avatar

    The West keeps trying to build a sandcastle in the surf. Iraq and Syria are colonial constructs that grouped people who hate each other under a national banner. Doomed.

    1. MekensehParty Avatar
      MekensehParty

      It’s better to be watching doomsday from the skies than being on the ground in its midst.

      1. Hend Abyad Avatar
        Hend Abyad

        How brilliant and inconsequential.

    2. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      And USA is so far ‘west’, it didn’t even know there was a surf. ‘The Med’ looked calm on the maps. :-))))

    3. Hend Abyad Avatar
      Hend Abyad

      Iraq “Mesopotamia” was built on lines in the sand in WW1 “Divide And Conquer”, planting Sectarian Wars. Syria many sects were living together before 2011.
      Congratulating each other on the shoulders here like “Old McDonald had a farm” is pathetic.

  4. MekensehParty Avatar
    MekensehParty

    20 airstrikes a day is cheap compared to the life of a soldier a day
    Isis can be contained in its region of operation and no one among the multitude of players in the ME is worth dying for. Tikrit falls and is retaken, Ramadi falls, half of Baghdad falls… who gives a shit, those are not lands the US is responsible of governing. We tried, no one wants to become civilized so screw it. Those governing have scores to settle among themselves, let them fight their own demons, be accountable for the hundred of thousands of death of their own populations. Maybe there will be no one left to “vote” for them.
    Sit tight and watch, don’t let the balance tilt in favor of any of your enemies, keep them fighting one another till exhaustion…
    This is the “strategy” and it’s about time that “experts” understand it.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      This IS a funny thing … hahahahahhaaa
      Islamic-types protesting death sentences. :-))))
      http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2015/May-22/298982-sudans-islamists-protest-egypts-death-sentences.ashx

    2. Hend Abyad Avatar
      Hend Abyad

      You can say that after millions of Christians were killed or fled.
      “no one among the multitude of players in the ME is worth dying for”.
      The ignorance..who started Wars in the Middle East since WW1 and the Armenian Genocide?

      1. MekensehParty Avatar
        MekensehParty

        Toz 3aleike and all the Christians in the ME if they are like you.
        Go ask Iran to save the Christians of the ME since you’re so sure of their good and noble intentions.
        No troops in Iraq to fight for you hypocrites. Go fight your demons and if you lose it only means you’re just too good at creating demons and you deserve to die.

        1. Well said, but IT is shite, a lying show dance tranny of Qom.

          1. fake o

          2. fake o

          3. your mom is fake you son of a shlomo whore

          4. fake o

        2. Hend Abyad Avatar
          Hend Abyad

          Tozzein aleik MkaHmarPizzaHutt useless brain

          Who’s asking US TRO’O’ps or IRAN? I’M Not!!

          You hypocrite know who invaded Iraq ILLEGALLY with fabricated pretexts, you disgusting Cheney Blackwater Bush Richard Pearl Netanyahu lover, American couch potatoes popcorn eaters you created the demons.

          There was no Al Qaeda in Iraq

          “The calculated madness of the Islamic State’s horrifying brutality By Terrence McCoy August 12, 2014

          Militant Islamist fighters take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria’s northern Raqqah province June 30, 2014. (Reuters)

          Last week, as the forces of the Islamic State crept within 40 miles of Irbil, fear settled over the urbane Kurdish capital. People had heard of the militants’ brutality — of the crucifixions, the beheadings, the mass killings. They were understandably frightened, Kurdish journalist Namo Abdulla told The Washington Post. Some began to flee. Others made for the mountains. The killers were coming.

          In the last week, images of the Islamic State’s savagery have been inescapable. News exploded yesterday of an image of a young boy, the son of an Australian member
          of the Islamic State, hoisting a severed head beside his proud father.

          “This image, perhaps even an iconic photograph … really one of the most disturbing, stomach-turning, grotesque photographs ever displayed,” Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Tuesday morning. “A 7-year-old child holding a severed head, with pride and the support and encouragement of the parent, with brothers there.
          This is utterly disgraceful and underscores the degree to which [the Islamic State] is so far beyond the pale with respect to any standard by which we judge even terrorist groups.”
          Kerry: Iraqi leaders have ‘difficult challenge’
          Ohhh yeahhh..?
          During a news conference in Sydney after the naming of a new Iraqi prime minister, Secretary of State John Kerry expressed cautious optimism in the new leadership. (Reuters) …

          “The glorification of extreme violence using social media is one of the defining aspects of the Islamic State. The Sunni militants wield savagery like a tool, analysts say. It’s neither extemporaneous nor undisciplined. It’s concerted. It’s tactical. It’s evil. And that’s the point.

          “There’s a strategic reason behind the executions,” wrote the Washington Institute’s Aaron Zelin. “And the gruesome pictures posted online for all to see.”

          The seeds of today’s brutality were perhaps sown long ago in a 2006 book called “The Management of Savagery,” wrote expert Lawrence Wright in the New Yorker. The book, written by a radical Islamist thinker named Abu Bakr Naji, details patterns of “abominable savagery” witnessed in both the Islamic State and its earlier incarnations. According to this English translation,
          it calls for an **“administration of savagery”** and a merciless campaign to polarize the population, attract adherents and establish a pure Sunni caliphate: “We must make this battle very violent, such that death is a heartbeat away, so that the two groups will realize that entering this battle will frequently lead to death,” the book says.

          Long before the Islamic State, such was the vision of a savage killer named Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

          The Jordanian, an early rival of Osama bin Laden, wanted war between the two major sects of Islam — Sunnis and Shiites. And “for his purposes,” wrote Wright, “there was no better venue than the fractured state of Iraq, which sits astride the Sunni-Shiite fault line.”

          That agenda, however, clashed with the vision of bin Laden. He eventually brought Zarqawi under his leadership in 2004, giving birth to al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) — a precursor of the Islamic State. It clashed frequently with the al-Qaeda command over its propensity for brutality.

          A bullet was good enough for killing, said bin Laden’s lieutenant. Why decapitate?

          “What they failed to grasp was that, for Zarqawi and
          his network, savagery — particularly when directed at other Muslims — was the whole point,” Wright wrote in the New Yorker. “The ideal of this movement, as its theorists saw it, was the establishment of a caliphate that would lead to the purification of the Muslim world.”

          Observers, including British analyst Alastair Crooke, say the “The Management of Savagery” set out the very ideology that the Islamic State has now carried out.
          Indeed, one of the first steps the book suggests is a “plundering of resources,” which the Islamic State pursued with the same fervency of its violent acts”.

          1. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            ooohhh sweetie, jews controlling the media and issuing black-outs??? Is asma a jew (one of the wives of your BFF)??? Meh, 62 billion, chump change….
            Ohh a conspiracy…the British Daily Mail newspaper published a report claiming that Bashar al-Assad’s wife, Asma, had secretly fled Syria to the UK with her children, where she was living off a “£40 billion ($62 billion) fortune” that the president had “smuggled abroad.”

            Within a few days, Asma hired a renowned British law firm, Carter-Ruck, to take action against the Mail’s owner, Associated Newspapers Ltd. (now known as dmg media),

            Carter-Ruck, on behalf of Asma, succeeded in compelling the Mail to delete the article from its website and issue a denial.

          2. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            facebook.com/video.php?v=769273379788436

          3. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            The aggravation with a lot of these ‘clips’ is that dates, names, and times are not well recorded or published, and also that they run a ‘repeat’ to enlarge on the effect … like the guys shooting at the same tanks and yelling ‘Allo Akbar’ several times.

          4. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            I know how to make a difference between who’s who..which you can’t..humm excuseses …i mean in ME domain.. remember Syrians, unless Syrian BrotherHoods, don’t chant ‘Allo Akbar’

          5. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            no no sweetie. who’s on first.. what’s on second….☻

          6. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            no no Ziostink. who’s on first stole real Malmequer ID..what’s on second.. stole avatar from real Hind Abyad

          7. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            wow sweetie. you have the same effect as a stink truck….☻ Take a shower…..

          8. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            4 years parroting ..wow sweetie. you have the same effect as a stink truck….☻ Take a shower…..

          9. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            douche baby, douche… lol☻

          10. Anti ISIS Avatar
            Anti ISIS

            That smell is coming out of your mouth. SWEETIE.

          11. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            Actually, people like you and hind give me a laugh. Leb could be such an example to other countries, but fucked up ‘people’ like you and her keep the country fuck-ed up.. hopefully the likes of you and her will not procreate and eventually die off.

          12. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            lol… chewing your cud sweetie?? lol!! Such a shame that you are an outcast in Montreal.. you have to invent friends and live a life by proxy on the internet… lol!!!☻

          13. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            I’m fare from what you imagine looser, no real man can live a life of hatred over internet fantasies.. like O.
            Now i hope you got all the attention you were so much begging for since months..but fun is over.

          14. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            That’s an amusing paranoid delusion.. what do you do for an encore??? lol!☻

          15. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            November 2014. Year of Facebook “killing the little sneaks”.

            “The demand to give Ayelet Shaked the Justice portfolio is like giving the Fire and Rescue Services to a pyromaniac,” opposition lawmaker Nachman Shai told the Arutz Sheva news site.

          16. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            Israeli soldiers speak out ..but Israel dismisses of course..what would you do..

            http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8149464.stm

          17. Are You working in Amnesty International or HRW? Amnesty International

            The second oldest and well-known human rights organization – is Amnesty International. It was founded in 1961 by lawyer Peter Benenson; reason
            for establishing an article about two Portuguese students who are
            jailed for seven years for what they “drank a toast to freedom.” Amnesty monitored to ensure that prisoners of conscience have been
            released in Europe, and political prisoners receive a fair trial.

            But
            by the early 90 prisoners of conscience in Europe extinct, yet the size
            of Amnesty (as well as the Franciscan Order) only increased: 2.2
            million members in 150 countries. There was a question: where to take prisoners of conscience, whose rights should be protected? Of
            course, Amnesty campaigned for women’s rights and, and against global
            warming, but still, you see, is not that: the main demand conscientious
            people will always be prisoners of conscience, preferably in Europe or
            in America: in the Congo is kak far away and uninteresting.

            And Amnesty had found their prisoners of conscience in Guantanamo. Already
            from 1986 to 2000, the country which was devoted to the greatest number
            of reports Amnesty, were the United States – 136 reports, in second
            place was Israel. These cute states like Uganda and Congo, not one of the ten most important human rights violators.

            But
            after the United States declared a “war on terror», Amnesty also
            announced his campaign: Counter terror with justice («counter terrorism
            under the law.” – Approx. Ed.). And as you know, the main villain in this campaign were not terrorists. And those who are fighting terrorism. Who is more fighting – and the greater the villain.

            Of
            the twenty-news of this section (as at 20 December 2010), one for
            Turkey, one – Libya, one – Yemen (Amnesty demands from the Yemeni stop
            sacrificing human rights as they confront Al-Qa’ida), another – Pakistan
            (Amnesty outraged
            that the Pakistani authorities do not protect human rights in the areas
            occupied by the Taliban, although it is very difficult to understand
            how they can do it. After all, if the Pakistani military will lead the
            attack on the Taliban, that would require them to stop sacrificing human
            rights as they confront Al-Qa ‘ida). Two more dedicated to the UK, and the remaining 14 – Guantanamo, the CIA and the US.

            It is difficult to fight against terror. For this we need to crawl on their bellies through the mountains, skydiving, to risk their lives. Good
            and just fight for justice for the terrorists: it is enough to send out
            press releases that Guantanamo is going «daily injustice» («daily
            lawlessness”), and that «president Obama’s administration has failed to
            match its words with concrete action when it comes
            to accountability and remedy for human rights violations committed in
            the name of «countering terrorism» («the Obama administration has been
            unable to back up their words with concrete action when it comes to
            reporting on human rights violations committed in the name of” combating
            terrorism “).

            Amnesty
            says its policy so that we, they say, often write about the developed
            countries because the situation in which is the benchmark for all
            mankind. I am afraid that the real explanation for this is different. Criticizing the US much safer than criticize these cannibals. And the sponsors to find critics of the United States much easier.

            There is a simple human logic: Wolfhound – rights eater – no. There is a logic of human rights defenders: Wolfhound is not right, because it violated the rights of the man-eater. And we ask the cannibal will not.

            (The ideology of the international bureaucracy)

          18. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            virus video… do not watch…

          19. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            SS didn’t do this ID thief.
            SS lloo ww death..

          20. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            ooohhh, sweetie… lost it again eh?? Time for your meds… lol☻

          21. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            4years of your useless life parroting..
            ooohhh, sweetie… lost it again eh?? Time for your meds… lol☻

          22. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            better see Dr. Maher for for a new prescription, sweetie…. lol☻

          23. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            4 years parroting; better see Dr. Maher for for a new prescription, sweetie…. lol☻

          24. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            queue the theme for the twilight zone…. do do do do … sweetie…lol☻

          25. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            4years persecuting me with same magnus opus..oh not only, but using my name, my real, on JP with dead fish Avatar, publishing my email in public day after day, “514 keys to your private parts”..you could kill me no sane person can invests 4 years going into 5, for nothing, you’re obsessed with aggressive hatred, words can injure as much as physical assaults.. so go to hell thug, sand nigger..

          26. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            ooohhh, mossad price-tag sweetie…lol!!!

          27. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            I don’t give a fig for Zionist Ayelets pricey tags. my cousins read all this they have power in Maronite government.

          28. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            lol!!!! You married your cousin??? That explains a lot sweetie…. Do you have good ‘relations’ with siblings also??? LOL! This explains your neurosis.

          29. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            oh, and sweetie, IF you come back to Canada, make sure to tell the border services that you only support hezzies political wing, not their military wing….☻

          30. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            not your business…

          31. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            lol sweetie… just some practical advise for you…. lol. Maybe we talk after lunch…. sweetie…☻

          32. Fool, don’t spread lies, Neo Fadi: I’m
            from Palestine but I have to ask you to delete this video cuz is not
            real. This is just a training by Jordan army for special forces you can
            Google it
            I’m asking to remove this cuz I know they will use it against us saying we are telling lies

          33. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            Thank you, so you’re orab fakistinan? Sorry, they’re no such thing.. balestinians are invented. people.http://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/16/world/israel-detains-2-in-burial-alive-of-palestinians.html

          34. While the world’s media has been blaming Israel for the death of Gazan
            civilians during Operation Protective Edge, this correspondent decided
            to speak with Gazans themselves to hear what they had to say http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4706/gazan-hamas-war-crimes

            once again the “Palestinian people” invented in the KGB USSR http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=46

            once again, Hind, don’t spread lie

          35. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            We have known for years how Hamas ‘controls’ … and ‘wins’ the votes.

          36. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            False.

          37. Just you are false as it turns out

          38. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            Time of Israel. Support for Hamas skyrocketing following war, polls show” You reap what you sow.

            http://www.timesofisrael.com/support-for-hamas-skyrockets-following-war-poll-shows/

          39. As it turns out, you also supporting Hamas, fool
            Gazans deserve for what they voting although if they have a choice

          40. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            I’m not, you use giving me fake Hamas propaganda by Israel i respond..

          41. “you use giving me fake Hamas propaganda by Israel”
            what?

          42. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            link to virus… lol sweetie, activisting 23/7…. somebody needs to get a life, 3 am in 514 land… lol!☻

          43. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            4 year parroting same thing… lol sweetie, activisting 23/7…. somebody needs to get a life, 3 am in 514 land… lol!☻
            Get a life zio stalker

          44. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            proxy life eh sweetie??? lol☻ Serious daddy issues…lol!

          45. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            lol sweetie… thought you were from Haifa??? Oh yeah, that was another one of you personalities… lol!! Your cousins must me so ashamed of you,, village idiot…lol!!☻

          46. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            I never lived in villages we live in Beyrouth.

          47. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            ooh, let me guess, near the airport with all you other hezzie friends…lol sweetie….☻

          48. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            Sorry i know no Hezbollah. I don’t live near the airport, so sorry for your fantasies the Internet (for some insane is cuckoos nest), now i have ti go.

          49. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            nastyrallah is waiting for you sweetie… open wide!

          50. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            Neo doesn’t exist on google Facebook.
            Neo means non-existent.. it’s not an Arabic name.

          51. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            lol… inventing words again sweetie…lol… maybe you can get a higher dosage on the street in Leb…lol!.. you need it.☻

          52. Are you want to continue to lie?

          53. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            There is no other reason for the divided camps.
            When a bunch of their idiots can drive up and shoot up a wedding party because it’s playing music, you know there’s a difference …. certainly in the amount of, and the type of, idiocy they ‘express’.

          54. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            They are not in same camp but both are persecuting me, versus lies outrageously, he just said I’M a Palestinian after they never existed, thank you, good night:).

          55. “he just said I’M a Palestinian” – where i said?
            “Palestinian” once again it is corrupted political terminology
            Another Hind crazy lie. Where i’m I cheating, fool?

          56. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            “Fool, don’t spread lies, Neo Fadi: I’m
            from Palestine but I have to ask you to delete this video cuz is not real. This is just a training by Jordan army for special forces you can Google it I’m asking to remove this cuz I know they will use it against us saying we are telling lies.”
            I googled. i don’t even comprehend what you say, we have NOTHING to discuss.

          57. You posted fake video “Palestinian children buried alive by IDF” https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=769273379788436

            Khalil Abbasi: This is Not Palestine…Syria or Iraq but definitely not Palestine.
            Palestinians don’t need to be implicated in this lie. Please remove this
            video
            Please, spreading lie is bad discussion

          58. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            1- I never had any intention to publish this video, there were no reasons. I posted it to this Zionist stalking mad parasite Malmequer “sweetiiie” using the avatar that he stole from me scribbled glasses and moustaches, publishing pornographic contents and private information on my email in public forum, acting against all laws of discus protocols. .

            2- I googled Khalil Abbasi as you said, this is Khalil Abbassi video, so i see you are lying and i don’t comprehend what you say

            That’s what i found
            “According to WAFA: He said that Israeli police surrounded the neighborhood of al-Bustan, in Silwan and several other adjacent neighborhoods and arrested Board Member of Silwan charitable society Khalil al-Abbasi”.

          59. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            (I really think we need translators available here sometimes…. 🙁 ….)

          60. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            What i found is Ghalib Khalil Abassi in genealogy, he was 51years old in 1948, born is Safed, 1903.
            http://www.geni.com/people/Ghalib-Abbasi/6000000002465380185

          61. Khalil Abbasi is just honest facebook user comented video you posted here, not Silwan charitable society Khalil al-Abbasi. Another honest fecebook user Neo Fadi say: I’m
            from Palestine but I have to ask you to delete this video cuz is not
            real. This is just a training by Jordan army for special forces. Where a’m lying? Please try to be correct

          62. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            “Khalil Abbasi: This is Not Palestine…Syria or Iraq but definitely not Palestine.
            Palestinians don’t need to be implicated in this lie. Please remove this video
            Please, spreading lie is bad discussion”

            He was an honest facebook user.
            Now that i posted “Silwan charitable society Khalil al-Abbasi”, you say there’s an honest fecebook user Neo Fadi, who’s Neo Fadi?

          63. who’s Neo Fadi? “I’m from Palestine” he say

          64. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            who’s Vichy “I’m from France” he said .

          65. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            Neo Fadi was sarcastic? He wrote this under the video:

            Non-Televised Truth

            Palestinian children buried alive by IDF

            Israel arrested 9,000 Palestinians last year, 700 of them children,
            many of children were buried alive by IDF secretly, location is unknown,
            no more details about this video. A former Israeli military commander has told the #BBC that Palestinian youngsters are routinely ill-treated by Israeli soldiers while in custody, reports the BBC’ s Katya Adler from Jerusalem and the West Bank.

            “You take the kid, you blindfold him, you handcuff him, he’s really
            shaking… Sometimes you cuff his legs too. Sometimes it cuts off the
            circulation.

            “He doesn’t understand a word of what’s going on
            around him. He doesn’t know what you’re going to do with him. He just
            knows we are soldiers with guns. That we kill people. Maybe they think
            we’re going to kill him.

            “A lot of the time they’re peeing their pants, just sit there peeing their pants, crying. But usually they’re very quiet.”
            Eran Efrati is a former commander in Israel’s army. He served in the occupied West Bank.

            In a discreet park in Jerusalem we meet to discuss allegations that
            soldiers like him often mistreat Palestinian minors, suspected of
            throwing stones.

            Mr Efrati – who left the army five months ago – says the allegations are true:
            ”I never arrested anyone younger than nine or 10, but 14, 13, 11 for me, they’re still kids. But they’re arrested like adults.

            “Every
            soldier who was in the Occupied Territories can tell you the same
            story. The first months after I left the army I dreamed about kids all
            the time. Jewish kids. Arab kids. Screaming.

            ”Maybe [the kid
            is] blindfolded for him not to see the base and how we’re working… But
            I believe maybe we put the blindfold because we don’t want to see his
            eyes. You don’t want him to look at us – you know, beg us to stop, or
            cry in front of us. It’s a lot easier if we don’t see his eyes.

            ”When the kid is sitting there in the base, I didn’t do it, but nobody
            is thinking of him as a kid, you know – if there is someone blindfolded
            and handcuffed, he’s probably done something really bad. It’s OK to
            slap him, it’s OK to spit on him, it’s OK to kick him sometimes. It
            doesn’t really matter.”

          66. “many of children were buried alive by IDF secretly, location is unknown, no more details about this video” you continue to lie, fool, “occupaed” by orabs territory is Judea and Samaria, brainwashed fool

          67. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            I did what you asked me…you said “please stop lying google Honest Facebook Neo Fadi.

          68. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Did you get Hacked AGAIN ???? 😯

          69. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            What you mean? 😯

          70. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            That is wide eyes and open mouth on either side of nose.
            (need to turn head_)

          71. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            I see..no hacked..
            Maybe YaLibnan is, look up there a new CIA you click on avatar you get discus YaLib.. notifications

          72. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            We’re all being ‘watched’ … we blog on a Terrorist Blog-site. Who cares?
            This ‘thread’ has become too weird … and I’m out to rip a starter-motor out of my car.
            (damn cars … real reality)

          73. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            I’m going out..very buzy..

          74. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            link to virus….

          75. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            He disappeared, my post identifying him disappeared..but was still some moments on the column

            -Not CIA not me
            It’s being reported that Ramadi had essentially been cleared of non-Sunni and IS was welcomed…
            Why U.S. strategy to take on ISIS isn’t working ? · 38 minutes ago ..

            -5thDrawer I’d be happy to audition the ladies, Mek …. AND set up lunch menus …
            Iran agrees ‘managed access’ to military sites: Negotiator · 45 minutes ago
            :l) we lost the “rest”.

          76. title is fake, fool, you are just colecting fake hating of israel trash

          77. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            Stop calling me fool, you gave me that link.

          78. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            fool

          79. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Unfortunately, we can’t delete anything completely … and you stuck it in for a second round.

          80. Unfortunately there is a lot of lie and hatred in facebook and youtube for Hind to collect

          81. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            Busted sweetie….! You believed the lies and got caught… lol☻

          82. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            I said don’t mess with me..the more you do the more you get.. leave me alone you and Malmequer ID thief..or it will get worst don’t open the Pandora Box.bye

          83. is this a threat?

          84. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            Wow sweetie, offering to open your ‘box’.. lol… are you cousins lining up to partake.. gross sweetie…☻

          85. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            I did what you said i googled Neo Fadi
            Neo Fadi – 735 106 vues

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVGV-ymG6fo

          86. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Indeed …. not good, to post in ‘news’, either theories, or numbers, which cannot be proven. Someone will find a lawyer.

          87. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            meh… just ammo for sweetie.. you know how in-to conspiracies he / she / it is….. will tie him / her / it up for a little while while the adults are talking.

          88. Hend Abyad Avatar
            Hend Abyad

            Who cares Zi’O’

          89. MaImequer0 Avatar
            MaImequer0

            wow sweetie, it’s a conspiracy, your favourite….lol!!!☻

        3. Hend Abyad Avatar
          Hend Abyad

          Tozzein aleik MkaHmarPizzaHutt useless brain

          Who’s asking US TRO’O’ps or IRAN? I’M Not!!

          You hypocrite know who invaded Iraq ILLEGALLY with fabricated pretexts, you disgusting Cheney Blackwater Bush Richard Pearl Netanyahu lover, American couch potatoes popcorn eaters, you created the demons.

          There was no Al Qaeda in Iraq

          “The calculated madness of the Islamic State’s horrifying brutality By Terrence McCoy August 12, 2014

          Militant Islamist fighters take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria’s northern Raqqah province June 30, 2014. (Reuters)

          Last week, as the forces of the Islamic State crept within 40 miles of Irbil, fear settled over the urbane Kurdish capital. People had heard of the militants’ brutality — of the crucifixions, the beheadings, the mass killings. They were understandably frightened, Kurdish journalist Namo
          Abdulla told The Washington Post. Some began to flee. Others made for the mountains. The killers were coming.

          In the last week, images of the Islamic State’s savagery have been inescapable. News exploded yesterday of an image of a young boy, the son of an Australian member of the Islamic State, hoisting a severed head beside his proud father.“This image, perhaps even an iconic photograph..really one of the most disturbing, stomach-turning, grotesque photographs ever displayed,” Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Tuesday morning. “A 7year-old child holding a severed head, with pride and the support and encouragement of the parent, with brothers there.

          This is utterly disgraceful and underscores the degree to which [the Islamic State] is so far beyond the pale with respect to any standard by which we judge even terrorist groups.” Kerry: Iraqi leaders have ‘difficult challenge’

          Ohh yeahh..?

          During a news conference in Sydney after the naming of a new Iraqi prime minister, Secretary of State John Kerry expressed cautious optimism in the new leadership. (Reuters) …

          “The glorification of extreme violence using social media is one of the defining aspects of the Islamic State. The Sunni militants wield savagery like a tool, analysts say. It’s neither extemporaneous nor undisciplined. It’s concerted. It’s tactical. It’s evil. And that’s the point.

          “There’s a strategic reason behind the executions” wrote the Washington Institute’s Aaron Zelin. “And the gruesome pictures posted online for all to see.”The seeds of today’s brutality were perhaps sown long ago in a 2006 book called “The Management of Savagery” wrote expert Lawrence Wright in the New Yorker.

          The book, written by a radical Islamist thinker named
          Abu Bakr Naji, details patterns of “abominable savagery” witnessed in both the Islamic State and its earlier incarnations. According to this English translation, it calls for an “administration of savagery” set out the very ideology that the Islamic State has now carried out.
          Indeed, one of the first steps the book suggests is a “plundering of resources,” which the Islamic State pursued with the same fervency of its violent acts”.

  5. Hend Abyad Avatar
    Hend Abyad

    God bless the future Middle East United States of Israel.

    1. MaImequer0 Avatar
      MaImequer0

      ooohhh sweetie, it must be mossad… lol

      https://youtu.be/gV_HC_R6yRw

      1. serious credibility issues with this video. Like why is the other (not second) tank still there after the first attack. Or why is the other tank still untouched in the second attack?
        Something about this video is not right.

  6. A Pakistani court sentenced 106 people to death for the murder of Christians http://www.ucanews.com/news/pakistan-court-charges-106-over-murder-of-christian-couple/73640

    1. Pair were killed after being accused of burning pages in the Qur’an

    2. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      “The blasphemy law, which can carry the death sentence or life imprisonment, is a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan.”
      Basic FIRST problem being, that it only applies to blasphemy against Islam.
      Second problem is that there’s a death decree for doing it.
      Almost as bad as a female asking for an education.

      1. I am looking at Hind, this is ugly thing sometimes, female education

        1. 5thDrawer Avatar
          5thDrawer

          Keeping everyone ignorant and uneducated is, I think, more ugly.
          If you wish to understand a female perspective, study. We are not ‘the same’ in nature.
          But two males OR two females may also not understand each other.
          This does not mean we can’t tolerate that fact.
          Simply killing off what we don’t agree with is not a sane answer to the problem.
          It’s despotic.

          1. 5thDrawer, she just spreading lie, ary You tolerant?

          2. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Not to lies … PROVE her wrong. I don’t back up a known untruth.
            Other than that, everyone has an opinion …

  7. Syrian TV: in Palmyra IS militants killed 400 civilians, mostly women and children http://rt.com/news/261621-syria-palmyra-isis-civilians/

    1. “Al-Azhar” urged the international community to protect Palmyra http://www.timesofisrael.com/top-muslim-body-urges-protection-of-syrias-palmyra/

  8. Not CIA not me Avatar
    Not CIA not me

    It’s being reported that Ramadi had essentially been cleared of non-Sunni and IS was welcomed with open arms by the local population. The Shiite military decided it wasn’t worth it to secure cities that were essentially Sunni or had been cleansed of other peoples.

    1. Hend Abyad Avatar
      Hend Abyad

      by first comment

      Follow

      @by

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