Expanding its domains, consolidating its power. If the Islamic State is able to sustain this for a few years, the craven appeasers of the West will come to them with hat in hand. “UPDATE 7-Islamic State grabs Iraqi dam and oilfield in victory over Kurds,” by Ahmed Rasheed and Raheem Salman, Reuters, August 3, 2014 (thanks to Myxlplik):
BAGHDAD, Aug 3 (Reuters) – Islamic State fighters seized control of Iraq’s biggest dam, an oilfield and three more towns on Sunday after inflicting their first major defeat on Kurdish forces since sweeping across much of northern Iraq in June.
Capture of the electricity-generating Mosul Dam, after an offensive of barely 24 hours, could give the Sunni militants the ability to flood major Iraqi cities or withhold water from farms, raising the stakes in their bid to topple Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s Shi’ite-led government.
“The terrorist gangs of the Islamic State have taken control of Mosul Dam after the withdrawal of Kurdish forces without a fight,” said Iraqi state television.
The swift withdrawal of Kurdish “peshmerga” troops was an apparent severe blow to one of the only forces in Iraq that until now had stood firm against the Sunni Islamist fighters who aim to redraw the borders of the Middle East.
The Islamic State, which sees Iraq’s majority Shi’ites as apostates who deserve to be killed, also seized the Ain Zalah oil field – adding to four others already under its control that provide funding for operations – and three towns.
Initially strong Kurdish resistance evaporated after the start of an offensive to take the town of Zumar. The Islamists then hoisted their black flags there, a ritual that has often preceded mass executions of their captured opponents and the imposition of an ideology even al-Qaeda finds excessive.
The group, which has declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria to rule over all Muslims, poses the biggest challenge to the stability of OPEC member Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
FIGHTING FOR TOWNS
On Sunday its members were also involved in fighting in a border town far away in Lebanon, a sign of its ambitions across the frontiers of the Middle East.
It controls cities in Iraq’s Tigris and Euphrates valleys north and west of Baghdad, and a swathe of Syria stretching from the Iraqi border in the east to Aleppo in the northwest….
On Friday, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah urged regional leaders and religious scholars to prevent Islam from being hijacked by militants….
It seems as if that particular hijacked plane has already been zooming through the air for quite some time — with considerable aid from Abdullah himself.
Sunni Saudi Arabia considers the Islamic State a terrorist organisation, but Maliki and other Iraqi Shi’ites blame it for sustaining Sunni militancy by backing other sectarian groups.
Richie says
I wonder if these bronze age barbarians know the first thing about operating a dam? Odds are they will try and destroy it
Bro. Nick says
IS = barbarians and followers of Satan – YES /\ – – Bronze age – NO \/
There are reports that IS has seized chemical munitions and has an expert to run a program to use them. They are also reported to have seized 38#[?] of radioactive material – which could be used for radiological {NOT Nuclear} weapons. Their leader has a PHD.
People had better not think of them as stupid, for they are of their father, the Devil – who is charismatic, sly, masterful, cunning and evil and viscous and powerful beyond man’s comprehension.
“And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
(Gen 6:5 – KJV)
CogitoErgoSum says
I’ve heard it suggested that the reason we have not made contact with other civilizations in the universe is because once intelligent life reaches a certain point in development those “intelligent” beings make a discovery or attempt an experiment that inevitably leads to their own extinction. I’m thinking that these “followers of Satan” have just about enough intelligence to bring about their own demise….. without bringing about the demise of everyone else on the planet. (Let us hope.)
CogitoErgoSum says
Sakovkt, it sure seems like the men of action are doing their part within the world of Islam. In the Western world I don’t see those men of action doing too much lately. If Spengler’s idea is accurate then Islam may implode upon itself before the West does…. but I think that will also depend upon the West coming up with some men of “reaction.”
jewdog says
Is everyone going to just sit back and let these barbarians grab significant parts of the world’s oil supply? Maybe it’s time to go in there and just take the place over before they start a nuclear weapons program.
bobm says
I keep putting forth the suggestion that as in WW2 an alliance of China, Russia Europe and America defeated fascist islam and Fascist Germany.. Well folks ; its time maybe to mount up for a really big one again.. If the beast virus of Mahdi wet dreams is not burned out and islam that supports them hobbled; the result can only be that their god of fear …which muslims fear to resist will devour ….. it must be destroyed at the cutting edge of islam Mahdi fantasy; with the unimaginable power of the non muslim world united .. or it will devour like the cancer it is.
Jan Fourowls says
bobm: “…the beast virus of Mahdi wet dreams” had me laughing and laughing to keep from crying over it being so apt a description of W. African Muslim endemic Ebola virus now being also endemic to the U.S. after Obama imported it to Atlanta.
I wondered if the real God not the satanic Allah had boosted Ebola pestilence recently for the Muslim W. Africans as an extended end-times anti-Mahdi surprise for them, only to have Pres. Obama of the Muslim States of America bring it here, too.
Remember if you’re in the U.S. (details on an earlier comment this wk.-end), now that Ebola’s in the country at major Atlanta transportation hub and can spread and then go dormant for years without breaking out — the infection channels are touching or ingesting or being in the convulsive throw-off of molecules of melting down and liquifying human bodily elements including sweat, saliva, vomit, urine, feces, semen and blood — and airborne transmission has not only never been disproven but the CDC and Canadian Public Health have data, research and protocols suggesting the possibility if not the likelihood of airborne transmission. (I commented previously with the science research.)
Personal and family health maintenance might also be boosted — frequent hand washing, hydration, adequate rest, consistent protein and vitamins as well as a balanced diet overall, avoidance of crowded areas like airports and planes, hospitals, movie theaters, and so on.
Or you could just say Fu#! it.
I’ll be praying to Jesus Christ my savior to escape all this bad sh#! going on, not because I deserve it but for His glory about the judgment before eternal life coming where the beastly Mahdi-wet-dreamers finally get weeded out of the pack and sent to hell — and those who love the real God are saved forever.
Hot-a-mighty knows, sometimes I love being a Christian even more than I’d have thought possible.
Carlos Danger says
Let Iran give THAT a try. No boots on the ground this time. Bush screwed the pooch as far as Iraq 3.0 goes.
We do have a fleet of B-52s which could certainly get the attention of Caliphate troop formations in a desert though.
John C. Barile says
What might stop the Islamic State given that we have Obama and Cameron, not Reagan and Thatcher, at the helm of the Western alliance?
Two+ more years of appeasement, pusillanimity and drift shall surely leave a great void for Caliph Ibrahim and his Islamic State to advance upon the world stage.
John C. Barile says
To fill, that is.
Davegreybeard says
Kind of like watching a slow burning fuse.
I think it’s going to get a lot more interesting.
Wonder what Iran is going to do about all this?
Does Barry favor Sunni or Shiite? I keep forgetting.
John C. Barile says
Sunni with a side order of Shia.
Beagle says
Trick question. Sunni in former “Syria.” Shia in former “Iraq.”
John C. Barile says
Say, that’s right!
Gail Griffin says
Your comments are spot on.
tpellow says
Supplementary.
“Isis winning its war on two fronts”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-winning-its-war-on-two-fronts-militants-conquered-sunni-regions-of-iraq-and-are-now-consolidating-hold-on-northeast-syria-9641167.html
John C. Barile says
Thanks, Tom, for the informative link.
Wishful thinking, fatalism and indifference versus fanatic zeal and methodical ruthlessness–gee, I wonder who’ll prevail over there?
Islam_Macht_Frei says
Let’s look at the scorecard: Alawites, Sunnis, Arabs, Kurds, Shia, Turks, a smattering of Christians, etc.
So how does the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” worldview work with all those variables?
“The enemy of the enemy of the enemy of the enemy of my friend is…..?”
Beagle says
About a month ago here someone posted a link to a learned analyst writing in the Telegraph (UK). The two most memorable statements to me suggested the new IS was “surrounded by enemies” and that the new caliph was suffering from “imperial fantasies.”
I was skeptical, noting the rapid advance of the new IS, lack of any serious tactical defeats, and pointing out the power of religious fanaticism.
How’s that working out?
A truly learned analyst once noted:
“If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles.”
…especially if the president of a so-called superpower and supposed leader of the free world is a dithering idiot, he could have added. Sure, logistics and economics matter, but ultimately an aggressive military commander must be defeated in the field.
Who is going to step up? “Iraq” and the US are playing parliamentary games while Baghdad is surrounded and the most vital bit of strategic infrastructure in all of “Iraq” has fallen into the hands of bloodthirsty and as yet undefeated jihadis. Even the Peshmerga are in retreat, thanks to the American unwillingness to provide aid apart from the central government in Baghdad, and not much there. Never let it be said we don’t live in interesting times.
gravenimage says
Islamic State grabs Iraqi dam and oilfield in victory over Kurds
Expanding its domains, consolidating its power. If the Islamic State is able to sustain this for a few years, the craven appeasers of the West will come to them with hat in hand.
……………………………………….
And as bad as this—idiots in the West will also be telling us that ISIS (or ISIL, or the Caliphate, or the Islamic State, or whatever the hell they may be calling themselves by that time), is no longer “radical”, but is more concerned about “fixing potholes”, or maintaining their seized dams and oil fields, than waging violent Jihad.
Remember when they said that about Hamas? Remember how that has turned out…
Or we may hear that there are “moderate” factions in ISIS, just as their are in the Taliban…
What madness…
More:
Initially strong Kurdish resistance evaporated after the start of an offensive to take the town of Zumar. The Islamists then hoisted their black flags there, a ritual that has often preceded mass executions of their captured opponents and the imposition of an ideology even al-Qaeda finds excessive.
……………………………………….
Nothing like mass executions to consolidate the power of Jihadists. This is *exactly* what the homicidal “Prophet” did when he conquered a new town.
From the baleful Hadith:
Mohammed said, “Allahu Akbar! Khaybar is destroyed! When we arrive in a people’s square it is a bad morning for those who have been warned!”
John C. Barile says
If the imbeciles in our governments want to focus upon things as factional tensions and pragmatic concern for infrastructure and civil government among these savages, they’ll succeed; in find what they seek and see what they choose to–the IS really is a coalition bound together by fear and mutually self-serving ambitions; and it is meticulously organized and methodical in its madness.
John C. Barile says
More simply: let Western government imbeciles focus on IS’ submerged factions and its concern for public works and civil affairs, they’ll always find what they want to see.
Uncle Vladdi says
It’s been a little over six weeks now, since these barbarian clowns began their rampage. Even back then, when it started, some people were asking the easy questions:
“Why isn’t air power lighting these guys up?”!
Exclusive: Joseph Farah on why Obama is reticent to smoke al-Qaida terrorists
http://www.wnd.com/2014/06/the-opportunity-in-iraq/
Bottom line: by asserting the Iraqi people would have to learn to fend for them selves eventually anyway, and so should seek a “political solution” to talk the armed robbers surrounding them out of their plans, he took something that had cost the American people Trillions of dollars in treasure, blood and lives, and just … gave it away to the terrorists. Again.