The Iraq War Officially Begins (Again): US Troops Prepare For Rollout As US Drones Strike ISIS Positions

Re-Posted from ZEROHEDGE Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/13/2014 22:11 -0400

U.S. military officials say an armed American MQ-1 Predator drone has attacked and destroyed a mortar position of Islamic militants in northern Iraq. As WaPo reports, the drone attack marks a departure for the U.S. military, which had said previously that drones were flying missions over Iraq only to collect intelligence. No boots hit the ground in the carrying out of this action…

As NBC reports,

An American MQ-1 drone strike took out a firing position that Islamic militants used to target Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, according to the U.S. military.

The military said in a statement that a U.S. drone struck and destroyed an ISIS mortar position at around 7:55 a.m. ET on Tuesday.

The mortar position was firing on Kurdish forces defending members of the Iraq’s Yazidi religious minority who were trying to evacuate the area, U.S. Central command added.

The MQ-1 Predator:

Update:

U.S. SAID TO LAND TROOPS ON MT. SINJAR IN IRAQ, ABC NEWS SAYS

More:

United States Marines, special forces and the USAID disaster assistance relief team briefly landed today on Mt. Sinjar in Iraq, a U.S. official told ABC News.

It was the first time ABC News has learned of any Americans landing on the mountain, where thousands of Yazidis are trapped and facing a humanitarian crisis.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced on Tuesday that the United States has sent a 130 member military assessment team to Erbil in the autonomous Iraqi province ofKurdistan to determine what further assistance the U.S. can provide to the Yazidis.

Lol: “briefly”…

It didn’t take long for Obama’s latest stern promise that no US troops would be on the ground to become… troops are now on the ground.

The good news, as US troops are about to fight ISIS mercenaries armed with US weapons, is that for now at least, no US troops have died in this most recent US intervention in Iraq – the latest in a series of US humanitarian liberation of the middle east country beginning in 1990.

But what happens when the first bodybags come home? What will the Nobel Peace Prize winning president’s spin be then?

There maybe be a few reasonable Muslims in the world but no one has been able to find them yet!

Good work here
Sun Tzu in his Art of War knew well over 2000 years ago that you “must Know Your enemy” if you expect to beat him!

Waiting a year isn’t a strategy there are nothing but fools in the administration. While there were executing their strategy ISIS conquered a good chunk of Syria and Iraq — maybe their waiting until the entire Middle East is under ISIS and they they only have to negotiate with one group it make it easier for them.

Why would anyone take seriously a fool — there is no reason for Iran to not develop the bomb. Once they have it they can threaten to use it if we not drop sanctions. Or they could just use it — Obama has a bunker to go to we don’t so what does he care!

The Islamic States is coming to your town!

Good series everyone should see this!

Re-Post from DEBKAfile Exclusive Report August 12, 2014, 11:18 PM (IDT)

The seventh truce in the ongoing Israel-Hamas passage of arms is generally expected to end Wednesday night Aug. 13, with a fresh outbreak of hostilities triggered by resumed Hamas rocket fire. The indirect Egyptian-brokered talks between the parties in Cairo have never got off the ground. From the start, all three realized that the gaps between Israel and the Palestinians were unbridgeable and, moreover, that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority were totally at odds on a common negotiating stance.

debkafile’s intelligence sources report exclusively that Egyptian intelligence mediators presented separate papers to the Israelis and Palestinians, knowing – as they acknowledged informally – that the two papers were miles apart.

A source close to the talks told debkafile Tuesday night that the Israeli envoys had nothing to do all day in Cairo except to drink hot cups of strong tea in the hotel room assigned them by their Egyptian hosts. In any case, the Egyptian mediators were in no hurry to push for results and, in fact, appeared fairly unconcerned by the prospect of hostilities resuming in a day or two. This indifference was also noticeable at the joint news conference addressed by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and President Vladimir Putin at the Russian resort of Sochi, Tuesday, when neither made any reference to the Gaza conflict.

The Palestinian team is in no shape to hold practical negotiations on any sort of resolution in Gaza, because it is deeply divided two ways.

For one, Hamas rejects the PA-PLO group as not fit to represent its interests because they say PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas is locked onto the Egyptian side.

The rancor between the two Palestinian factions came to the fore Tuesday night, our sources disclose, when PA security forces began detaining Hamas activists on the West Bank for the first time since the current conflict broke out in July. The arrests took place in the Qalqilya and Tulkarm refugee camps.

And for the second, the Hamas team itself was split between the envoys from Gaza and the delegates from Qatar. The Gaza group want the Cairo talks to lead off by setting conditions for a prolonged ceasefire, during which their political and military demands would be negotiated.

The Qatar envoys insist on reversing this order: first agreed solutions for the long term and only then a deal for extending the ceasefire.

Our Washington sources report that the US tried interceding with the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, and also with Israel and Egypt, to persuade them to accept another extension of the three-day truce. This effort fell on deaf ears because the Obama administration has not carved out a role or gained levers of influence in the Gaza conflict.
The coming issue of DEBKA Weekly, out next Friday, Aug. 15 will examine the process leading up to the US administration’s loss of standing in the Gaza crisis. If you are not a subscriber, you may click here to sign on.

The one thing that can avert a fresh outbreak of violence Wednesday night is a declaration by Hamas’ military wing, Ezz e-Din al-Qassam, unconditionally halting further rocket fire and other aggressive activity.

Israel is not holding its breath for this to happen. Our military sources say that Israel’s government and military leaders are ready for the next stage of the confrontation with Hamas. This time, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon are preparing action a lot tougher than limited air strikes in response to Palestinian rocket fire of any intensity. They know that public patience has run out and will no longer tolerate a return to the situation that leaves Hamas holding the initiative to shoot rockets or not.

Not only the public, but the army too will no longer put off with half-measures and is ready to fight Hamas until it is no longer capable of harassing Israel with threats of violence.

They really are just evil people aren’t they!